Here's a shot I took about three weeks ago - ISO 800 (K10D) - converted to B&W. Wow! I never did get what I wanted - ended up using a bit of blue filter. The dark portions of the picture are still too "blotchy".

BTW, I spent a fair amount of the evening before I took this picture at the marina bar - so I had a headache when I shot it and another (for different reasons) when I converted it.

Jer

[Jimbo]

I really / really like this shot. JIMBO

[roentarre]

Very good sentiment and excellent composition

This is really a good shot

[ftpaddict]

I love it. The tones are very well controlled.

You might want to look at the left edge of the picture, just about in the center. Any chance you could clone/crop that out?

[Sailor]

I really / really like this shot. JIMBO

Very good sentiment and excellent composition

This is really a good shot

Thanks JIMBO and James - kind words, indeed.

Jer

I love it. The tones are very well controlled.

You might want to look at the left edge of the picture, just about in the center. Any chance you could clone/crop that out?

By golly, I didn't notice the top of the piling intruding into the shot. I cloned it out - first time I can remember using the procedure. Thanks for the help and nice words.

Jer

[daacon]

It shows a nice mood Jer - well done.

Absolute quality. I love it.

[song_hm]

Excellent choice going B&W. Composition is very dynamic, the masts lead the eye skyward, the clouds lead the eye back down at the 10000 feet toward the horizon.

I was curious why the upper area was so blotchy. I downloaded the image and zoomed in. This is what I found. Can anybody explain what happened here? I am suspecting it is a combination of high iso (800) and post processing.



This bugged me so much, I had to try to do a make over (I hope you don't mind).



Editing steps:

1) duplicated the original into new layer
2) set blend mode of duplicate layer to overlay, set opacity to 80%
3) created a gradient layer, set opacity to 60%

[Sailor]

It shows a nice mood Jer - well done.

Absolute quality. I love it.

Thanks, Jeff and Dave - I really appreciate your comments.

Jer

[Sailor]

Excellent choice going B&W. Composition is very dynamic, the masts lead the eye skyward, the clouds lead the eye back down at the 10000 feet toward the horizon.

I was curious why the upper area was so blotchy. I downloaded the image and zoomed in. This is what I found. Can anybody explain what happened here? I am suspecting it is a combination of high iso (800) and post processing.



This bugged me so much, I had to try to do a make over (I hope you don't mind).



Editing steps:

1) duplicated the original into new layer
2) set blend mode of duplicate layer to overlay, set opacity to 80%
3) created a gradient layer, set opacity to 60%

Thanks for going to all of this effort! This is the exactly what makes a forum useful.

I think part of the "blotchiness" comes from the fact that - as you suggest - it's an ISO 800 shot . . . . which I boosted a bit to delineate the mast heads from the dark sky. When I tried to remove the "noise", the image became so soft, it was surreal (might be interesting to try again - I might like that). I just never could find the sweet spot.

Anyway - I really enjoy your rendention - with the mast on the right fading into the black of the sky. You definitely found a sweet spot. Again - thanks for the trouble; I truly appreciate it.

Jer

[Jimbo]

I prefer the first shot... JIMBO

[HouseOfHorla]

Good call from ftpaddict! 2nd shot does it for me.