Pick your favorite - BW

[Saknika]

I can see some very minute differences, but like Scott said, it still needs a major pump on contrast.

[Lauren MKS]

I"ll be honest, I didn't keep track of what I did. (I definitely should have for the sake of education, it just didn't occur to me at the time!) It has been super busy for me around here last week and this. I'll try to recall when I get a chance. I felt that in the new one the people stood out from the background better and there was a bit more contrast.

I definitely see that it is not as dramatic and Marian's rework, but her's feels very "fake" and photoshopped to me. Not bad, just extreme. I'm think by increasing the contrast more, it will take on that look. I really prefer something that looks more like it came out of the camera. In this case, what came out of the camera needed something more, so perhaps it is a lost cause to try and rework it and still maintain the natural look.

I'll try to bump up the contrast and see if I can find a middle ground between my preference and something more dramatic...but it probably won't happen until next week!

[ScottWood]

I am concerned about wanting an out of camera black and white. What is that? Cameras do a terrible job at making black and white images as all they do are desaturate the color RAW file that it captured.

When we were shooting black and white film, we had dozens of different films to pick from that all gave different black and white results. Illford HP5 was completely different than Kodak Tri-x. One wasn't better than the other, you simply used them for different things.

I have never seen an "out of camera" black and white that was any good, as a black and white image.

When you look at a print from Ansel Adams, would you feel his print was "fake"? He spent hours on each print in the dark room getting the contrast correct and dodging and burning the image to make it the way he pre-visualized it.

In the end, they are your images, and you need to make them the way that you want to.

[Lauren MKS]

Sorry- I apparently completely miscommunicated. I don't want an out of camera black and white. I learned awhile ago to always shoot in color and then convert to BW.

I was simply referring to not wanting a picture that looks like it has been severely altered. I know that BW's need special treatment to get better contrast and the like...and, as you mention, I am sure Ansel Adams' black and whites had some very special attention. But they don't look fake. They look like a beautiful black and white image. This may have something to do with the fact that they are landscape shots and not people. High contrast on people is very noticeable to me, and not as much in a landscape.

The edit that Marian did looks too contrasty to me (for lack of a better word). I know it was a quick fix, so perhaps there is a way to make it more natural looking, but I just don't see how it could look like it was not altered. Perhaps it doesn't look as altered to others as it seems to look to me. Maybe it is just my perspective. I tend to use photoshop to make natural looking pictures pop more, but not to make pictures look like they were pumped up so much that they were clearly edited in post.

I've put a BW in the community practice section that I pumped up as a bw, but it doesn't look like it went through the photoshop wringer. Perhaps it appears to others that it needs more severe contrast, I'm not sure.

I think this picture is just flat in general. It was flat before converting to black and white. As we all know, it's best to start with a good picture and make it better, not to start with a so-so picture and try to fix it in PS, which is what I am doing.

[MarianMurdoch]

Mar 4, 2010 12:46:22 GMT -5 Lauren MKS said:

I think this picture is just flat in general. It was flat before converting to black and white. As we all know, it's best to start with a good picture and make it better, not to start with a so-so picture and try to fix it in PS, which is what I am doing.

Agreed. While taking a photo, you need to think in terms of black and white WHILE you are actively doing the shot. Some scenes lend themselves well to it, but some, like the one you have provided, don't. You're never going to get a good black and white from a flat image. One of the tricks I do is to squint my eyes at a scene. Does it still pop, or do all of the grays just run together. Through our lives, we have been conditioned to respond to color. You need to decondition yourself to enable yourself to see in black and white.

[mahtab5566]

I am sure I will be successful in accomplishing the task, please upload the details and other conditions so that I can give it my best shot... Yeppiee:P