My attempt at b&w

iceman17

I thought I would try converting some of my photo's into b&w to see what they would look like.This was a lot harder than I had expected.I didn't like the result of just hitting the desaturate button in P.S so I used the channel mixer instead,keeping all levels at 100.I quickly found out there is a zillion combinations that one can come up with.Here is my feeble attempts at it.Any advise would be realy helpful here..thanks for looking ....ice

prity goldfish

not a bad attempt in my opinion. the first two don't really do much for me, but i do like the third the best, the contrast is nice and i like the angle and it's nice and simple. funny how b&w isn't just so...well, black and white. lol anyway, good job! keep up the good work!

Dixie

Three and four get me going with number 3 being my favorite. They are well composed and the trees add a nice element to those two photos.

The first two are nice shots, but I believe that they could have been made better by showing more of their surroundings by placing the buildings near an intersecting third. This would open them up more giving an even greater feeling for spaciousness and isolation. Not knowing the area this may not have been possible, but just an observation on my part.

I agree with you about the difficulty of converting color to b&w, but you've done a great job in my opinion with nice tonal range throughout all the photos. You've even mangaged to maintain a nice degree of detail in the snow which is no easy task.

rahmonster

Lovely shots and composition is nice. It might be my screen but it looks just a tad bright, especially the skies. But they are very lovely B+W's

illuminati919

I can understand why you didnt like your result on the 1st and 2nd one, there is so much gray and not that much white and black, sometimes that happens to me and I dont like the result either. But the 3rd and 4th you must like, those came out just great, the snow did so much for the photos.

Invective

I really like #3! Great job, I think they look excellent.

DRT-Maverick

The ones with snow are by far my favorite. They have more to them than the others, just a little more patterning and contrast. The composition of all the shots is nice, you have detail in both shadow and highlight.

Ric Grupe

This one........is sweet!



I wonder how it would look with a colorized sky?
Deeper and darker at the upper right and faded gradually to blend. Purple and pink ... please.

Annabella

#3 is stupendous!! reallly beautiful

johno

#3. Nice set. For your first attempt, I would say you are on the right track.

peace.
johno~

mereimage

Ice- I like these old buildings
The first two shots look a little flat and could benefit from some curves toning -esp selective toning of the sky and the building. The 2nd seems to have too much grass at the bottom which takes my attention away from the sky. Remember (Esp for B&W) photography is about the light and its very flat here. In the last two the sky is very flat without much detail so the large area of snow and weeds works and helps provide interest and detail. It also helps to know or have some Idea that you plan to convert to B&W when taking the shots. In the Attic pics I posted earlier I knew I'de be converting to B&W from the start- a relatively drab attic but with interesting light patterns. I want to reshoot it sometime when the sun is higher in the sky to see if more interesting light patterns emerge. B&W is a fun medium that lets you refocus on the basics.

Mereimage

iceman17

Thanks everyone for your reply to my post.It's kinda funny but at first #1 and 2 were my fav.However after reading some of the replies I can now see why they are not up to par.This black and white thing is all new to me and I thank you all for helping to steer me in the right direction...ice

jfricks

I agree with #3. Came out very nicely!

You certainly didn't need it on these, but there is a photoshop plug-in called "Convert to B/W Pro" from Imaging Factory that you might like to try. I've found it gives consistently good results. (Not their salesguy, just like the product).

John