Initial exploring in Black and White

[oldgreygary]

I posted this image in the Project 52 arena. It didn't quite work but I thought I would use it for my initial foray into making an image In Black and White. Any thoughts would be most welcome.

Cheers for now

Gary

[Donald]

Gary

I do like this sort of composition, with that very low angle. It gives a sense of mystery as to what is out beyond. And I think the idea of the sun coming at you and sending those shadows towards you is good.

I did wonder of we have just a bit too much grass on show. When I open it up in my browser, I could see enough of the image that made it almost a 16:9 crop image. But then I scrolled down a bot and the feeling was 'Oh, there's more grass'. So the idea of keeping the top and sides, but cropping a bit from the bottom?

And, like someone just said about one of mine that I posted, maybe a bit more Local Contrast Enhancement (LCE) to gove it a bit more 'pop'. But not much. You don't want to overdo it.

[oldgreygary]

Thanks for your reply Donald. I think it was the long shadows that drew me into the picture. On reflection I should have also tried moving in a bit closer and having something to compare with. I do feel that cropping can become a process of diminishing returns whereby you lose what you captured. So, I guess it should be a case of taking more images in the field to be able to compare results back home.

Other initial thoughts are that I think you have to have the intention of making a B+W image from the outset. This particular image was an afterthought and I think that is why it doesn't totally work. By just converting a colour image to B+W doesn't bring instant results. I feel that you need to have the mindset of B+W from the start of the process i.e. when you start thinking about the subjects you are going to use.

I had a look around and I understand that in Lightroom and the Nix software that the LCE is controlled by the Clarity and Structure slider/sections respectively?

Cheers for now

Gary