Gherkin, London

[KrisLloyd]

Hi,

I'd like to improve my photography skills. Which do you think is better and please give feedback on the better photo. The photo shows The Gherkin behind a beautiful building that I took on a cloudy morning at London. Placed a filter to make it Black and White.

[theantiquetiger]

First off, welcome to the forum!!!

As for your images...

IMO, I like the first one better. There is too many distractions in the foreground of the second one. As for B&W, I feel the buildings in both images are too dark and the sky is blown out with no detail. What color is the building, is it white or gray? B&W photography is just that, black and white. You have too much gray and not enough black and white contrast.

The tower is very nicely shot (maybe a tad under exposed). It has that nice silver tone that I like in B&W photos.

I would try to lighten the white building directly below the tower to where it is nearly white (it seems to be the lightest building in the shot). If you do this, the other buildings may appear darker, giving you a better B&W contrast.

I cannot tell if you added a little vignette to the sky or is it just clouds. Be careful about vignette in the sky (if you did add it).

[Marko]

Welcome to the forum KrisLloyd!

I agree with AT's critique.
This image looks underexposed to me. There is nearly no detail in any of the darker(est) tones and the lightest tones are too dark.
If it were mine, I'd play with levels a bit more. If you had more room on the sides I'd also suggest straightening the buildings, but the crop is too close and in doing that you'd need to chop too much out.

Hope that may help and welcome again

[KrisLloyd]

Thank you for welcoming me and the replies AT and Marko.

@AT: The buildings are colored brown and gray while the building directly below the tower is white. I also didn't add vignette; they are just clouds. Yes, I should make the black and white contrast appear more. Thank you for the helpful critique.

@Marko: Thank you for the helpful critique, I will do more experimenting on exposure.