Bad boys...Bad Boys...

KimballPhotography

What'cha gonna do? :rofl I took this shot, cropped it in tight (too tight?) and turned B&W. I really like it but it just doesn't "POP". What, if anything can I do to get that "oooh, ahhh" thing going on, lol? I love his expression, I love everything but the dull, flat feel. Help?:scratch

rutt

Why B&W? Maybe color can pop? Or maybe more contrast in B&W? The conversion is kind of a black art.

david_h

Hi Natalie,
I've been trying to get the "look" I want with BW pictures for a while.
Hope you don't mind, I couldn't resist playing with yours. It's still not quite how I would want it, but I was able to get a bit more detail in his hair and shirt - maybe a bit better for contrast as well but this is obviously very subjective.
Anyway, what do you think? (If you don't like it, I'll take it down right away)


I converted the image to RGB then adjusted the tone in chanel mixer slightly. Next used a Local Contrast Enhancement plug-in I got from here: Photo-Plugins
This seems to use the unsharp mask filter and I have gotten pretty good results with it. I've not had the chance to play with the setting, this was with the default. Often my BW images seem a bit "murky" and this plug-in seems to clean them up a bit. You could get the same kind of results using the USM, low %, large diameter.
The Photo-Plugin guy also has a BW conversion plug-in there that you might want to check out.

Angelo

there may be something you can do with the contrast to make it pop but I'll leave that advice to those better trained than me.

My suggestions have to do with composition. His body language and all of his physical presence is moving right; his head drops forward, his right leg is raised and his arms are extended - however you've cropped him tight and centered cutting off his hands and foot.

I'd suggest you recrop starting at his back and moving right until you at least capture his right hand on the handlebar. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

Mitchell

Angelo wrote:

there may be something you can do with the contrast to make it pop but I'll leave that advice to those better trained than me.

My suggestions have to do with composition. His body language and all of his physical presence is moving right; his head drops forward, his right leg is raised and his arms are extended - however you've cropped him tight and centered cutting off his hands and foot.

I'd suggest you recrop starting at his back and moving right until you at least capture his right hand on the handlebar. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

Great points, Angelo. Could we see the uncropped and unconverted image?

mitch

ridetwistyroads

I'm still on the beggining of learning how to work with b+w, so little advice there. But that's a really, really cool shot. Deffinately justfies some work to get it to your vision of perfection.Awesome, way cool!