Light House B&W Crop

MREGAN

I have been trying out new editing software. Here is my first try C&C Welcome.

Original straight from the camera



B&W Crop

achtungbarry

The black and white certainly a much more moody and atmospheric shot. It is a shame that muchof the lighthouse is in shadow as it blends a little into the background. I would consider slightly lightening the shadows and increasing the contrast to bring the lighthouse out a little just be careful not to blow the highlights in the clouds. The dark sky detail really is nice in this shot and adds some almost stormy drama which is perfect for a lighthouse.

xia

I like the crop. Not sure about the b&w though. Especially the sky looks...unreal. On the other hand the wires look almost interesting in b&w.

Dragan

To be honest, i think the first image is stronger than the BandW conversion. The actual Light House itself doesn't have any natural light falling on it, other than at the very edge of the tower end itself, so in the conversion it comes out quite gray and almost blends into grass in front of it and clouds behind it. It basically loses any punch that it had in the colour version.

Is there an option your software that allows you to push the "temp" in the shot....i have used similar options in other programs to add, for want of a better term, more sunlight to a shot and bring up the colours a little bit?

It might be an option to either explore it more in colour, trying to bring out the grass and the sky and bit more and seperating the subject from the setting that way, or maybe pushing the temp a bit and then converting over the BandW.

bocha

it definitely benefits from the crop - i like it

CabanSail

The crop works well.

The B&W conversion is not great. It looks like a simple desaturation & lacks contrast. The highlight of the sky draws the eye straight to it. I think that the lighthouse being underexposed is not making things easy for you. You may be able to do more if you have the RAW file to work from & then play around with channels.

kgiller

CabanSail wrote: »

The crop works well.

The B&W conversion is not great. It looks like a simple desaturation & lacks contrast. The highlight of the sky draws the eye straight to it. I think that the lighthouse being underexposed is not making things easy for you. You may be able to do more if you have the RAW file to work from & then play around with channels.

I agree. The crop is good, and the B+W would work well to create a more striking and atmospheric photo. But, the conversion is a bit dull (desaturated). As CabanSail says, needs a boost in contrast and highlights. Mess around with it some more and you will have a very nice shot.

MREGAN

Cheers guys for the comments. What I was trying to achieve was that darkness storm like condition. Like the storm is just moving across the lighthouse and hence puting it in the shadows. I will try tonight see if I can come up with something that makes the lighthouse stand out more

Cheers again

Crispin

I agree with all above. It benefits from the crop but the foreground and lighthouse needed to be highlighted more and more contrast would help in the BW conversion
Hope you don't mind- I had a little play around in PS?

RichyX

If it's a raw file try making a hdr photo out of it.
The lighthouse itself is a little underexposed for me, so hdr may be beneficial.