Help needed with Black & White

[Nautifish]

I happen to love black and white photography but after veiwing some other B&W here in the forum mine do not even seem to compare....Mine just don;t seem to pop in my opinion.
I would really appreciate some help on what i am doing wrong and how i can correct this.
Thank you so much.

 

[Steve01]

Are you just desaturating the image or are you using Image|Adjustments|Black and White or better yet a Black and white Adjustment Layer?

 

[Nautifish]

I am setting my Camera at auto then on Monochrome. I am new to this only had my Camera 10 day's so still alot of learning for me.

 

[Steve01]

I am setting my Camera at auto then on Monochrome. I am new to this only had my Camera 10 day's so still alot of learning for me.

To get better results you should shoot with the largest finest JPG settings in your camera and in color, then edit to B&W in software.
I assume you don't have Photoshop but you should have some editing software that came with the camera. It will give you more control.

 

[Early]

I am setting my Camera at auto then on Monochrome. I am new to this only had my Camera 10 day's so still alot of learning for me.

I assume you don't have Photoshop but you should have some editing software that came with the camera. It will give you more control.

:thumbup:You might even decide you like the color shot.

 

[artoledo]

Bump up the Contrast and watch the tones define

 

[KenC]

Aside from the technical points made earlier, all of which are good advice, the image itself has some problems that could limit how much you can do with it. The subjects are dead center with a lot of distracting stuff around them and the light was bad - sun very bright and very high. If you have to shoot under those lighting conditions you need to find some shade to minimize shadows on faces and also the bright spots.

 

[Nautifish]

Thank you so much for the Advice and tips guys i truly appreciate it....My Boy's are home for the weekend so hoping to get down to the beach with them tomorrow and get some better looking b&w shots.
Fingers and toes crossed....lol

Thank you so much again.:thumbup: