Color or B&W ???

[talbazar]

Hi All,

I know the question has been asked many times here, but I would just like some C&C on those 2 shots and PP.

So, if you feel like it, go ahead: be nasty :cry:

1.

1. B&W

2.

2. B&W

Cheers,
Pierre.

 

[antacid]

Hi Pierre,

Good to see someone experimenting with B&W too.

Here are my thoughts:
1. the conversion seems to lack a little contrast, and doesn't really bring out the subject
2. its quite the opposite from #1. the contrast is definitely there, but might be a little over-done, such that the 'black' on the whaleshark is overwhelming.

I find that in B&W, its not the black or the white that matters..its the grey that makes a good B&W photo.

Finally, care to share how you did the conversion?

 

[kthan]

for the whaleshark, neither works becos it looks too much like a painting. The blue is un-natural and the B&W is worse

but the batfish works. I still find the blue too saturated and thus i like the B&W more. it would be great if the 4th fish which was cut off at the bottom wasn't there.

Eric

 

[lovells19]

seems a little over PS to me..

neither works

 

[talbazar]

for the whaleshark, neither works becos it looks too much like a painting. The blue is un-natural and the B&W is worse

In a sense agree with you.
I don't really like either color or b&w pics for this. It's a shame 'cause I like the composition.
I may try to give it another go from the 'out-of-the-box' picture later.

but the batfish works. I still find the blue too saturated and thus i like the B&W more. it would be great if the 4th fish which was cut off at the bottom wasn't there.

Eric

Point noted on the blue's saturation. Missing light on the original picture: it's quite blue originally and trying to get some contrast was not done in the best way I guess.

Hi Pierre,

Good to see someone experimenting with B&W too.

Here are my thoughts:
1. the conversion seems to lack a little contrast, and doesn't really bring out the subject
2. its quite the opposite from #1. the contrast is definitely there, but might be a little over-done, such that the 'black' on the whaleshark is overwhelming.

I find that in B&W, its not the black or the white that matters..its the grey that makes a good B&W photo.

Finally, care to share how you did the conversion?

How did I do (as much as I can remember )

Batfish:
1. Simple post processing on white balance, contrast and brightness.
2. Simply convert the image channel to B&W
3. A bit more manual playing with contrast and brightness.

WhaleShark:
lot more work here: surely too much actually
1. Isolated the ws from the back ground on a specific layer
2. Convert the ws channel to B&W
3. Bit of PP on contrast and Brightness to sharpen the details
4. Manually (with pencil) remove some noise and 'anti-aliases' around the subject
5. created a background from scratch in the same tone as the B&W-converted original one (using a gradient of grey) --> It means the background it not even coming from the original picture.

All of this done with 'The Gimp' (Freeware image editing)

seems a little over PS to me..

neither works

Noted.


I guess the 3 of you a right. Looking at the pics again now, they really look 'artificial' (particularly the color ones).
Thanks for all comments. I'll surely try it out again...
And let you know, if you don't mind ;p

 

[lovells19]

maybe u try to edit the photo as a whole then it won't get such a artificial feel?

normally i don't adjust contrast and brightness.. i use level, curves and saturations instead

 

[talbazar]

maybe u try to edit the photo as a whole then it won't get such a artificial feel?

normally i don't adjust contrast and brightness.. i use level, curves and saturations instead

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it out when I've got 5 minutes
PP is still a 'hazardous game' for me, I'm doing a lot through 'try and error'... so far lots of tries and lots of errors

 

[angiee]

the 1st b n w fish group photo pretty much beat the colour one.

 

[lestertrinstan]

Dun mind me playing with your original images. Just fooling around with PS 7 CS2. I have no idea how to upload the amended images. So here are the links.

http://www.orpheusdive.com/dup/photoshop/img/batfish.jpg
http://www.orpheusdive.com/dup/photoshop/img/whale.jpg

 

[talbazar]

Dun mind me playing with your original images. Just fooling around with PS 7 CS2. I have no idea how to upload the amended images. So here are the links.

http://www.orpheusdive.com/dup/photoshop/img/batfish.jpg
http://www.orpheusdive.com/dup/photoshop/img/whale.jpg

Thanks for this try out!
The ws is still pretty dark, but I really like what you've done with the lights on the batfish one.
What did you do to it? ;p

Cheers,
Pierre.

 

[theRBK]

My try

I liked the noise, so I did not remove it and actually enhanced it slightly... looks less digital... as well, gave the images abit more contrast, and enhanced the lighter patterns of the ws by tweeking the cyan conversion to b/w so it stands out more from the water and makes the ws more 3d...

 

[lestertrinstan]

Thanks for this try out!
The ws is still pretty dark, but I really like what you've done with the lights on the batfish one.
What did you do to it? ;p

Cheers,
Pierre.

Pierre;

the trick to black and white has already been explained by Antacid. Now, how do you achieve it. Basically, if you use photoshop to convert to Greyscale, you lose all colors. Now, black and white photography is not made up with only color range of White to Black pixels. That will give u a very dull feel.

However, black and white CAN be in CMYK/RGB mode, which means each of this color channels contain data, hence controlling the intensity of black and white.

SO to avoid confusing the rest, convert it using channel mixer and check Monochrome. Then play with RGB color and control how dark or bright you want your B/W photo.

Once it is done, play with dodging and burning tool in your photoshop. This two tools are very useful for BW photography

 

[lovells19]

si beh chim leh