"Fine Art Experiments"

I posted these in the Minimalist/Experimental group and thought I'd post it here as well.

I hate the term "fine art" but I don't know what else exactly to call these besides just black and white.

Anyway, I've been doing some editing experimenting with this lighthouse shot. It's kind of a lot of photoshop work to do this, the mostly just cutting out all the bits of the lighthouse with the pen tool. The other stuff isn't too complicated. Just masking and selective adjustments and a sky replacement.

I'm just wondering what other people think of something like this and which one you like better? I have several of these types of edits on my portfolio here if you are interested and several other lighthouses as well. I'm thinking of making a whole series like this, I just need to go photograph some more lighthouses!

I'm not really going for super realistic here which is something to keep in mind. With that being said, there is something I like about the 2nd one but it also just looks like the lighthouse is in the middle of the ocean which doesn't really make sense. In the first I've kept the base where the lighthouse sits, although I altered it so it's a straight line rather than jutting out on the left. I feel like that "anchors" the lighthouse better. I kept the original water but added a blur filter.

I think I like the first one slightly better because it is a little more realistic but there is also something about the 2nd one I like. Maybe if I didn't know the location it wouldn't look as weird to me? I think you could imagine a location where this does make sense. Like the tide is in and thats why the lighthouse is in the water. Or something like that.

I also included the original photo so you can see what I was working from. If you are interested in the process more I'd be happy to explain it but I didn't want to get too into the weeds about it in this post.

I ultimately decided on putting the 2nd one in my Fstoppers portfolio.