[Irma]

The color version of this picture didn't work quite well as I expected. I tried a bw treatment and I like it much better. However I would love to hear your opinion about my work...





Thanks so much

[matthew]

I like the scene and the idea. It's a great autumn scene and one that works really well in black and white.

There are two things that catch my eye. One is the placement of the cows; I wish that the camera position was changed slightly so that the fence doesn't overlap them. But that's a fairly minor point, and it's just one of those little things. The other is that the fence nearest the left edge is a little dark. I can see detail in it when I'm using my laptop, but my desktop renders it completely black. But in either case, I wish I could see a little more.

[Irma]

Thanks so much Matt for your comment.

Right you are about the sheep... I could improve that in my shot... about the texture in the fence... You are right too, the texture is missing there, a bit of detail would've been fine... sadly, by mistake, I took all these pictures in jpg, so I could do very little with the exposure.

I worked and HDR but the detail in the fence looked bad. I tried a DRI and didn't work well... and also at the moment I give more light in the fence I lose my contrast a bit...

Anyway, I am very happy you like the idea, and somehow it worked. I find so difficult to work a foggy picture in bw...

[matthew]

Ah, sheep. I thought they were cows. Different countryside, I guess. :/

I don't think the fence needs to be much lighter, just a touch might do. I can see that there's still detail in it. A little work with the curves or shadows/highlights should bring it up nicely. Have you tried adjusting it in Lightroom? I find it gives good results for jpegs as well as raw files.

I've seen a lot of digital B&W that's really heavy-handed, but yours keeps a really nice tonal range. The light leaves in the dark foreground is a nice detail that adds a lot of character as well.

[Irma]

I worked with LR but I think your idea about shadows/highlights will do... you are right LR is great with jpegs!! Amazing what you can do with colors there. It gets much more noise but still works fine.

Thanks so much Matt for your comment about the pp here... I am working a lot in this pp since three of my pictures have been sacked from a BW group in flickr... I wish I knew what they expect from a bw picture ...

[matthew]

Digital B&W is hard, because there's no real "look" to it. Film and the filters that people used with it had a certain aesthetic that was "correct", but now there's nothing to guide us beyond our own taste and preferences. I'd generally call that a good thing, but it does make the artistic choices very subjective.

The Oly forum I visit recently had a Black and White competition, and I was quite surprised by how extreme most conversions were. People seem to like very high contrast with heavy blacks and no middle tones. That's certainly not how I remember black and white looking; your conversions are much more authentic to my eye. Ah, well, to each her own -- but I might add that I took second place with a slightly more 'traditional' conversion. (image here: http://robertsonphoto.blogspot.com/2007/...-road.html)

[Wedding Shooter]

I like your image Matt - love the way the clouds are shadowing the road in places.

[Irma]

Congratulations Matt!!

It is a beautiful picture. I can see your post processing. It is great. I like the contrast you have without losing any detail!!

The same I have seen in that BW group, their pictures have high contrast. I also think that much has to do when you take the picture, probably. I just got a butterfly picture, it had very pale colors, didn't work my color post processing, I worked it in BW and turned out great!

[matthew]

Thanks!

Irma, it's true that some images don't work well in colour but can be excellent in B&W. Have you posted your butterfly here?

[Irma]

Have you posted your butterfly here?

Not yet Matt, but I will do it in the bw assignment, because this is a picture I am really very happy with...