early morning sky

[srobb]

I got my pics from the Ilford 100. I am very impressed with this film and it's tonal ranges and tightness. I was not impressed with the developing work by my camera shop, though. Dust specks and water spots on some of the images.

Thank goodness I found this other lab now. Here is a shot taken in downtown Mt. Sterling early one morning. Comments welcome. This is only resized for web. Still has to have editing done to it.

[livin4lax09]

I love this shot. The only parts that bothers me are the hotspots on the right side of the frame on the streeet, and the hotspot that looks like its from a car's headlights to the very right of the lamppost. Otherwise, spectacular!

[Sebastian]

Ooooh. This is sooooo close, but the lightpost just blows it for me. It divides the the perspective and the fact that it's blown out makes it the one thing I keep staring at.

There's still a lot there that can carry the shot though, just experiment with cropping out the lightpole. That sky is priceless.

[srobb]

Thanks, guys. I may have to try that one again from a different perspective and try to get rid of the lightpost. I knew the hotspots would be a mark, but I still have to edit it anyway.

[srobb]

Ooooh. This is sooooo close, but the lightpost just blows it for me. It divides the the perspective and the fact that it's blown out makes it the one thing I keep staring at.

There's still a lot there that can carry the shot though, just experiment with cropping out the lightpole. That sky is priceless.

Seb, here are a couple of good croppings of that image. Do they work better?

[drg]

Now that's a good photo! What happened with the light pole on the left? Flash or reflected light or ???

Great low hanging sky.

[Sebastian]

Srobb,

I think they both have their strengths, though I would like to see something more between the two.

[drg]

I'm not keen on losing the left side of the street that much. It adds to the tone of the piece to be looking down the street, this almost changes it to look across the street which does not draw me (the viewer) in quite as effectively.

[ I've an issue with how something is posting or I'd have seen your edits before my other post, am going to refer it to the admins, its happened before !]

[CLKunst]

SRobb,

I like it but think a different perspective would help it a lot. Traffic looks light at that time in the morning, is there a bike lane you could set up in? Whatever you do, the sky in this one is really great and almost makes up for the detractions. Love your choice of film black and white. You are right the tonal range is very nice.

[srobb]

Thanks D and CL. This being a small town, I am not sure they have heard of bike lanes. ;) I may try to set up right at the edge of the street if I do it again. Here is another crop of the image only using part of the pole to frame it on the left side.

[dbutler]

Ok, personally, I kind of like the hot post. It seems to go along with the spotlight-like effects on the rest of the street. But here's my attempt to compromise (yes, it sucks, but you can do it right, I'm sure!)

[CLKunst]

I don't think that sucks, I think that looks MUCH Better. I missed the other side of the street a little. Now tell him what you did so he can do it to the real file.

[dbutler]

I cloned at like 50% opacity. Started slightly above where the hotspot is, and just dragged it down. Because the opacity was only at 50 or so, the light still shines through so you get more of a believable fade.

[payn817]

The pole doesn't really distract for me, it does look much better slightly burned in. Two stong points IMO are of course that wonderful sky, and the radio tower seems to add to the sci-fi feel of this photo to me. Just my $.02

[srobb]

Thanks for all the comments. Looks like I have some work ahead of me. Your fix looks pretty good, D, and I will have to see if I can get the same results. I'll post it back here once I can get it done.

[mdmc]

Just wanted to say I like it with the pole as the clouds tie it together nicely. I also like D's treatment of the pole.
Great clouds, good work,
Mark.