Dual Doors

[Greg]

Know very little about B&W. Created a B&W layer in PS and adjusted the sliders to improve the tones a bit.  How’d I do? f/16, 1/80, ISO 100, 29.0mm

 

Here’s the color shot for comparison.

[Lenny Wollitz]

Hi Greg,  Nice compo.   I like to use Lightroom for BW conversion most of the time.  I like to manipulate the individual colors for the contrast.  This took less than 3  minutes so it’s certainly not perfection and I have been told that I over do things.

[Greg]

Hi, Lenny.

I thought I had already replied to this, but apparently not.

I love what you’ve done with it. I was tempted to go with more contrast, but I stopped a bit short. Thanks for the comments.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Hi Greg, since you showed the colour version, I love it. I like what Lenny has done to the image to enhance the textures 🙂

[Greg]

Thanks for your comments, Dahlia.

[Frank]

I, too, like that you have included both versions.  Enjoyed spending time looking at options.

In general thinking about B&W, think of contrast, contrast, contrast.  The key is to avoid all the tones at middle grey. Critiques at this site often mentioned images being too flat, and finally I figured out that was another way of saying too much of the same tones of color.  I think what Lenny did was to make sure the darks got a little darker and the whites lighter to make sure contrasts in tone come through.  He also  mentioned working with individual colors  first.  Sometimes, however, the colored manipulations can look way over done or over saturated, but then the B&W will actually look great.     (Examples would be the deep dark Ansel Adams skies not looking so great when blue.)

What I struggle with is how to measure tones other than just guessing.  Keeping an eye on histograms, and points on curves and levels adjustments helps.  I do remember a software that had graphs of tone which really helped, but of course, I cannot remember which one.

I think you started with a good image to convert to B&W.  I recently read that it is not a good idea to try to rescue a poor image by converting it to B&W!

You have been turning in compositions of interesting subjects and images that have no clutter.

[Greg]

Hi, Frank!

I found it interesting that it’s ok to make the color version look like hell in order to get the contrast right for the B&W. I was almost afraid of taking the contrast too far.

I came across an app for Apple products that mapped the tonal values for you using layer masks, if I remember correctly. I don’t remember that name of the app since it was for Apple.

Thanks for the kind comments.

 

[Mistyisle]

When I saw your image, Greg, my first thought was that you must heighten the blacks.  Lenny has done this very well by using contrast, though moving the black slider might have worked as well?  Possibly increase a tad more.

Well seen image!

[Greg]

Thanks for your comments, Jim.

[Greg]

2nd try. Used the sliders in PS for Red, Green, Yellow and Cyan on the B&W layer. Also used a curve layer to darken the whole thing a bit. What do you all think?

[JasenkaG]

I think the color version is stronger despite various edits in B&W. Dark red, gray and beige make such an eye-catching combo.

[Lenny Wollitz]

Hi Greg, I like your conversion.  BW is already a little abstract since we see color.  However, as much as I like BW I have to agree with several of the comments above, this is made for color.

[Greg]

Thanks, Jasenka and Lenny.

Yes, I agree — in the end I like the color version better. Perhaps if I had had some directional light or more rough textures to work with, the B&W would be a bit more interesting.

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Yes you are right Greg. Light from the side will help to enhance the textures 🙂

[JasenkaG]

True, b&w conversions are usually better if the original image has prominent textures or strong transitions in terms of lighting.

[Greg]

Thank you both, Dahlia and Jasenka.

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

I don’t think it’s a bad effort at all. WHen you start thinking in terms of tone rather than colour, you start to see quite a lot of opportunities to get natural contrast.

[Jim]

I think you did a pretty good job on both images. I also like what Lenny did but I think he still stopped short, I would have still pushed the contrast a little more.

[Author]

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