B&W Conversion; how to improve it?

[tirediron]

An experiement with B&W conversion, but I'm not really happy with it; something seems to have missed, but I can't quite put my finger on it. More contrast, brighter?

 

[clarinetJWD]

Yes, more contrast AND brighter. You have no true white or black here, and while you don't always need both, it is certainly good to have at least one extreme. It could also use a bit of sharpening. I do really like the composition, interest in both the foreground and background, and a nice sky.

 

[tirediron]

The Mk II:

 

[Geronimo]

I like that one better then the first photo, but I personally think the highlights need a bit more of a boost.

How did you convert it to B/W ? did you just use the destat or channel mixer?

 

[tirediron]

I used Photomarks BW Plus plugin to start, and the played with brightness & contrast...

 

[Vmann]

I use selective color adjustment layers alot on my BW photos. (you have to keep them in RGB or CMYK mode for this to work). Select the adjustment layer then go down through the colors to white, neutral, or black. This feature lets you seperate the three values you most want to alter with BW photos usually. Know instead of useing levels and sliding the controls one way and having to slide one another way to compensate for the first slide you can just alter the value you want. I usually take blacks to the dark side a little more whites to the light side and neutral what ever direction you need them to go. And with it being a adjustment layer you can mask out the effect where you need or dont need it.

Heres a example of 5 minutes with selective color and a little brightness contrast. I also cloned out the weed on the right side that was running into the clouds.

Good looking photo, love the textures. I wish I could make out more detail in the back hills though there a little dark. / I dodged them in photoshop to get a little more detail out.

If you dont wannt anyone editing your photo just let me know and I will take it out.

 

['Daniel']

Mines more contrasted still, I increased the contrast and changed the levels a bit, dodged the hills slightly to bring out detail but keep them dark, I then changed the levels on just the hill.

I'll take down as well if it isnt OTE.

 

[clarinetJWD]

Daniel, I'd have to go with your version. I like the pure white in the clouds, and the very dark trees, while still retaining the details. That's the hardest thing about B&W conversions: giving enough contrast, while still keeping all of the vital details.

 

[tirediron]

Always OTE!!! I should have mentioned that, my bad! Thanks folks for the suggestions. I really like Daniel's take on it, especially the dodging in the hills! I'll have to have another go at it this evening. Thanks!

 

[Dave_D]

I borrowed a little bit from everybody and added my own touch doing this in sectioned layers. This is similar to another recent post where adjusting the entire image at once yeilded good results for some of the image, but not all of it. I adjusted the sky in one layer, then the trees in a layer and then the rest of the foreground. All of the adjustments were done only using the levels option. Channels, exposure level and whatever else you can think of can also be manipulated in this manner. I have the ".psd" file saved with the layers seperated if you would like to take a look at each layer adjustment respectively. let me know and I will email it.

 

[dalebe]

you could even try adding a sepia tone to it, it's all about preference.

i just adjusted the levels, sharpened , and then converted to sepia in the colour variations.