B&W Blowout! (C&C) First Photo Post!

[bkristopher]

I am personally drawn to very high contrast and high brightness in my B&W conversion, but I would question if other enthusiasts, professionals and so on would think I am completely butchering a picture. I am new to the forum and this is the first I have heard the term "blown out". I believe that I understand the term for the most part. So I figured I would put a conversion to the test and get my forum feet wet. The picture I have below might not be my best examples of my love for high contrast and brightness, but your opinions are appreciated based on the conversion.

Thanks.


1. Before

2. After

 

[ifi]

Welcome to the forum. You have lost a lot of details in PP but seems like this is what you were trying to achieve. I missed the clouds details in "After".

 

[bkristopher]

You have lost a lot of details in PP

Mainly in the clouds or throughout? This contrast is what I am drawn to, but if there is a better way to achieve and keep the details I am open to suggestions.

 

[mwcfarms]

I think you can keep contrast if you were to adjust the clouds in a seperate layer from the building, and then merge them that way you wont loose the clouds as in this B&W half of them are blown out. Im not an expert on PS so I cant tell you how to do it easily but I know its possible. Oh and welcome to the forums.

 

[ifi]

You have lost a lot of details in PP

Mainly in the clouds or throughout? This contrast is what I am drawn to, but if there is a better way to achieve and keep the details I am open to suggestions.

The clouds. But being a high contrast you lost details on awning on the building in the back but it will happen when you go that high in contrast.
You can try to frame it differently so there are less clouds to lose details. I have seen some people using HDRs to solve this kind of issue.

 

[bkristopher]

I think you can keep contrast if you were to adjust the clouds in a seperate layer from the building, and then merge them that way you wont loose the clouds as in this B&W half of them are blown out. Im not an expert on PS so I cant tell you how to do it easily but I know its possible. Oh and welcome to the forums.

so I did that as a quick test....didn't bother with fine mask details around the trees in the lower left....

 

[supraman215]

well that one looks better. except for what you obviously pointed out.

 

[D-B-J]

did a quick edit in lightroom2.

 

[Josh66]

I've always like high contrast B&W too. I would even push it farther than this. Try pushing the blacks a little more - that should bring some details back into the clouds too.

I like the first one the most - just try to get a little detail back in the clouds. The others just look too gray.

 

[reznap]

I am personally drawn to very high contrast and high brightness in my B&W conversion

High contrast is good... high brightness, not so much. Here's a quick edit I did because I'm in a photoshop mood. I'm from the school of thought that black and white images often look best when they're dark, contrasty, and moody.. I tried to bring that to your image for comparison.
EDIT: *snip* how did that weird link get here?

 

[mwcfarms]

+1 Reznap.

 

[bkristopher]

You are in a photoshop mood...even shopped out the car! Thanks for the comparison.

 

[Derrel]

I like reznap's high-contrast image, but I kind of miss seeing the car there for scale!

How are you doing your B&W conversions? would be the first question I'd ask somebody who is looking for very high brightness and high contrast; there are a multitude of ways to convert from RGB color to monochrome, and your original photo looked a bit flat to me compared to say the gradient map method of converting to B&W, or compared to other methods.

 

[SrBiscuit]

reznaps edit ftw.
the OP's B&W conversion i wouldnt even consider high contrast. it seemed a bit flat.
i would consider burning in the cloud detail before the conversion i think.

 

[reznap]

i would consider burning in the cloud detail before the conversion i think.

Good call. Would have helped in avoiding the super-dark brick wall.