I can't decide...

[JamesT]

whether I like this or not.

I like the timelessness of it, but I can't help thinking there's something missing.

[JamesT]

I should have said; it's looking towards the village of Uffington, from near the White Horse. Taken about 3 weeks back with a Minolta X-500 on Ilford FP4, using a 35-70 mm zoom, and IIRC a yellow filter.

[Black Pearl]

The sheep could have been made a point of interest to anchor the scene but its oddly placed and too small meaning you've ended up with an almost entirely featureless image.

It could be improved a little in the darkroom with some creative use of your dodge and burn tools and a tighter crop top to bottom. Film has a good dynamic range and a nice soft roll off at the highlights so there will be plenty of detail in the sky that could be brought out. A softer filter grade might stop the sheep from blowing out then use your dodge/burn tools to bring out features in the scene. I'd enhance the path, give the town some bite and generally give some structure to the image. Its not going to help the composition but it will improve the image. In general its a very, very rare monochrome neg that can be printed in one single exposure with no selective adjustments. 

[THELONGMAN]

Living in the Southdowns  can fully appreciate this picture and its beauty. The only thing I would consider is lifting the tones a notch or two and brining out  a bit of detail in the sky,

 

Geoff

 

 

 

 

[fuzzyedges]

jtappin said

I like the timelessness of it, but I can't help thinking there's something missing.

Is it the sheeps 4th leg?

[JamesT]

Here's a new attempt.

What's changed:

1) New scan, 16bits, 4000dpi=21Mpix  tiff. vs. IlfordLabs 8-bit jpeg 13Mpix version (still of course Ilford Labs developing I didn't even have a tank at that time). Allows a good deal more processing/

2) Gradient filter applied to darken the sky, and a Sigmoid tone curve

3) Cloned the sheep into a better place

4) Cropped so the village fills most of the frame.

[ChrisLumix]

It kinda lacks interest for me (just my opinion) apart from the sheep, but it isn't strong in the frame.