The ruin of the Church of Cill Chriosd in B&W

[ST1]

I don't usually think B&W for my images, but why this is I have no idea. Anyway I thought this subject may suit a conversion, conversion is probably too high faluting a description as I only chose a preset out of NIK Silver Efex. I hope the B&W specialist can point me in the direction of some wisdom on this style of processing.
As always your thoughts and comments would be most welcome.

[Shadowman]

Hi Peter,

Nice effort, I think the angle of view should have been a bit lower so that the monuments are aligned above the horizon. Nice conversion.

[Donald]

I hope the B&W specialist can point me in the direction of some wisdom on this style of processing.

If I may comment whilst we wait for the specialist, The NIK Silver Efex Pro presets are wonderful and are very often all you need. Or find the presets that you like and then use them as your starting point; i.e. apply the present and then put in Control Points etc to taste.

Each of us will be different, but my starting point is sometimes High Structure (Harsh) or, more often, Full Dynamic Range or Fine Art Process. But I have to confess that the Soft Contrast slider is my secret lover. I adore what that slider does. So I most often inject a dose of soft contrast, but then put Structure, Contract, Amplify Whites, Amplify Blacks over that using Control Points.

With B & W conversion less is very often more. It's about being subtle with the use of the various controls in SEP unless, of course, you're going for a very particular, very individualistic image.

And, b y the way, I think this one is done beautifully. And I love the composition.

[John 2]

I like this Peter. The treatment is very apt for the subject and that bit of brightness on the horizon takes your eye through the composition. Nicely done.

[ST1]

If I may comment whilst we wait for the specialist, The NIK Silver Efex Pro presets are wonderful and are very often all you need. Or find the presets that you like and then use them as your starting point; i.e. apply the present and then put in Control Points etc to taste.

Each of us will be different, but my starting point is sometimes High Structure (Harsh) or, more often, Full Dynamic Range or Fine Art Process. But I have to confess that the Soft Contrast slider is my secret lover. I adore what that slider does. So I most often inject a dose of soft contrast, but then put Structure, Contract, Amplify Whites, Amplify Blacks over that using Control Points.

With B & W conversion less is very often more. It's about being subtle with the use of the various controls in SEP unless, of course, you're going for a very particular, very individualistic image.

And, b y the way, I think this one is done beautifully. And I love the composition.

Thank you Donald for both your comments and the insight in to your processing. Rather than edit the original image I have tried out you suggestion on another image of the Church. Your approach to processing has opened my eyes to the potential of this processing, I may grow to appreciate more this style of digital imaging.so thanks again.

This is the resultant image which I've not really spent a great deal of time editing but at least I've expanded the menu options in Silver Efex and found your favourite slider .

[ST1]

I like this Peter. The treatment is very apt for the subject and that bit of brightness on the horizon takes your eye through the composition. Nicely done.

Thanks John I appreciate your thoughts and comments

[NorthernFocus]

Nice images, Peter. I like the composition and processing better in the second image. But both are nicely done.

[kalyt]

Hi Peter

Great scene! I think the contrast is really nice! The composition is great. I think it's well balanced, with the church on one side, and the mountain/dark clouds on the other. As John also mentioned, the brightness around the church helps direct the viewers attention, to whats important.

One last thing. Where did you take the picture, it feels familiar?

[Manfred M]

Nicely done Peter. I definitely like the composition and the B&W conversion. I don't do a lot of B&W work, but estimate that at least 5% of my work is that genre.

I started in B&W well before I owned the Nik collection (I bought mine well before Google bought Nik Software) and will still do manual B&W conversions in Photoshop. That generally means I manually set what each colour does in the conversion process. When I feel rushed or am just plain lazy, I'll jump over to Silver Effects Pro. I will sometime do a manual B&W conversion and do the finishing touches in Silver Efex. I will also use Color Efex Pro on an image before the B&W conversion, if I'm after a particular look (I use the Pro Contrast filter in Color Efex Pro in much of my work). While the default values in Silver Efex are often good enough, I will go and manually play around with the various settings in Silver Efex too.

I generally make the colour or B&W decision when I am shooting and will adjust my composition and camera setting with B&W in mind. I very rarely change my mind when I get home a open the image in Post.

One hint when it comes to B&W work (I started out as a purely B&W photographer when I first got into serious photography, a long, long time ago. A sRGB jpeg image can have up to 16.8 million distinct colours (256 x 256 x 256). In B&W you have a total of 256 shades of gray (one of these shades can be pure black and another can be pure white). Make sure when you do your PP work, you have the entire range from pure black to pure white in your image. You appear to have done this in the two B&W image that you have posted, so you are already on the right track!

[ST1]

Hi Peter

Great scene! I think the contrast is really nice! The composition is great. I think it's well balanced, with the church on one side, and the mountain/dark clouds on the other. As John also mentioned, the brightness around the church helps direct the viewers attention, to whats important.

One last thing. Where did you take the picture, it feels familiar?

Thanks for taking time to look and comment Kalyt.
The Church is on the Isle of Skye. Should you be interested there's quite a lot of information on the history of this Church on the Wiki pages.

[ST1]

Nicely done Peter. I definitely like the composition and the B&W conversion. I don't do a lot of B&W work, but estimate that at least 5% of my work is that genre.

I started in B&W well before I owned the Nik collection (I bought mine well before Google bought Nik Software) and will still do manual B&W conversions in Photoshop. That generally means I manually set what each colour does in the conversion process. When I feel rushed or am just plain lazy, I'll jump over to Silver Effects Pro. I will sometime do a manual B&W conversion and do the finishing touches in Silver Efex. I will also use Color Efex Pro on an image before the B&W conversion, if I'm after a particular look (I use the Pro Contrast filter in Color Efex Pro in much of my work). While the default values in Silver Efex are often good enough, I will go and manually play around with the various settings in Silver Efex too.

I generally make the colour or B&W decision when I am shooting and will adjust my composition and camera setting with B&W in mind. I very rarely change my mind when I get home a open the image in Post.

One hint when it comes to B&W work (I started out as a purely B&W photographer when I first got into serious photography, a long, long time ago. A sRGB jpeg image can have up to 16.8 million distinct colours (256 x 256 x 256). In B&W you have a total of 256 shades of gray (one of these shades can be pure black and another can be pure white). Make sure when you do your PP work, you have the entire range from pure black to pure white in your image. You appear to have done this in the two B&W image that you have posted, so you are already on the right track!

Manfred thank you so much for this response, hopefully I may increase my percentage of B&W images, I doubt I'm anywhere near your five percent, thanks again

[ST1]

Nice images, Peter. I like the composition and processing better in the second image. But both are nicely done.

Thanks Dan, much appreciated