I shot these while walking around the local town square. I have been toying with some of this heavy contrast architectural stuff. I'm a big fan. I'm still figuring out my style though, and I would love to hear some feedback from some of the more experienced photographers out there.
Hi there,
I'm a fan of "fine art" architectural B&W as well, but haven't done much of it.
I'll give you my thoughts on these two anyway.
The first image:
I think the contrast is very nice.
However, (yep, there has to be a "however" doesn't there!), there are two parts to this image IMHO and therefore I think it would be better to make two images out of this. The first one is the top half and the other is the lower half. Square format for both.
Also, if the verticals were vertical, instead of the 'sloping back' perspective, that would be better as well - again IMHO. Serious architecture photographers traditional used tilt-shift lenses to do that at shoot time, but it's easy to do it later on in Photoshop post processing these days.
One more thing (in the lower half), there's a bit too much clutter for my liking. These sorts of images usually work best as more of a minimalist style. The main problem is the pushbikes. If the bike on the right side wasn't there then it'd be much better. Remember the old saying: "Less is more".
If this image has been cropped, start with the un-cropped image again and see if you can 'straighten' the perspective and then crop as required, and after that, crop the top half into a square format, and I think it'd be very cool. The bottom one would be okay as a square too then I think, except for the clutter being a bit too much. If you can edit out the other bikes instead (the ones in the darker area that is, because they would be easier to PS out than the one on the right I think), that would also reduce the clutter.
But I like the contrast as it is.
The second image:
I like this about the same amount as the other image (that means I DO like it) and the contrast is not bad, but perhaps it could do with a little bit more. I like the perspective and the framing.
Three other things besides the contrast:
1) Remove the dark bit from some other building that's along the top margin on the right side. You can remove this in PS without cropping, and that's how I would do it as opposed to cropping the image.
2) The sky needs more drama. You can increase the detail of sky that's there, or replace it with some other sky - perhaps the long exposure type of sky, if you know what I mean.
3) That post in the lower left side is soft. DoF like that works well in some types of photos, but with sort of thing you need to have it all in sharp focus - something to try to do at shoot time, and sometimes it might mean you have to take two shots with different focusing and blend them later on in Post Processing to achieve it. Or, you could edit it out of the image you already have. That would not be difficult to do in this case. As it is, that out-focus post is a distraction.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for the opinion. I agree with a few of your points for sure.