B&W Seascape feedback

Was on a trip with the camera club last weekend shooting mostly seascapes in the most northerly tip of Ireland.
Anyway got a couple of nice shots, but one that I personally quite like has been commented on, both on a couple of sites and also verbally. Its a shot that I changed to black and white as it just looked better to me that way.
Although I havent really got any negative feedback about it(they are all so polite!) I did get numerous comments saying that shooting a seascape in black and white was unusual or they would never shoot one in black and white.

I would love some feedback and thoughts here about the photo in general, not just the black and white aspect of it.
Does the composition look good? I purposely didnt follow the rule of thirds as I wanted more of a mirrored effect with the reflection. Would you shoot a similar subject in black and white?

Thanks in advance.


Wk 6 - Downhill Beach Reflections by adox66, on Flickr

For a sea scape it leaves me wanting. I like the contrast of the B&W but I would also like to see the rocks used as leading lines to the main subject which in this is not very clear. I think it would be much better in colour, but thats just me.

The rule of thirds is way over rated ...I like the composition,the rocks draw your eye to the horizon just beyond and then to the clouds above.I see nothing wrong with it to me,but the more important thing is do you like it.I dont take pictures for other people,I take them for myself,and if others like them great,if not,they can move along and find another one they like.Thats really the gist of it...

I like the reflection of the sky it works well. The black and white processing does seem to create a bit too much dark vignetting in the corners for me.
Would like to see a bigger version

I like it, nicely done. Seascapes like this are quite popular in B&W. In fact on cloudy days like this one, color photos fail to capture the feel of scenes like this. This would also make a good example of minimalist photography and does an excellent job of transferring the wide open feel of the ocean at low tide. I would also argue there are leading lines withing the clouds and cloud reflections subtly pull your eyes towards the center light. I would consider this as a potential print and frame. Very nice!

Dave_W said:

I like it, nicely done. Seascapes like this are quite popular in B&W. In fact on cloudy days like this one, color photos fail to capture the feel of scenes like this. This would also make a good example of minimalist photography and does an excellent job of transferring the wide open feel of the ocean at low tide. I would also argue there are leading lines withing the clouds and cloud reflections subtly pull your eyes towards the center light. I would consider this as a potential print and frame. Very nice!

Click to expand...

See this is why I am a newbie lol.

I do like the basic shot, but I think the centered horizon and large amount of foreground kills the strength of the clouds and the illusion of depth. I did a basic bottom crop, which still holds the nice reflection, but increases the emphasis on the sky. But this is just my preference and you must shoot/process to please your own eye.

I like the shot a lot. I like it cropped even more.

Had I cropped it, I would have taken even more off the bottom. But like wev says, it's a personal taste sort of thing.
.....

Yep personal taste. I like the original because of the reflections, but again its a personal taste as previously mentioned.

I understand why the cropped version is appealing but I like the original. The entire feel of the work is changed in the cropped version, which by its self is outstanding, however it lacks that wide open minimalist feel that I like so much in the original image.

Thanks so much for he feedback guys. Its great to hear pros and cons from objective voices.
On the cropping, I did have it cropped like wev has it originally. Its my "go to" to have landscapes/seascapes in a two thirds/one third frame, be it from top or bottom.
The reason I decided to pull it back out on this shot was, as mentioned earlier, I liked the symmetry of the non cropped version better and also those few little ripples of water towards the bottom left of the frame, I just thought they added something to the shot and wanted to keep them in.

On the vignetting that wornish mentioned, that may have been me being a little heavy handed. I did certainly add some dark vignetting to the corners in post processing to help draw the eye to the centre.

Keep em coming. Great to hear others thoughts.

I really like the original. My one and only beef is that the horizon leans left ever so slightly (seriously, only 0.1 degrees, but I can see it). I can see the merits in everyone else's thoughts about crops and whatnot, but I have no issue with it other than the tilt. Frame it, stick it on the wall and see how many people want to nudge it.

BackdoorHippie said:

I really like the original. My one and only beef is that the horizon leans left ever so slightly (seriously, only 0.1 degrees, but I can see it). I can see the merits in everyone else's thoughts about crops and whatnot, but I have no issue with it other than the tilt. Frame it, stick it on the wall and see how many people want to nudge it.

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Ha yeah I'm terrible with getting a level horizon. Have a spirit level built into my tripod, use the auto level feature in Lightroom and still get it wrong.

I have a slightly distorted field of vision in my left eye which I reckon has me tilting images slightly to the left. Even when I use the auto level in Lightroom, which I don't fully trust, it usually looks like it's sticking up on the left hand side and I adjust it back.

I may go back to the image, straighten the horizon and re upload it to Flickr.

I think you are over thinking it somewhat. I vote for the original image.. Would dearly love to have a large print of that on my wall. Perhaps run this image by WUD. This is the kind of image she excels at. But I like it.

adox66 said:

Ha yeah I'm terrible with getting a level horizon. Have a spirit level built into my tripod, use the auto level feature in Lightroom and still get it wrong.

I have a slightly distorted field of vision in my left eye which I reckon has me tilting images slightly to the left. Even when I use the auto level in Lightroom, which I don't fully trust, it usually looks like it's sticking up on the left hand side and I adjust it back.

I may go back to the image, straighten the horizon and re upload it to Flickr.

Click to expand...

When in doubt I break out the rectangular crop tool and just draw a box with a line across my horizon. If it's off, the bottom of the box won't touch the whole thing. Easy-peasy.