G10 B&W Conversion - C&C?

[Joan]

Hi all,

This is my first honest attempt at trying some black and white conversions, so I would be very grateful if anyone has the time to give me a little critique on this one. It seems a bit blah to me, not quite sure how to give it some spark without overdoing it.

 

[Lili]

Hi all,

This is my first honest attempt at trying some black and white conversions, so I would be very grateful if anyone has the time to give me a little critique on this one. It seems a bit blah to me, not quite sure how to give it some spark without overdoing it.

I don't the image Joan

 

[Joan]

Stinkin' pBase ... I'm not seeing it now either, not sure why.

Here's another attempt, uploaded here:


View attachment 8665

 

[Lili]

Joan it appears to have full tonal scale, RAW in Cannon Software?

 

[Joan]

Yep raw in DPP. I experimented with adjusting each channel until I sort of liked it, probably without rhyme or reason, lol.

I guess next I'll try converting to tiff and play around in LightZone with the presets.

 

[Streetshooter]

It looks good...do you have Light Room?

 

[Brian Mosley]

Joan, that looks pretty good...

I have an approach which seems to work well with lightzone.

1. Add a zonemapper applied as soft light
2. Add a Relight tool, shadow slider over towards the right, highlight slider all the way to the left.
3. Add a B&W tool, select the colour wheel to give you subject isolation.

Here's an example...

Before :

After :

Just offering some ideas... hope it helps.

Kind Regards

Brian

 

[Joan]

Thanks, Streetshooter. No, I don't have Light Room. Did the free trial but didn't quite get the hang of it, will have to give it a go again sometime.


Brian, thanks a bunch for sharing your method for LightZone. I will give that a try!

 

[Streetshooter]

there's a magazine called After Capture that has articles
each month on raw processing and other things.
It's online at www.aftercapture.com

Shooter

 

[Joan]

Shooter, thanks so much for that link! Looks like a goldmine of info. and I'd never heard of it before. Now have it bookmarked and will start reading.

THANKS!

 

[Joan]

OK, I tried Brian's Lightzone method for this one:

Before:

View attachment 8690

After, cropped and converted to B&W

View attachment 8689


How did I do?

 

[Streetshooter]

Well after the crop..it's lost it's dimension....
see the wings....see the V shape in the stems before crop......

that makes the image work........now it looks cluttered......try to see what I'm talking about....it's about the EYE TRAVEL... don

 

[jonoslack]

Hi Joan
I agree with Don, but I'd put it a different way.
The actual conversion is fine - great tonality . . . . but!
1. there is a wonderful depth in the portrait orientation of the original, which is lost in busyness with the crop
2. the colour in the original is splendid . . . why lose it!

i.e. what a great shot!

 

[Cindy Flood]

Joan,
I agree that you have nice tonality, but the b/w does not isolate the subject and draw the eye in like the colored shot does. The flowers are a distraction from the repeating V theme of the original.

 

[Joan]

Yep, I'm a dunce ... I lost the forest for the trees. I was concentrating so hard on the conversion process and the tones that I failed to realize what I'd done to the composition. Seeing patterns and shapes is usually something I'm fairly good at, but I completely agree that I blew it in a big way here.

Oh, well, that's why I come here to learn!

Thanks all, I'll keep working at it!

 

[jonoslack]

Don't beat yourself up
We're all saying what a fine picture the original is!
and there isn't anything wrong with the conversion . . . apart from whether it's necessary.

 

[Joan]

Thanks, Jono! No, I'm not beating myself up, I am grateful to get honest critiques because there are so many elements to making a good image, and they all have to work together. I liked the original, but didn't analyze why it worked and now I see what you all saw, so very helpful to get the feedback. :salute: You guys are GREAT!!

 

[Streetshooter]

One of the best features of Digital Cameras is...

The LCD screen...and to make it B&W. Looking at the screen is seeing the print in front of you...it has abstracted a 3 dimensional reality to a 2 dimensional reality and further abstracts the new reality by making the image B&W. It's even better than my 8x10 Deardorff because of the B&W screen....sooooooo.....

use it.......your eyes are on but your getting lost in...Process......
shooter

 

[Joan]

One of the best features of Digital Cameras is...

The LCD screen...and to make it B&W. Looking at the screen is seeing the print in front of you...it has abstracted a 3 dimensional reality to a 2 dimensional reality and further abstracts the new reality by making the image B&W. It's even better than my 8x10 Deardorff because of the B&W screen....sooooooo.....

use it.......your eyes are on but your getting lost in...Process......
shooter

Point taken! Onward and upward!

 

[Oxide Blu]

I was concentrating so hard on the conversion process and the tones that I failed to realize what I'd done to the composition.

It is actually a pretty good image for experimenting with.

If you have the time, and are so inclined, you might want to download Silver Efex Pro (CS/PS Elements plugin) from NIK Software, 15-day free trial, and play with it. I grabbed the color original you posted here, and tossed it into SEP to compare how it would handle the b&w conversion compared to the sample conversion you posted.

Anyways, the 15-day trial period is for fully enabled product. Caution: if you are interested in monochrome you can get hooked on it.

http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro/usa/entry.php