Norway B&W - C&C please

[davidedric]

Hi,

I'm going through some images, trying to understand which work well in b&w. I think this one does, because without colour the details in the walls and roofs seem to come through. Any thoughts?

Dave

[Mike Buckley]

It works well for me for the reason you mentioned.

[Geoff F]

Yes a nice clear scene.

[mknittle]

Works for me too Dave.

[Polar01]

Dave the images works very well converted to B&W, and you need to my way of thinking one more thing, and that is to bring to the fore front those details in the walls, and roofs. Lots to work with.
Crop only.

Cheers: Allan

[Wavelength]

Classic

[Mike Buckley]

I agree that Allan's crop has the benefit of further achieving Dave's goal of emphasizing the details in the walls and roofs. Despite that I am a fan of relatively tight crops, I would not have thought a crop would have such a strong effect. A good lesson for me to learn and remember.

[Shadowman]

Works for me.

[bnnrcn]

Works for me too

[davidedric]

Thanks for the feedback, and Allan, thanks for the suggestion (I think you added some "Clarity" as well as the crop).

Learning for me. I though about a crop, but didn't actually try it. I am sure it wouldn't work in colour, but black and white is a different medium - that's the learning.

Cheers,

Dave

[Donald]

... because without colour the details in the walls and roofs seem to come through. Any thoughts?

The single most important thing for me is exactly what's happened here; i.e. the decision is based upon some clear, rational argument/thought and not just a 'oh well we'll try this', idea.

In my case, that decision is made before I press the shutter. For others, the decision is made at the post processing stage. Which, is not important. What is important is that there is some thinking and sound (whether others agree or not) reason for the decision.

And in this case, I think it's a wise decision.

[Mike Buckley]

(I think you added some "Clarity" as well as the crop).

I wasn't sure about the changes Allan made, but I thought sure he made some other than the crop until I saw that his post indicated that he only cropped the image. That explains why I was so intrigued to see the impact of only cropping the image.

[Polar01]

Dave nothing added just cropped, the detail was there all the time, there is a lot in those roofs.

Cheers: Allan

[tao2]

Hi Dave,

Don't think it works in B+W. It looks over-sharpened and over-exposed. For that scene ah'd be looking at f11/13, even using a polariser tae reduce reflections and false highlights.

The tones are merging/blending instead of being gradations. As one who shoots mostly in B+W, it hurts tae say it..but ah think it'd look better in colour...

[Mike Buckley]

It looks...over-exposed.

The histogram of the image is displayed below and it doesn't indicate over exposure.

[Manfred M]

Dave - my way of shooting is much the same as Donald's - I make the B&W vs colour call before I take the shot. The scene I am shooting will dictate how I process and I find I virtually never change my mind in post.

[ShaneS]

Nice image Dave! I do agree with others in that Allan's crop is an improvement.

Some images I see and black and white and for others it 'comes' to me later but I usually process the image one way or another and rarely change my mind...

[davidedric]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.

I don't usually see images in b&w, so the exercise was to go through some pictures, do a quick conversion (for Lightroom users, that press "V" in either Library or Develop), to see which ones seemed to work, do a "proper" conversion, and then try and work out why. Hopefully, it will help me to see better in the future.

So, it was taken as a colour image (I think quite a nice one) and here it is. I didn't really expect this to work in b&w, so I was interested when it seemed to. It wasn't supposed to be better in b&w, just different!

Dave

[IzzieK]

Works for me...although I tend to press the shutter button earlier and think of cropping later. I have a lot to learn...unfortunately.