Post your B&W shots here

[carregwen]

Post your b&w shots in this thread for discussion.

Any subject/theme, but must be a pure b&w shot (no partial colouring). Please say a bit about how you created/converted the shot. Post as many as you like, but one shot per post please. May I suggest that we don't do edits as it will get rather confusing.

Here's mine "God v Mammon". A shot of the ex-Ford dealership in Tenby, West Wales. I thought it an interesting juxtaposition between the recession-busted garage and the church behind. HDR from single RAW, converted in CS4, and dodged/burnt for extra emphasis.

[Wirefox]

Very crisp conversion Carregwen. The image captures the atmosphere wonderfully. At first the construction fence threw the perspective but when things had settled down I relised it actually made the shot. Nice work

Steve

Two very different ones from me and the second is not strictly b/w but I needed to give this rather bland rainy shot some focus.

[carregwen]

Very crisp conversion Carregwen. The image captures the atmosphere wonderfully. At first the construction fence threw the perspective but when things had settled down I relised it actually made the shot. Nice work

Steve

Two very different ones from me and the second is not strictly b/w but I needed to give this rather bland rainy shot some focus.

Thanks, Steve. Your shot looks like Weymouth. Is it? I find stormy/bad weather is actually quite good for b+w - but I haven't worked out why yet! Something to do with more even tonal ranges that can be pushed more in RAW. I don't like blown-out skies, especially in b+w. Thanks for the postings.

[Walshy]

Here is my contribution. Taken at an old gold mining town. Very little PP with this one.
http://yfrog.com/7hpicture091bbj

[Sai C]

My very first picture here, and I chose to post a B&W as they seem to intrigue me more, why I am yet to figure out. I guess one of the possible reasons is because its a throw back in time..

Some details about the image, this was taken at Ecola State Park in Oregon, USA. Taken with a D200 and processed in Bibble Pro 5.0 Preview version 2.2. I am quite impressed the way the monotones have been rendered. The only PP that I did was to use the "Convert to Monochrome" option in a standard plug-in that comes with Bibble Pro 5. The approaching storm makes for a good B&W image and along with the haystacks in the ocean it was just the perfect contrast that I needed to capture the serenity.

Comments and critique welcome...and you can say what you think, I appreciate honest critique rather than "oh yeah this picture is awesome". I promise you i won't get offended

[Sai C]

Carregwen,

The theme for your image is great! There's a lot of detail that you have managed to retain. I like the way the light hits the left side of the dealership; the highlights are well controlled. I would have definitely liked to see a little bit more detail in the shadows towards the front. Looks like there are some cars inside the dealership and I would've just liked to get a wee bit more detail there.

I am yet to get myself educated with the dodge/burn process in Photoshop ..Hopefully will be able to do that in the next few weeks.

Thanks for starting this thread!

Cheers,
Sai

Flickr

My disclaimer: The foregoing are just some basic thoughts that I can think about. By no means am I right in thinking the way I do or the way I see; for this is your image, your vision and your creativity and as long as you are pleased with it nothing else matters

[Sai C]

Hello Steve,

I really love your first image, the contrast is just eye-catching. I like the leading lines in the grass that kinda leads the viewer to the beautiful contrast on the zebras. I'd definitely be interested in knowing how you managed to get the grainy appearance to the grass in the foreground. Did you use Photoshop to get that effect?

As for Picture # 2, one thing that I observed is that the canoes(?) seem to be dead in the center horizontally. Perhaps moving them off center would've rendered a stronger picture? Just curious. Maybe a little cropping could achieve that. Again, the contrast is extremely nice!

Cheers!
Sai

Flickr

My disclaimer: The foregoing are just some basic thoughts that I can think about. By no means am I right in thinking the way I do or the way I see; for this is your image, your vision and your creativity and as long as you are pleased with it nothing else matters

[Sai C]

Hello Walshy,

I like the way you have composed your image, but I am curious to know what that machine in the background really is. I like the tones and contrast in your image, perhaps a little more depth of field might have helped satisfy my curiosity ...

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
Sai

Flickr

My disclaimer: The foregoing are just some basic thoughts that I can think about. By no means am I right in thinking the way I do or the way I see; for this is your image, your vision and your creativity and as long as you are pleased with it nothing else matters

[carregwen]

Sai

I think your Ecola Park shot is very good. Landscapes are quite difficult in b&w, but you have got the balance about right here. The stormy nature of the scene helps it along a lot. Nice one.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve,

I've just twigged, the zebra shot is an inversion
(I think, or I'm gonna look silly saying that)
It works for me.

Hi Sai,

Honestly
Nice shot, but (and I may be wrong), I'm not sure the lens was clean, I am seeing inexplicable patches of reduced contrast, notably on the bottom central haystack, but possibly in other areas too, is it possible the lens had some spray or rain on it?

Like the composition though and you've clearly gone to some trouble to get the sky exposure just right.

HTH,

[Colin Southern]

I've seen this shot before somewhere ...

[Colin Southern]

And it's twin sister (different lakes) ...

[Colin Southern]

One more for luck ...

[Steaphany]

http://Steaphany.imagekind.com/

[carregwen]

And it's twin sister (different lakes) ...

Colin

This is very good. Great structure. And I love the way the hills change in tone as they recede.

[Antonio Correia]

[Sai C]

Hi Sai,

Honestly
Nice shot, but (and I may be wrong), I'm not sure the lens was clean, I am seeing inexplicable patches of reduced contrast, notably on the bottom central haystack, but possibly in other areas too, is it possible the lens had some spray or rain on it?

Like the composition though and you've clearly gone to some trouble to get the sky exposure just right.

HTH,

Hello Dave,

Yes, you are absolutely right, I missed the spots where the lens had some rain drops on it. Thanks for catching that (boy you do have good eyes!!!!!) ..

As for the sky, I just adjusted my highlight slider in Bibble to get it right. Besides that not too much tweaking to the image.

Thanks for your honest feedback ! Sure do appreciate it!

Cheers!
Sai

Flickr

[Doughboy]

Here is a Church near my foster brothers old school. I had wanted to keep in it color originally, but there are a few cars in front of multiple colors i couldn't take out, so I converted it to BW, tweaked a few levels and voila.....I love it this way and wouldn't want it in color

[carregwen]

Here is a Church near my foster brothers old school. I had wanted to keep in it color originally, but there are a few cars in front of multiple colors i couldn't take out, so I converted it to BW, tweaked a few levels and voila.....I love it this way and wouldn't want it in color

Excellent conversion, Bill. Very strong composition, and great tonal contrast. You are right about colour sometimes spoiling a shot - converting to BW makes all the difference.

[joec]

Antonio, I love all three of these shots. The first is so "atmospheric", the second has such dynamic range (was it based on multiple exposures or multiple raw processing?), and the third is just phenomenal in evoking emotion.

Keep up the good work.

PS-I'm heading to Atlanta to see that grandson Sept 4-8; I'll try some NSCPs while I'm there.