The Midland in Mono

[Martyn]

With the 35mm f1.8 on the Nikon D5100 I took these shots of the art deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe. The sun had set 30 minutes ago, and since the colours were very poor I decided to try a mono conversion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ChrisLumix]

#2 works especially well for me.

[bugmeister]

The third one in particular works best for me with the light drawing the viewer up the steps, although I like all three.

 

An interesting concept to shoot this style of building at this time and I think it's worked well with the conversion. Without the colour, the eye is almost forced to concentrate on the detail of the structure instead of the visual impact.

 

I wonder if a slight increase in contrast would either lift a bit more detail and impact, or if it would spoil the twilight effect?

[NannyFerret]

Nice set, Martyn, but no    3 is definitely the one that catches my eye the most.

[FUJI]

A great effort all round Martyn.........with third shot bring the easy winner........an excellent study with bags of hidden but readily available potential, especially if shot in RAW...........By learning then using the adjustments to contrast in photo software, you could make it jump off the page.

FUJI

[Martyn]

Thank you all for the kind comments. This was my first attempt at shooting with a mono conversion in mind. I actually uploaded these pics to the forum and previewed the post three times then deleted them because I thought I could do better.

 

The second was my favourite, then I spotted what Bugs has already mentioned, the steps drawing the eye into the third picture. So I went back and worked it a bit more.

 

A great effort all round Martyn.........with third shot bring the easy winner........an excellent study with bags of hidden but readily available potential, especially if shot in RAW...........By learning then using the adjustments to contrast in photo software, you could make it jump off the page.

FUJI

 

If you want to expand on that Fuji, I'm all ears because I really admire your mono work. They are shot in raw NEF format and I use Lightroom 5.2.

 

 

 

[Martyn]

I've had another play in Lightroom with this image, am I on the right lines?

 

 

 

 

[FUJI]

A fantastic improvement Martyn...........lots better, but I still think that you could increase that lovely soft brightness from that lamp where it falls on the curved wall, not evenly but graduated to enhance that curve.

Can I suggest also that you darken ( very carefully) the small patches of brightness in the sky just underneath the globe of the lamp........just experiment by hiding it, and you should see what I mean.

You are getting there........use the artist within you to visualise what YOU feel is right...........try not to be too heavy handed at any point, and beware of creating halos .....the enemy of good post processing.

Study other good mono work.

Have fun!

FUJI