Old house b=w

[Jack R Mann]

shot last year post to get opinions

[MiniChris]

Interesting setting but I'll always have a problem with gray snow and verticals or horizontals which are so off-kilter. In your shot, the best white you have is about 40 points off pure white which is not commiserate with your absolute black in the windows. As to being off kilter, the front left side of the house needs close to a 20 degree counter-clockwise rotation and then an aggressive crop to get rid of the lightbeam source and the extraneous background material.

To offset the grayed out whites, you need to first reset your black point, then adjust your curve on the shoulder side pretty significantly. Of course, after that the fun really begins, but there is a good shot in there if you want to pursue your whites.

[wlou]

Hello Jack, I would like to know what color was the snow before the balck & white? Some old houses are realy crooked, was it the case? As a new photographer I try to have "sun rays" in my pictures when I can, did yours just happened?

[MiniChris]

Oh, don't get me wrong...I like the sunbeams, but not a source which is overly bright for the rest of the scene. There always has to be balance in a shot. As to the crookedness of the house..yes, old houses do tend to lean but even leaning there should be a true vertical or horizontal reference showing this is the case. A slightly more straight-on angle might have allowed the big tree at the left to work for a reference.

Snow is white in color or B&W. Sometimes, snow wants to take on the reflected colors of the sky or lean toward blue in deep shadow, but set to a good black and white point, and doing an inversion layer, those color casts can be removed. I don't shoot much snow (I live in Florida), but I do shoot a lot of shots off our beach which is as white as snow. It's never particularly easy but colors truer to the scene are what separates art photos from snapshots.

If it is sunbeams you want, try this on for fun. http://www.phototopix.co.uk/members-...ams-image.html

[Jack R Mann]

just the right rime for the sun, just as shot

[steve40]

I have no problem seeing, that it is the house that is on the lean, and not the camera position. I also have no problem, with the differing shade of gray the snow in shadow has, in the shadow of the house. After all it is B&W not color, and differing shades of gray is what constitutes a B&W photograph.

Nice shot.

[MiniChris]

Edited with Permission, I did the edit as follows: Converted back to RGB for more control. Reset the black point in Levels, adjusted the curve to balance the grays closer to white than mid-gray. Added two exposure layers, one dark and one light, both inverted and "painted" in the whites and blacks. Lastly, I did a level with screen blend mode at 18% and a levels multiply at 17% and erased back to the original whites I got in the screen blend mode. A simple rotation and crop set the scene to focus on the house and not the bright source light or a background that wasn't doing much to place focus on the house. The house was 22 degrees off plumb and it wasn't leaning that badly from age, it was shot with the horizon cantered.

[jamn4ex]

I like chris' edit.....but could you put the lean back on it?

[MiniChris]

I would if it was leaning that much, but alas, at a 20 degree list, it would have capsized long ago...it's still an old abandoned house in the snow.

However, if altering reality is to your choosing , hey, that to ocan be done..

[Jack R Mann]

Thanks Chris like the new look. I appreciate the help.

[Jack R Mann]

I am looking for toto!!