Would this look better in b/w

[hdukphotographs]

I think this photo has a chance of being a good one but i was wondering what others thought of it. would it be better in b/w?

 

[D-50]

Looks verymuch like a snapshot, theres no real flow tothe picture. also the background is way to busy and distracting. I think it might look better in BW but in general I would say go back there and try to get a more interesting shot.

 

[ann]

This is not going to help this image,
the tones in this photo when converted to black and white are going to be very flat and close in tone with litte separation; w hich will result in a ver boring black and white image.

just convetting any image into black and white is not a wise decision imho. one needs to think in black and white terms before making the image and then convert it from the color version to black and white

 

[mysteryscribe]

try this desaturate it a lot then darken it. Make sure there is some color in it to give you the seperation of element and dark enough to almost be night. I did it and it looks much better than a black and white would.

 

[tataencu]

try at first playing with the Levels in Photoshop and enhancing the contrast in the picture. also darken the dark parts a little and birgthen the bright ones even more, while also lowering the overall birghtness.

through this you will lose some of the bothering details in the background and make it less distracting.

then make it black and white using a Black&White adjustment layer to be able to play with the separate channels.

all in all if done right it should become a pretty moody and creepy picture, but it's a tricky one to do...

 

[Kent Frost]

Using Photoshop CS2, I used the channel mixer to make a 1st black & white version of the photo.
(Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer)

I then selected all and copied the black and white version, went back into my history to the original, and pasted the bw onto the color one. Then in the Layers menu, I changed the blend mode to Luminosity and found a good balance between grayscale and color so that it would give the original color version more value in the shadows and a little more detail.
(Layers>Layer Style>Blending Options)

I then flattened the image (Layer>Flatten Image) and went back to the channel mixer to get another black and white version...this time with a little more value in the overall image.
(Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer again)

Once I got the version I liked, I burned a little bit in the stones to bring out a little more detail in an attempt to reverse the hot spots.
I then copied the whole image and pasted it onto itself as a new layer. Then I Gaussian blurred the top layer at a radius of 8 pixels.
(Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur)

I then faded the opacity of the top layer to 40% to give a little diffusion.
(Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options - Opacity Slider)

After that, I opened up a new canvas and selected a perfect oval in the dimensions of the graveyard photo, and painted the corners black. This is the vignette.

I then copied and pasted the vignette to the graveyard photo and Gaussian blurred it at the full 250-pixel radius.
(Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur)

For the last step, I then changed the opacity level of the vignette to 80% to let a little of the underlying image through.
(Layers>Layer Style>Blending Options - Opacity slider)

Once I completed all the above steps, I performed noise reduction also using CS2.

I also like it in sepia.

 

[DRodgers]

I like it in B&W as well I did very little but adjust a few colors I also found a crop to the front group of stones improves the picture a bit

 

[mysteryscribe]

Since everybody else is tinkering with it here's mine.

 

[ann]

you all did a great job of tweaking this image,

i got a brain cramp and my eyes glazed over when reading Kent's workflow; but then that is because i am a film users with little knowledge about PS, except removing dust.

 

[hdukphotographs]

Thanks all for your advice and editing tips, you all did a better job than i could ever wish to.Hopfully if i stick around here i can learn something.Thanks again.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Yeah Im a film user too. Just tinker with darkroom effects digitally. I can't and don't want to learn all those masks and layers... Layers is for cake.

 

[Kent Frost]

I can't and don't want to learn

With those words in the statement, doesn't sound like you deserve to.

 

[mysteryscribe]

What has deserve got to do with anything in that context lol//// Now if you meant to say, with those words it's obvious that you never will learn, then that I would agree with.

I have neither the desire not the need to learn every little nuance of digital editing. But thanks for the concern... I can probably squeek by somehow.

 

[Kent Frost]

Okay, but you approached it with a statement that gave me the impression that you look down on digital editing. Why? There's no point. We both reach the same goal through different means. You don't see me talking down on darkroom, and that's because I respect it. That's where everything started. Sorry if I "heard" you incorrectly, in the sense that I have to insert the tone of voice I think the statement fits when I read it, but I just didn't think it was necessary.

 

[mysteryscribe]

The statement was an answer to the person above me who seemed to feel overwhelmed by the long list of complicated things done to the image. The point was simple a film shooter is not a digital shooter. We already understand things on a differnt level. We work in a different media. I have no intention at this point in my life of doing anything more than what I do now. I just don't see a reason to.

I have nothing against digital photographers and digital editing. Please feel free to do just as much as you want to do, but all that is not necessary to be a photographer. That was my point.

You can enjoy the craft and achieve some success not having the first idea of how to even open photoshop.