Smoky Mountains, TN, 2019

[CatherineA]

My first black and white image, any comments please.

[Manfred M]

Catherine - the "classic" approach to B&W is to have a full tonal range from pure black (which you have) and pure white (which you are very close to) and all the tones between those two extremes. Wherever possible, we also want to see textures in both the deep shadows and highlights. The human visual system is most sensitive to the mid-tones and has some problems distinguishing the shadows and highlights, so work there to open up those areas is generally warranted.

I find the dark areas don't have enough textures, so I've opened them up a bit.

[CatherineA]

Catherine - the "classic" approach to B&W is to have a full tonal range from pure black (which you have) and pure white (which you are very close to) and all the tones between those two extremes. Wherever possible, we also want to see textures in both the deep shadows and highlights. The human visual system is most sensitive to the mid-tones and has some problems distinguishing the shadows and highlights, so work there to open up those areas is generally warranted.

I find the dark areas don't have enough textures, so I've opened them up a bit.

Thanks, Manfred. That’s really helpful!

[Geoff F]

I think I would also crop a little from the bottom and right side to reduce the amount of dark area slightly.

[CatherineA]

I think I would also crop a little from the bottom and right side to reduce the amount of dark area slightly.

Thank you very much, Geoff. I really appreciate hearing your input. I will look at the photo again in a few weeks when I can get the old ideas out of my mind and let new ones in and then I can try out your suggestion!

[CatherineA]

I can see the value of having more middle tones but at the moment I am still playing with the drama of having just very dark and very bright areas. I like this version more than my first but, in a few weeks, I will pull out of the photo again and try a fresh approach.

[xpatUSA]

I can see the value of having more middle tones but at the moment I am still playing with the drama of having just very dark and very bright areas.

There are many ways to skin the cat, Cath.

I would like to try Adaptive Histogram Expansion on your first go. It could be quite dramatic!

[DanK]

My own tastes run to what Manfred describes as the classic technique. The master of this was of course Ansel Adams, who developed the zone system to get a full range of tones in his prints. For example, for my taste, you have far too much pure black in the second print. It dominates the image.

However, that's not everyone's taste. I think the important thing is that you make a deliberate decision about the tones you want and then learn to produce them.

[xpatUSA]

There are many ways to skin the cat, Cath.

I would like to try Adaptive Histogram Expansion on your first go. It could be quite dramatic!

And indeed it was:



One could go the other way for example Matiuk 2006 tone-mapping but the result would be quite bland i.e. somewhat like "bringing out the shadows" which I'm neither convinced is best for this image nor is your intent ...

[CatherineA]

There are many ways to skin the cat, Cath.

I would like to try Adaptive Histogram Expansion on your first go. It could be quite dramatic!

thanks Ted! I didn't know the term and just looked it up. I need to take a more studious approach if I am going to try black and white and this will help me.

[CatherineA]

My own tastes run to what Manfred describes as the classic technique. The master of this was of course Ansel Adams, who developed the zone system to get a full range of tones in his prints. For example, for my taste, you have far too much pure black in the second print. It dominates the image.

However, that's not everyone's taste. I think the important thing is that you make a deliberate decision about the tones you want and then learn to produce them.

Thank you very much Dan for commenting. I did do an edit that was closer to Manfred's before I posted here on cic but I didn't think that what I lightened in the lower left corner looked very nice. That effort is attached here. I did make a 8x10 print of this version, and I thought it was pretty, but somehow it didn't look very nice when I was about to post here, so I backed off.