My first black and white

[RxForB3]

Not really sure what determines a good black and white photograph. This photo was really working in color (not much color there in the first place thanks to the clouds), so I switched to B&W. Any thoughts/suggestions?


IMG_8965 by RxForB3, on Flickr

 

[Ernicus]

what did you convert with? looks artificial....odd how converting would do that...what else did you do?

 

[RxForB3]

Well, having never done a B&W before (not really my thing), I just used Lightroom 3.6. I converted to B&W and adjusted the basic controls to what I thought might work.

Can you pinpoint anything that makes it look artificial? I will say that the original photo in color really wasn't very good. The clouds and lighting were working against me.

 

[Ernicus]

Well, by your statement of " original photo in color really wasn't very good" says a lot. Can't take a bad color photo and make it great in b&w. I don't know about lightroom, never used it. The darks vs. whites are what is throwing my eye. It's almost too defined. Making it look not very real, or fake. I love a good contrast...so I don't think its that. It is hard to say really...I may just not know the right words. There is a lot of gray...not much white. all the blacks almost look like a shadow..no real details in the blacks, that could be what is adding to the fake look, I would have thought there was detail in the cliffs, not just a solid black peak.

can you post up the color so I can see where you started from?

 

[Ernicus]

I'm guilty of not viewing full size as well, lol. I just viewed full size and I see remnants of detail in the blacks...tells me you most likely moved the red slider too far and it just took out all detail...probly yellow as well...not sure how the green would have affected other than blacking out the trees like it did. they cayan and blue should have helped with making the snow whiter instead of gray so those could be off too. This is assuming that lightroom has those options in its conversion..lol.

 

[RxForB3]

Here's the original, color photograph. Perhaps someone else will chime in, too.

 

[RxForB3]

It does have those options, but I didn't really know where to start, so I left it as Lightroom originally set them.

 

[Ernicus]

well, yeah that image is almost monochrome as it is in the color version. lol.

Other than getting some courses on b&w conversion and reading, that's all ya can do in the meantime, practice and play with the sliders and see what does what. Then as you learn and read it will all come together. That's what I'm doing. Learning new things each day.

 

[Ernicus]

well, I was wrong on the slider guesses. The original image has a huge blue tint to it...so when converting, there is not much red to filter in or out at all...it's all mostly blue and cayan. No greens even. So that is where most of the issue stems from. I'm playing with it for fun, 'cause it's what I do late night when bored. lol. I don't think I'll come up with much...but it's fun to try.

 

[marmots]

here it it with a different conversion

 

[Ernicus]

See if this version of your color image helps you at all. It's not perfect or great by any means...but it might help. I'm about to convert it now, but wanted to have a good image, or close to one, to start with.

 

[Ernicus]

First thing I notice is with the edited color version, it will allow you to get some good detail in the far mountain...so that part will be cool.

 

[Ernicus]

Here's my version. Good practice in trying to make it look natural. I spent most of my edit time on the large mountain, I should have spent some time in the trees and middle mountain...but eh...w/e, lol. I don't think I got it, so to me it'd probly be a tosser. Still enjoyable nonetheless.

 

[Ernicus]

Here is the straight conversion, no editing. The one above I edited after converting.

 

[RxForB3]

Marmots, I really like your conversion. Did you use a particular program or what exactly did you do? Would it be possible using lightroom or am I doomed?

Ernicus, I like the unedited conversion much better than my conversion, but the edited version appears to have a halo around the mountain.