This is one of my first attempts at black & white photography. I'm a real color guy, so I don't normally try b/w. But, other than the ocean, there wasn't much color in this shot to begin with, so I thought I'd try it as a b/w. Like I said, I have little experience in this area, so I welcome comments/advice.
I did some dodging and buring on the water and the rocks, I toned down the sky and adjusted the levels and curves here. Overall this was a good image to start with, if you get a chance to reshoot this then use a red or orange filter to help bring out the detail in rocks.
Hi Shawn! What I've learned from my digital darkroom and various digital cameras is that their black and white mode is never as good as shooting in color and then converting to black and white in your favorite photo editing program. If you have a moment take a look at my rope photo. That was actually shot in color and while the color version was ok, after I fiddled with it in Photoshop the result was much more satisfying to me.
On another note, I really like this. The rocky coast looks excellent. The only thing that's kind of featureless is the sky, which is OFTEN the case when shooting something like this.
shawn, trying out new things is always good because it opens our scope of awareness. you say you are a culr man and you can see that b/w requires adifferent sort of picture language. take the contrast: you need lighting other than differences in colours to create an attractive or lively picture. in general your choice for shooting was chosen not so badly, maybe a place clöoser to the water had given a chance for more drama by the waves. and then take care of the light: the picture looks flat because obviously there was no sun rather one of those overcast days that can give you wonderful b/w pictures but not from this position. unlike michael i am not of the opinion that ps is an answer or alternative to compose and work a photo properly. to me it is only a trendy notion and too easy for "improving" on pictures which didn't come out "quite right". perhaps i am a little too rigid in that respect but i am convinced that once we will arrive at distinguishing between photography, ps enhanced photography and computer creation. every class has its rights and wrongs but is and has to be a class in itself like, as i said, colour and b/w photography. keep on trying. very soon you will find a new and adequate approach to b/w photography.
regards charlie.f.kohn@sixpence-pictures.com // madrid
I think you darkened it since the first time you posted it; I like it. I don't mean to drive you nuts or anything, but I've played around with this some more in Photoshop. It still seems a bit "flat" to me; so I did two things to it: 1) converted it to a sepia image, 2) burned in the lighter water and coastal area a bit. I think these manipulations give it a little more depth or "dimensionality (see example below). Sorry for "manhandling" your image so much, but I only took the time because I like your shot so much!..:)
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{K:4297} 10/3/2003
