Skomer Island in Monochrome

Recent posts in monochrome have inspired me to try it out on some photos I took on film in the mid-sixties. They were scanned fairly recently. Most show a good amount of grain and dust. I did not sharpen these, but used the Spot Healing Brush for dust and Nik Dfine to remove grain. I then used Silver Efex Pro to convert. The monochrome conversion also helped to remove grain.

Skomer Island is a small island of the south-west corner of Wales. It is an important seabird breeding site, especially for Manx Shearwaters.

#1 is of a blowhole. At certain states of the tide, waves rush into a cave and out through a small opening. There are many of these on Skomer, many of which blow vertically, like this one. I chose this image because I thought the person in silhouette gave it a suitable focus.
http://www.actinia.me.uk/Blog/Landsc...owhole1203.jpg

#2 shows the island of Grassholm in the evening light. Grassholm is around 10km (six miles) west of Skomer and is an important Gannet colony. I chose this viewpoint because of the small tor on Skomer almost matched Grassolm in size and shape on the image.
http://www.actinia.me.uk/Blog/Landsc...ssholm1200.jpg

Comment welcome.

John

I like both of them, John but if asked to choose, I prefer #1. You described it perfectly too. Very dramatic scene.

The first one works for me John the second not as much.

Thanks Izzie and Jim. Looking at the second pic, I'm less convinced about the monochrome conversion. It did, however, reduce the grain which was quite obtrusive in the original.

John

Nice captures, sometimes grain adds additional texture, have to use sparingly and for specific subjects.

John I was experimenting to different crops of your #2 image by expanding in Lightbox above and I think this second one has potentials. In my eyes it looks like if you crop some from the bottom up, it will make it more stronger...what do you think?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IzzieK

John I was experimenting to different crops of your #2 image by expanding in Lightbox above and I think this second one has potentials. In my eyes it looks like if you crop some from the bottom up, it will make it more stronger...what do you think?

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Thanks Izzie. When I was cropping the original, I removed some vignetting from the corners (it was taken with a 200mm lens plus a 2x converter). I was tempted to crop some more off the bottom as you suggested because I thought that it would improve the composition, but I left it as it was because I wanted to include the dry stone wall in the foreground.

I have processed the image again from scratch, cropping more closely. When converting to monochrome, I used Silver Efex Pro's number 16 preset: Full Dynamic Smooth. How is it now?
http://www.actinia.me.uk/Blog/Landsc...sholmSEP16.jpg

John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnRostron

................................ but used the Spot Healing Brush for dust and Nik Dfine to remove grain.

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Don't you miss using a 00 brush and spotting compound? Those were the days...........not!

The shadows are a bit blocked but there is detail there John and another dose of define would help IMHO. I don't think the grain adds anything - especially to the first.

As a BnW lover, I like both of them but #1 looks great to me :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnRostron

Thanks Izzie. When I was cropping the original, I removed some vignetting from the corners (it was taken with a 200mm lens plus a 2x converter). I was tempted to crop some more off the bottom as you suggested because I thought that it would improve the composition, but I left it as it was because I wanted to include the dry stone wall in the foreground.

I have processed the image again from scratch, cropping more closely. When converting to monochrome, I used Silver Efex Pro's number 16 preset: Full Dynamic Smooth. How is it now?
http://www.actinia.me.uk/Blog/Landsc...sholmSEP16.jpg

John

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This is cropped too much now, John...I was thinking of cropping just enough for the 'V' to come from the left to the hand side to the right...so as not to lose too much...ignore me as you have indulged me enough. I was just thinking out loud...