the Road ahead

Took this while driving set at 18mm --the clouds were unbelieveable...question is does the perspective and the clouds and conversion to BW from color make it interesting enough... or does it lack a focal point? and is it too dark (purposedly done that way---but does it work?)

suggestions welcome.

I like it... my only critique would be "YOU TOOK THIS WHILE DRIVING???" :)

- Aaron

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Originally Posted by natatbeach

Took this while driving set at 18mm --the clouds were unbelieveable...question is does the perspective and the clouds and conversion to BW from color make it interesting enough... or does it lack a focal point? and is it too dark (purposedly done that way---but does it work?)

suggestions welcome.

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I think the focal point is to look at the distance's entirety.
I think the clouds really are dramatic and add to this. A clear blue sky would be "nice" but the clouds make this interesting and add to the intrigue of the "road ahead"

Here in CA, I worry about cell phone chatters/coffee drinkers/lip-stick-putter-onners and here you are taking pics. ;) LOL haha.

Hi Natalie ,

I do think it is a great photo , the clouds are very beautiful .
But i do think that it could be a little too dark .
Just a question , did you took took the photo while driving ?
I know you did convert it to black and white for your reasons , but i would like to know how the color version would look ?

regards
james

we have a cell phone holder (sticky pad) that keeps almost anything from shifting around so i placed the camera on it and took a couple sample to get a feel for the road and there ya go...

there was two cars behind me about 200 yards away and none in front so it was relatively safe. no worries...

Hi james,


Just a question , did you took took the photo while driving ?
yes I did but the circumstances made it relatively safe I posted an explanation in a thread above this one

I know you did convert it to black and white for your reasons , but i would like to know how the color version would look ?
Here below is the color version before cropping and BW conversion--just a unsharp mask applied hope this helps for comparison...

thanks for looking :)

take care

Given the lense flare etc the photo looks exceptional converted/cropped. I love clouds as a focal point in themselves - the texture they give the photo is amazing (they almost jump out at you) and they work better in B&W. How did you convert? Channels or greyscale mode change? I really enjoyed the tips you got from another member on your running circles post... very useful! As far as how to improve it... I'm not sure - maybe this is one of those "grab" shots that really worked for you.

Your photos are inspiring Nat (and I think the driving method is a hoot!). I travel a lot for work and so often only get time to have a look, rarely post and comment as much as I can. I have really enjoyed watching you experiment, inspire and grow into photography.

Fran

Natalie, nice shot and it's the right thing to do to try to improve the impact of the clouds, but personally I would avoid doing this by correcting the complete image.
In my example I've first copied the background layer. Then I corrected the complete background layer with levels (I made sure that I included a broad spectrum of grays). I added a mask (always slightly blur your masks) to the copy of the background layer and used the curves tool to increase the the impact of the clouds that I was talking about earlier.

I'm just showing you a different approach and it's up to you to decide if you consider this information useful.

Thanks for sharing this photograph with us.

Hi Natalie
Thanks for your trouble by showing the color version .
I will tell you why i ask , i would like to compare the two . The color version with the beautiful blue sky and white clouds gave me the feeling of how small we are in this world and the b/w photo could not excatly gave me the same feeling . But that is my opinion only.
I am glad that you made sure you were in a safe position before taking the photo. But what actually caught my eye is how steady the photo was under these circumstances.
Usually when i tried to take a photo out of a vehicle it comes out all blurry and out of focus.

Regards
james

I can shoot up to 1/8000th ...it has some fun features...although I can't rememeber what I had everything set on...I took a wild guess at the toll booth prior to this shot and had about two minutes while traffic was trying to pass thru...that's why the color one is so bad...bad guess ;) stilllearning.

my ultimate goal is to get the BW version that JoeD did straight out of the camera! someday...

i will try and post in a few days...thanks for explaining all that it really does help the rest of us....;)