Help needed with B/W conversion!!!

Gary752 · December 1, 2009

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 · December 1, 2009

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 · December 1, 2009

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 · December 1, 2009

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

D'Buggs · December 1, 2009

I believe it's in need of more contrast.

lilmomma · December 1, 2009

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 · December 1, 2009

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

anonymouscuban · December 1, 2009

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 · December 2, 2009

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 · December 2, 2009

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 · December 2, 2009

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 · December 2, 2009

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 · December 2, 2009

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 · December 2, 2009

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 · December 4, 2009

It's commin'!
Close, very close...

Help needed with B/W conversion!!!

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