Guitar Closeup

[TheLogan]

This is my new Taylor 314 that I took a few pictures of. Put this in B&W hope you like. Comments and Critiques are welcome

 

[KmH]

Good exposure and focus where the DOF is. I think it needs more midtone contrast? How did you do the conversion? Desaturate? Channel Mixer? Adjustment layer? B&W conversion software (Nik)?

Diagonal lines are usually good, if they lead to something interesting to look at.

The dark pick guard is kind of distracing there in the lower right corner.

What part of the image is your primary subject? In the lower left where the focus is sharpest? You have the curves of the sound hole and inlay to lead us away from there but the strings try and grab our attention and direct it up right or keep us stuck in the lower left corner.

See what I mean.

 

[TheLogan]

I know exactly what you mean. I took another picture, but I'm not sure how to do all the B&W things you mentioned. I just used the B&W effect in iPhoto, which I'm sure is subpar.
Here it is

 

[KmH]

Unlike color images, black and white is all about controlling contrast.

Most people find making b&w images much more difficult than working in color.

Desaturating (removing the color) an image can be done in a lot of different software. Channel Mixer and Adjustment layers are Adobe Photoshop features for converting color images to black and white. Contrast in a b&w image can be controlled to a surprising degree by altering how much saturation there is of a specific color. Increasing the blue saturation will make the sky darker on the b&w layer.

In the days of b&w film photographers used colored filters on the camera lens, and/or the enlarger lens to manipulate contrast.

One of the best known b&W photgraphers of the last century, Ansel Adams, was not so much a brilliant photographer as he was brilliant in the dark room processsing the negative into prints.