Yeah, I think of it as an exercise in visualizing b&w potential while I'm out with the camera. Also, I figure if I'm able to make an ordinary image at least look good - in color or b&w, the more likely I'll be able to make a truly compelling image look its best. If and when I get a compelling image, that is. :-)

The color image in the OP had no edits other than some spot removal from the sky. The b&w conversion was done after basic adjustments and a couple slight color tweaks. Here is a fully edited color version which should also be better than the above original. I cropped it the same as the b&w for comparison.

Now, looking at the original post, it looks like I exported with the wrong color space. I usually work in ProPhotoRGB, but my browser likes sRGB.

I may redo the b&w conversion using this image.

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I made this exposure on a neighborhood walk last week. While it's fairly ordinary, when I saw the highlights on the trees and the variation in colors of the foliage, my immediate thought was that a decent b&w conversion should be possible. I often make photographs of things like this more to practice the craft of using my camera and digital darkroom tools than to produce a highly compelling image. I think the conversion came out reasonably well.

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Thanks Mike.


Thank you lwhite61. Definitely a pretty scene. This is from my first morning there, so it was a great start to my visit.

Nicely done. Beautiful scene. I've been to so many places in the lower 48, but for some reason I've never made it to the Grand Canyon. :-(

I had no idea how this might look. The part in the middle looks a little bit like a face. Turned the tree into an alien creature. :-) The clouds in the one-for-fun image reinforce it. Can't decide if the symmetric clouds look like arms or wings, more like arms I think. Hopefully a bit of fun for you playing with it.

By the way, regarding just the initial question about cropping. When I mentioned negative space, I was thinking of the empty portion of sky on the left. So the idea would be to balance the same width of tree to the width of the empty sky on the left. Then you'd have roughly a third tree, a third cloud, and a third blue sky. Your OP composition is already almost equivalent to that, and it's certainly subjective as you said.

Hi Craig,

Perhaps apply a combination of rotation and perspective correction to make the tree perfectly upright. Then crop on the center line of the tree. Crop the left, if needed, to make the width of negative space on the left equal the width of the tree.

Could then be interesting to copy the suggested image, flip it along the vertical axis, and join the two to make a full tree wrapped by the clouds. If you're into that kind of manipulation.

Thank you Longshadow, CHG_CANON, nimbushopper, jaymatt.


Thank you Steve. And thanks for the suggestion; I'll add it here.

Morning Shower at Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

It's at Eagle Harbor, MI in the upper peninsula.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=eagle+harbor+lighthouse&atb=v136-1&ia=web&iaxm=about&iax=images

Here's another photo of the lighthouse from the south, but it's up close this time. I used my 12-24mm f/4 at 12mm and believe I've cleaned up most of the wide-angle-shoot-from-below distortion. (Whoa, a 4 hyphen word. ) I was on a rock outcropping similar to the one in the image. The prior post's images were made in the early morning while this one is in the afternoon. Thanks for looking.

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Thank you both. :-)

Thank you.



No, not at all. Thinking about that, I'm not sure what prompted that specific crop. There's no reason the crop can't be the same 1X2 as the OP image. Don't know about others, but I like this one much better than the 3X4. So thanks for that feedback.

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The original image was made with my 12-24mm f/4 set to 24mm. This one was made with a 50mm f/1.8, so it's looks about half the distance away. The aspect ratios are different as well. The first is 1X2 to get more of a panorama feel. This one is 3X4. I tried to use similar processing steps as best I could.

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Thank you LS.


Thanks Mundy. It's definitely a great place to spend time with the camera; I'm hoping to get back there soon.


Thanks Tom. I'll post some closer views soon.


Thank you Frank. I slightly boosted the highlights on the water to also help lead the eye in from the foreground. The clouds, land and water highlights seem to work well together leading to the center. I know the lighthouse itself is pretty small in the image, but it's brightly colored which draws the eye.


Thanks much John.


Thank you.

This is Eagle Harbor Lighthouse viewed from the south shore of the harbor with Lake Superior proving an endless horizon to the north. The early morning storm was clearing just in time for me head out for a day of photography along the road to Copper Harbor. Thanks for looking.

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