A dog :)

[o hey tyler]

not saying this is right, but I convert to B&W mainly in three scenarios:

1) color distracts. ie there are some bright distracting elements in parts of the picture that are unimportant. This is why the majority of street shots are B&W

2) I want to hide some noise. I had to shoot with a really high ISO for some reason. Noise in a B&W looks not quite as bad as noise in color.

3) I want to really push the contrast. B&W can take a lot more contrast than color can.

I'm surprised you didn't mention multiple color temps with lights. That's why I normally convert, or because it fits the image.

 

[swiftparkour94]

not saying this is right, but I convert to B&W mainly in three scenarios:

1) color distracts. ie there are some bright distracting elements in parts of the picture that are unimportant. This is why the majority of street shots are B&W

2) I want to hide some noise. I had to shoot with a really high ISO for some reason. Noise in a B&W looks not quite as bad as noise in color.

3) I want to really push the contrast. B&W can take a lot more contrast than color can.

Yea I'm the same exact way! There was noticeable noise, b&w fit it better and added to the overall mood. I messed with the green sliders which lightened up the leaves, I didn't want to overdo because they'd get too bright, but I'm starting to think that I should just do it to see what it looks like and compare them side by side.

Btw, this is my second edit of it. I got some CC from local photographers in a group and they said that it was "really really muddy" and I agreed after making the changes they said to make. It looked like vomit, this one is semi-vomit but furthermore detailed. Live and you learn

 

[fjrabon]

not saying this is right, but I convert to B&W mainly in three scenarios:

1) color distracts. ie there are some bright distracting elements in parts of the picture that are unimportant. This is why the majority of street shots are B&W

2) I want to hide some noise. I had to shoot with a really high ISO for some reason. Noise in a B&W looks not quite as bad as noise in color.

3) I want to really push the contrast. B&W can take a lot more contrast than color can.

I'm surprised you didn't mention multiple color temps with lights. That's why I normally convert, or because it fits the image.

Yeah, I forgot that one. Though I usually try to fix that with gels first.

In a lot of cases, I think 2 & 3 for me personally are when it 'fits the image'. Though some are 'just because it works' I guess. But it's harder to explain that, so I didn't mention it.

 

[Mach0]

poor dog. tied to a tree. all alone.

With his collar on backwards lol


I didn't see the dog right away though .

 

[The_Traveler]

Yea I tried my best to keep it from being muddy. Couldn't do much about the background, it was a straight shot at getting this dog in frame in an interesting way from the public sidewalk I was on. The dog was apparently there as a watch dog over a small auto business and I didn't want to take a step on the property. Those leaves really pissed me off lol, I hated how it camouflages the dog.

Muddiness is a matter of tonality but there are lots of other things that could be improved with this image.
Perhaps you should both allow editing and post a larger version of the original.
Since you had problems doing the conversion, you could get help here.