A tree & a smile

[bOINK!]

Hello All,
First time on this forum. Walking the dog and decided to take my GX200 with me.
Comments - pos & neg - always welcome

A tree

A smile

Originals from camera are 4000x3000
do you guys usually post EXIF Data?

bOINK!

 

[SusanMart]

I like the first one a lot,

but one thing- I would make more B&W contrast
Try it- I think this might look better.
and in the second I feel like sth is missing....

 

[bOINK!]

thx for the comments.
Totally agreed, but how would I push for more contrast on the cam? I had already tweaked B&W settings for max contrast and was expecting a "shinier" wet surface and popping white tiles. Got there a little, but just...

Regarding the other shot. My original idea was to shot low with the lost bunny in the foreground and blurred people passing by for a full cliche shot. I got more than I wanted with a crowd of onlookers rushing me as soon as I took my camera out. Typical of China. I'm afraid I will never get used to it, even after 5 years!
Could have made a fun shot but I was in a bad mood and couldn't stand their blank starring. My social skills suck in the early morning.
Looking back I tend to regret now but that's the story of my life, ha!

bOINK!

 

[CharlesAllkott]

The photograph of smile is really awesome, I just love that, So natural. There is really a uniqueness in black and white photos.The clarity is fantastic.

 

[aemcgo0]

I agree that the first one needs some more contrast, So I did this,

I think that really helped. Using Lightroom, I changed the point curve to Strong Contrast, adjusted the light tones of the point curve to a bit brighter, adjusted the black clipping to force some of the darker tiles back, and then increased the sharpening a tiny bit to try and get a bit more "sparkle" from all the sharp edges. I'm a bit afraid thought that with that much texture going on you loose some of the area around the tree.

Adam

 

[bOINK!]

That's very close to what I had in mind when I shot the tree, but couldn't manage to obtain that kind of sharp contrast. Is it possible without going into post processing?
Mind you, nothing wrong with Lightroom, I just don't the software...
I may give it a go with GIMP.

Regarding the smile, believe it or not that's how it was standing in the street. A kid must have forgotten it a few min before I walked by. 20 min later, walking back with my dog, the bunny was gone !

bOINK!