beautiful tones - this is a lovely shot. what is/are the building(s) on the beachfront?

Great black and white! Love the sky!

Interesting pic. Am I wrong? - there's a little vignetting that adds some charm to the photo. :)

owen: thanks. I don't know what the buildings are though.

bmoll: yes, there's an added vignette. Oddly, this is something I do quite frequently (though normally a little less dramatically than this) but you've the first person to ever mention it.

You're right. I haven't often noticed the vignetting, but it does give some character. It looks like a 1950's shot. The out of focus water in the foreground, however, is sort of distracting. I don't feel like having so much of it adds anything to the shot, I wouldn't know how to avoid it though, so you probably made the right call.

As always David, excellent shot. Lovely depth of field. The lone person on the beach is a nice touch. In b/w though, it kind of looks like a snowy night.

The first thing I noticed was the sky actually - looks as if it's been painted. Lovely :) What effect does vignetting add to a photo? Does it change the mood much or is it one of those thing which is just hard to quantify?

I'm not that good at photography, but I think I'm able to recognise a quality photo. And must say, that this one is pretty cool. Love the overall impression it gives me...

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I'm a photoblog newcomer and would really appreciate some feedback, if I'm going the right way, thank you...

Nice tone-rich shot :)

Magnifiquement cadrée. La plage est très joliement incrusté et accentue le décrochement des blancs. Admirable !

Jason: I do think it's probably hard to say what a vignette adds to a photo but I guess the main thing, for me at least, is that it adds some depth to a shot, and maybe a nostalgic feel. I don't know. Try it on a few of your own shots and see what you think.

this is so interesting- the building looks empty/hollow and the shot has this mysterious feel to it- almost voyeuristic.

this is the first time i've noticed the vignetting, although i do recall a baby/child photo with a lace blanket or panel that appeared to have been softened aorund the edges/vignetted. could you give examples of some other photos you've used vignetting on where we mightnot have guessed it?

Kate: the sky in yesterday's shot was vignetted and I also used one on there and back again, so that's two more in the last few days.

i think the vignetting draws the eye to the center of the picture by sorta framing it better.
I love the low perspective of the water i think it adds alot

Great detail in the sky. Awesome shot.

i really liked the picture.. the nice silent eery feeling that it gives to the viewer.. coz of the long black patch below (is that ice or water?) and the black/white compostition of the picture.

Great contrast here, the guys who walk in front just lead my eyes towards them.

The buildings look abandoned, are they? There's something about the windows that looks hollow. And the construction scaffolding to the left looks like it might make it's way to the right at some point.

The water is a bit distracting to me, personally, probably because the buildings are just so sharp.

My first impression is to agree with the above and recommend a panorama crop. But the more I look, the more I like the framing. The water adds depth and variety. I love that you stuck the shore smack in the middle. I like the chopped-in-half buildings on the side. And the vignetting. All these "imperfections" add up to a more impressionistic, mature image.
Also, the toning makes it look almost like an infrared shot.
Awesome.

fabulous contrast and composition. You continue to have wonderful images. Where are you actually standing? It appears as though you are on the ocean's edge wading in the water.

This is an excellent shot. I am glad you went with b/w.

perfect.

great picture, doesn't seem real, like a miniature model

this maybe need to associate with a music. feeling good. :-)

Incredible tones in this shot. the vignetting is superb.

great photo dave... did you use one of your "selective exposure" to bring out the buildings from the background sky? If not then it's pretty amazing to get the buildings in such nice exposure while the sky and clouds retain the shadows.

I think read somewhere that Ansel Adams always recommeded some amount of burning on the corners of a print to guide the viewers eyes into the photograph. It's a subtle almost subliminal thing sometimes which I really like.

David - How do you add your vignette? The only way I can get a nice looking one is to do it on the RAW files using Adobe Camera Raw, but this isn't ideal sometimes in my workflow depending on what other processing the image needs. I've tried doing it by masking in PS but I can never get it as even and perfect as I'd like as I tend to have to do it manually on large res pics as the max feather radius is too small. :/

This shot was taken from the beach so the area in the foreground is actually sand, well, sand with some areas of water.

As for the exposure: the sky was darkened using the channel mixer to emphasis the red tones and de-emphasise the blues.

Daaave: I add a vignette by selecting a central area of the image then I invert the selection; this gives you a rectangular border to the image. I then feather this by 250px (but, like you, would often like this to be a bit larger), then use a Curves adjustment layer to darken the edges of the image. What I also often do is paint out areas of the vignette. For example, on today's image, the strip of sand across the middle isn't vignetted whereas the rest of the image is.

The out of focus foreground is cleverly used in the composition of this shot. It bounces my eye back and forth between fore and background. The space between the persons legs on the beach perfectly mimics the sloping roof tops (though they point up the vignette and darkening of the sky, send my eye back down and I want to look all over again). Superb!!
Paul

this is really evocative - reminded me of my childhood - innocence on the beach - brooding skies overhead

i love the picture. looks like nobody lives in those houses. but there is that man that gives the picture a character...
i told you before, but i am the opinion that you should post some shots of flowers or so. the sun is shining... outside, not here.

excellent shot dave

Along with the others, I think this is great.

My favorite details are the tones of the sky includuting the big fluffly cloud at upper right and the little people walking on the beach. Very well done.

Impresionantes fotografías. Tan solo espero que algún día logre captar con mi 20D las mismas sensaciones que transmiten las tuyas. Enhorabuena.
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Impressive photographies. I only hope that some day I can catch with my 20D the same sensations that transmit yours. Congratulation.

fantastic shot, as so many of yours! I am always enjoying my visits here!

Thanks everyone :-)

The tones/contrasts are gorgeous. The lighting on the house looks wonderful as well, so much texture. And I also like how you used all the space at the bottom of the image to create such a nice composition and sense of distance.

there is an impressionist feeling over this one somehow, David. Very nicely executed, the contrast, vignetting, off-center positioning of the subjects and overall composition makes this one a real keeper and much less clinical than some of the other shots, if you know what I mean. cheers, patrick

this is a corker! at first glace i thought you'd been to a model village and had taken a very close-up detailed shot... the two people look like little hand-painted fugurines.
the vignetting adds so much depth to this shot as does the DoF. excellent!