Black & White Conversions in LR3 - C & C welcome

[Lazy Photographer]

Another photographer friend of mine and I went for an 8 hour walk all through downtown Toronto yesterday. Forgot to put sunscreen on my legs so they pretty much resemble a blushing lobster. Anyway, got a few shots I like. Today's my final day with the 30-day free trial of LR3 so I took advantage and dialled up some of yesterday's catches. Gotta say, I'm liking the LR3 enough I'm gonna have to put out the coin for it. Near the end of yesterday's outing I also started shooting in full manual mode, which turned out to be surprisingly easy. It does take a bit more time to get it right, but it really makes you think more about what you're doing. For quick shots or moving subjects, I'd still stick to Av or Tv mode, but for static images I'm probably going to start shooting only in manual. For those who haven't tried it, give it a whirl, you might be pleasantly surprised.

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[white]

#2's the only one I like. Clean and simple. The others are just too busy. Not even sure what #3 is.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

#2's the only one I like. Clean and simple. The others are just too busy. Not even sure what #3 is.

Scaffolding.

 

[shmne]

That "too busy" being refereed to is what I believe to be too much post. You've pushed the contrast to such extremes that the entire image is contrasty! The images don't offer very much negative space, so what ends up happening is the eye feels strained just to view the image.

#2 is a nice B&W simply because you have a very full tonal range, decent amount of contrast, but most importantly negative space the eye can relax on.

I think they are all good shots, just remove some of the make up on them

 

[Lazy Photographer]

Thanks. I like contrasty shots but often go a bit overboard. I'll see about dialling back on the contrast a bit.

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

I really like 1. and the crooked stop sigh in the shot.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

Thanks Perfectly Flawed.

 

[rusty9]

can you post the original for #1? i have a feeling that it will look good in color.

 

[Lazy Photographer]

can you post the original for #1? i have a feeling that it will look good in color.

I actually worked on a colour version of that one first. Here it is.

And here's the original with a little tweaking to contrast and brightness only.