Ebony and ivory

Posted by dobbino (Cape Town, South Africa) on 18 September 2008 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

Ok - I have finally bit the bullet and posted a photo in black and white! First attempt, so any suggestions on how to improve would be most gratefully received.
This is the Geelbek Restaurant, situated in the West Coast Nature Reserve. The style of the building is Cape Dutch. It is a National Monument and was built in 1744. Even it cannot escape today's technology, however, and on the far right hand side you can see the television aerial and the satellite dish! We had a super meal there, and if you would like to read a review, you can follow the link on my restaurants page.
The restaurant is named after the Geelbek (yellow mouth) fish, which is a bluish to coppery colour above, white below, with the mouth and inner surface of the gill covers a conspicuous yellow. Geelbek mature at a size between 510mm and 900mm. They are categorised as an exploitable species.
Title inspired by the song by Paul McCartney

All comments, and especially constructive criticism is truly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time.

All images © Rob Minter, and licensed in terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License

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Comments (15)

Karthik from Chennai, India

Nice!! the white really does stand out!!

18 Sep 2008 5:41am

Levine from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I dont know but maybe crop off the bottom part, the grass, and just leave the building and they sky would make it a better picture? Just an idea. :)

18 Sep 2008 5:55am

leslie from norwich, United Kingdom

Well done -- agree with Levine about cropping a little off the bottom. That said its still a good shot

18 Sep 2008 6:13am

grouser from Ludlow, United Kingdom

Looks good to me. You could try lowering the contrast slightly to see if a bit more detail comes through, without loosing a proper black in the shadow areas and a proper white in the highlights.

18 Sep 2008 9:54am

@grouser: Thanks Grouser - tried a bit, but still new and as far as this attempt went, thought I had got it as good as I could. But there's always next time - thanks for the suggestion.

roentarre from Melbourne, Australia

Good perspective with little distorsion.

The toning can be a lot more subtle especially in the grey.

18 Sep 2008 11:14am

@roentarre: Thank you very much for the comment. Unfortunately I don't know enough at this stage to understand how to do what you suggest, but I will do some web searches to see if I can find a tutorial on the issue.

Roman from Thunder Bay, Canada

I think you did very well here, it looks great ! Somehow B&W suits old, rustic buildings very well.
As far as improving.... the only thing that comes to my mind is,... the grey sky doesn't contribute to the composition much in here, I would crop it out, thus putting the building in the top third of the composition and bringing more of the dark foreground into view that would lead to the white building...

cheers
Roman

18 Sep 2008 12:54pm

willow from Chelsea, United States

I like the sharp contrast in this image. It might be nice to see a little more detail or texture in the foreground. And I know what you mean - B&W is intimidating to me. I have yet to post one - I've been playing with it the past few weeks but have yet to come up with anyhting I like. I'd say you've done well here esp for a first try!

18 Sep 2008 1:10pm

Rebel Streetshooter from New York City, United States

Plain and simple. Succinctly beautiful in every way.

18 Sep 2008 1:34pm

Fliss from Melbourne Beach, United States

Love the shot... Sth Africa is a place I would like to visit one day...

18 Sep 2008 2:06pm

Mandy Provan from Johannesburg, South Africa

I really like it - nice contrasts with the white building against the beautifully dark roof. You could crop a bit of the foreground out, but I do think it works really well as is. :)

18 Sep 2008 5:32pm

@Mandy Provan: Thanks Mandy - coming from you that's praise indeed! Appreciate the visit.

Graham Russon from Cape Town, South Africa

Its a great shot, and composition is briliant. The foreground could do with more detail as suggested by willow. The bw is a bit stark for me.

There is a great free photo shop plugin that allows you to play with different types of bw settings, you can get it at:

18 Sep 2008 7:00pm

@Graham Russon: Thanks Graham - I agree 100% with you re the stark comment. I played with the image a bit and found that I really preferred the sepia result, but felt that as this was my very first B&W post, I should stick to the classic version. I have posted the sepia version for you on this site, should you wish to have a look.

Observing from West Cheshire, United Kingdom

I think it's an excellent shot, clean BW and there is detail in the wall. I like seeing a shot like this, rather than one with flat graytones. Nice work Rob.

18 Sep 2008 10:11pm

@Observing: Thanks Mike - really appreciate that.

Michael Rawluk from Prince George, Canada

First of all the composition is perfect. Nicely layered.
As to the black and white processing, it all depends on your intent. If it is to just have a pretty picture with detail everywhere then it is slightly contrasty but if the image suits your vision then it is perfect. I love the contrast. It is the eye of the artist that matters. You are the one who has the vision.

19 Sep 2008 12:25am

@Michael Rawluk: Thank you for your insightful comments - much appreciated.

sandrine from cincinnati, United States

Great B&W...

19 Sep 2008 2:27am

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, CA, United States

a beautiful b/w shot and beautifully titled! i don't mind the starkness -- i love it! and i love the foreground too! i can see that the foreground grass could possibly have more detail -- but i don't think it takes away from the photo at all! wonderfully done! would love to see some more b/w from you!! :)

22 Sep 2008 10:32pm

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Canon EOS 40D
1/500 second
F/11.0
ISO 200
17 mm