My first Black and White pics

danshill · Jul 7, 2009

Hi,

I just got my first DSLR a few weeks back and have been out taking photographs of anything and everything. I have posted some of my black and white pics to see what you think. If you are interested in seeing some of my other pics please check me out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danshill/

Although I have a bit of a mixed bag my heart is really with black and white documentary so I think I will probably clear all my flickr at some point and start a scratch as I would like to stick to a theme.

musicaleCA · Jul 7, 2009

How are you converting to B&W?

danshill · Jul 8, 2009

im just using the software I got with my sony dslr. You can probably see that the bottom pic isnt entirely black and white as I kept the blue paint in colour at the end of the shot.

musicaleCA · Jul 8, 2009

I'm not familiar with Sony's software. Does it allow you to adjust the luminance of the red, green, and blue channels of the B&W image?

danshill · Jul 8, 2009

It does yes although I am planning on getting photoshop next month as their software is quite limited.

musicaleCA · Jul 8, 2009

That's a good plan. Make sure you do play around with the channel mixer, and when you get Photoshop, editing using ROYGABPM will give you even more control. Many people make that critical error though when first doing B&W images. Keeping the colour information allows you to manipulate it to your will (though I still think a well-taken B&W shouldn't need this manipulation).

Pirate Neilsouth · Jul 8, 2009

I like the cat one

, but perhaps these photo's could do with abit of punch. Contrast boost , could also do with a touch of sharpen to really bring it out

danshill · Jul 8, 2009

Pirate Neilsouth said:
I like the cat one , but perhaps these photo's could do with abit of punch. Contrast boost , could also do with a touch of sharpen to really bring it out

Looking back at them I agree. Its something i'll look to do with future photographs. Cheers for the advice.

Pirate Neilsouth · Jul 8, 2009

mitsugirly · Jul 8, 2009

What Sony did you get? I bought my Sony back in January and love it!

danshill · Jul 8, 2009

mitsugirly said:
What Sony did you get? I bought my Sony back in January and love it!

I just got the a200 with it been my first. I plan to upgrade eventually but absolutely love it.

danshill · Jul 9, 2009

I've just been out and taken some more pics including the one below. I feel from reading this forum over the last few days that I understand the processing side a lot more. I am looking to get photoshop today so that should help with my conversion.