Help needed with B/W conversion!!!

Gary752

Hi All! I've been working on my B/W conversions in LR and would like to know if this looks ok. If not, I'd like to hear from the more experienced as to what I need to do to make this one better.

1. Tiffany and her kitten


GaryB

marikris

I think it looks fine. It would be a matter of taste, but if it were mine, I'd make it just a little brighter/lighter. But it looks good to me as it is.

Richard

Gary,
Setting a proper white point will let you take advantage of the full tonal range. Unless you wanted this to be very low key, it looks too dark to me.

met

I agree about making it a bit brighter. I usually prefer black and whites with more contrast.

D'Buggs

I believe it's in need of more contrast.

lilmomma

it's very gray to me...maybe post the original so we can see what you're working with? It may just be that it's not the right shot for b&w.

Matt336

Bump the contrast. Maybe warm it up just a bit.

anonymouscuban

Richard wrote:

Gary,
Setting a proper white point will let you take advantage of the full tonal range. Unless you wanted this to be very low key, it looks too dark to me.

+2

BradfordBenn

This tutorial by Martin Evening might help, toward the end he talks about how he does B&W Conversion in LR.

http://lightroom-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/lrn-whitebalance.mov

Gary752

BradfordBenn wrote:

This tutorial by Martin Evening might help, toward the end he talks about how he does B&W Conversion in LR.

http://lightroom-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/lrn-whitebalance.mov

Thanks for the link Brad, and all the comments from everyone else. I reset the white balance, and made a few other adjustments, like darken the background a little bit. Here is the new version of the B/W. Does it still look too dark? I found that if I lighten it up any more than what I have, that the kitten starts to get blown out. Anyway, let me know what you think of this one.

GaryB

kidzmom

I think this version looks very good! Seems to be bright enough now and has a nice variation of WB and grey tones.

BroPhoto wrote:

Thanks for the link Brad, and all the comments from everyone else. I reset the white balance, and made a few other adjustments, like darken the background a little bit. Here is the new version of the B/W. Does it still look too dark? I found that if I lighten it up any more than what I have, that the kitten starts to get blown out. Anyway, let me know what you think of this one.

GaryB

marikris

It looks a tad faded to me; I'd adjust the curves on the darks downward by a little bit, or the shadows by a little bit, to give it more contrast.

Gary752

kidzmom wrote:

I think this version looks very good! Seems to be bright enough now and has a nice variation of WB and grey tones.

Thanks Kidsmom for the comment! At least now I know I'm headed in the right direction.

GaryB

Gary752

marikris wrote:

It looks a tad faded to me; I'd adjust the curves on the darks downward by a little bit, or the shadows by a little bit, to give it more contrast.

Thanks for the tip/advise Marikris. When I get a chance I will give it a try and see if I can get more contrast in this photo. I'm new to B/W processing, so I know I have a lot to learn.

GaryB

D'Buggs

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