C&C: Older Building with B&W Conversion

[H4X1MA]

This is of a Boy Scout house thats ~20 minutes from where I live. Now I can't tell from the pic if the building is on a slant, which I guess is possible since it is old, or is my lense messed this one all up. When putting up guides I notice that the vertical lines don't line up. Am I crazy? This is the basic 18-55 lense >.<

Also did a B&W conversion which I guess you could say is oddball. I wanted to darken the sky and land out to make the building pop. I think it came out pretty good, but it looks like I have a lot of artifactsin the sky. At least I think that's what you call them... the splotchy marks

f/22 1/15s ISO 200 @ 26mm. Probably should have got away from that F22 to make the mountains in the background fade a little

 

[tevo]

The curve of the hill and the mountain is throwing you off, rotate it like 10 degrees CW and you'll be set.

**edit: I take that back, the building is not level! I just tried to straighten it, and when the lines were correct, the building was still at an angle. So, in that case, the composition is fine

**edit#2: It may be that the pole is not straight.... not exactly sure tbh. Sneaky boyscout architects


#1 kind of a boring composition, the focus is the building but my eye is brought down the road and to the left of the picture

#2 don't really like the conversion.. doesn't look realistic as a B&W (if that is what you were going for)

 

[H4X1MA]

yeah no idea. I'll have to go back and look at this place, maybe it's about to fall over lol.

As for the BW, I wasn't really going for realism, I was actually thinking more abstract, the whole burnt sky which I've seen other places.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

I do not like the mismatched sky tones. IMO the darkest sky tone is a bit too dark. You can also see some noise in it. This often happens when you push to the extremes when processing. So as a B&W, its not really working for me. I think with a little work, the color has more potential.

 

[arcooke]

I don't like your black and white conversion at all. There's too much contrast between the blue sky and the white clouds, the trees are solid black, and the whole image is a bit too dark. I took the liberty of doing an edit to balance things out a bit. I used the Black & White adjustment in Photoshop to tweak each color channel individually. Ignore the fact that it's a little over-sharpened, I did that and forgot to undo it.

 

[H4X1MA]

I don't like your black and white conversion at all. There's too much contrast between the blue sky and the white clouds, the trees are solid black, and the whole image is a bit too dark. I took the liberty of doing an edit to balance things out a bit. I used the Black & White adjustment in Photoshop to tweak each color channel individually. Ignore the fact that it's a little over-sharpened, I did that and forgot to undo it.

I had a version like this but to me it just seems kind of bleh. Yeah it is more realistic, but I don't think the building stands out well. maybe it's just the image itself which is completely possible. In your version I do see in the sky where I tried to clone out phone wires, guess I'm not a good cloner lol

O yeah, I went by this place today and the walls do slant inward >.<

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

I had a version like this but to me it just seems kind of bleh.

Thats why I don't think its really an image that benefits from being turned to monochrome. If you simply want a black and white image, then there a million ways this one could be tweaked, but at the end of the day I don't think it is going to really be adding much to it.

 

[H4X1MA]

What would you say the color version needs? I'm thinking to either clone or crop out the road, other than that I'm not sure. I think this is where my images are lacking, I really never have a set direction when I get into post. I pretty much just experiment until I find something that I think is "good enough" but I rarely wow myself.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

I would clone out the pole and the road ( you kinda clipped that tree a bit too at the top ) Then I would use curves and some masking on the foreground to adjust everything a little. That treeline is very dark.he You could also select the greens/yellow using Color Range Tool and then apply a saturation layer to them and tweak the luminosity and hue a little. I would also use a masked saturation layer to remove the blue haze in distant mountains. That should get you started.As for the black and white, I am sure you could adjust it so that you were happy with it , but I just feel that if you have to try that hard, than its probably not the best candidate for the treatment to begin with. Maybe that's just me.

 

[H4X1MA]

I'll chop away at this sometime over the weekend and see what I can come up with. thanks!

 

[waikiki]

The image has potential . I think the first conversion is too dark, the second is to light. There is a fine line where to set the contrast in black and white photography.