I am falling in love with Black and White again.

[alfredo]

[Stevenmarc]

1. I wasn't aware

You fell out of love with it, LOL.

I can always count on you for a fine example of B&W.

[alfredo]

3. I took two or three color photos, but I'm back now.

[handmade34]

2. b&w

allows for greater attention to what's important...

[alfredo]

4. It also says "I am not trying to recreate reality."

[Speck Tater]

5. Very nice

I'm inspired to try B&W myself, perhaps as a way to help me learn to see light and shadow. I've noticed that my color pictures when turned to B&W just turn into a solid, uniform gray mass with little or no form defined by light and shadow. I'm beginning to think that relying on color to define form is a mistake. (Just another of my beginner "insights&quot

[alfredo]

6. Look for subjects with different shades and good contrast. Learn to use the

Channel Mixer for converting to Black and White. Read up on it.

I have a conversion tool that allows me to emulate colored filters.

Try to recognize what images would work as black and white. Portraits are a good starting point. Flowers will teach you about using the different color settings in the channel mixer. Play with the settings.

[Speck Tater]

7. Thanks for those pointers. nt

[Stevenmarc]

8. I posted this a while back

http://photo.tutsplus.com/tutorials/post-processing/7-black-and-white-photoshop-conversion-techniques/

Also this one that suggests pushing your color before you convert to B&W

http://www.sevenbyfive.net/blog/monochrome-through-color/

[Speck Tater]

10. Thanks.

I've bookmarked those to read tomorrow.

I don't have Photoshop. I've used Paintshop Pro for about 15 years now, since it was a $35 shareware. I did do some experimenting this evening with channel separation and then using each channel as a layer with different layer mixing techniques. I've been getting some interesting results.

[alfredo]

11. Yeah, pushing the color first is good advice.

[Adsos Letter]

9. Nice work as usual alfredo.

I've been trying my hand at B&W with the help of Nik's Silver Efex Pro2. It seems like a great post-processing program for B&W, but I still struggle with composition, contrast, interesting subject, etc. The best post-processing doesn't make up for deficiencies in those areas.

I especially like the first shot.

[alfredo]

12. I've invested years into GIMP, and too poor for PS.

I'd like to try Silver Efex, but money, and the thought of relearning software act as a barrier.

[Adsos Letter]

13. Well GIMP is obviously serving you well.

I've always heard good things about the results that can be gotten from it.

[alfredo]

14. They have a lot of good plugins that give options you'd find in in the commercial apps.

[WinstonSmith4740]

15. Beautiful!

Ansel Adams would be proud.

[alfredo]

17. He was the darkroom master. I could never achieve tones you see in his images.

[calikid]

21. Sure you can, expose for the shadow and develop for the highlight.

edit to say: I'm going to check my Zone System Manual to see if my memory serves me (it usually doesn't).
I love b&w too, I had a darkroom at home when I was in high school, shot 2 1/4 for years and then..... my wife bought me a 5x7 for a b-day present, OH MY GOD!

Back to the thread, beautiful shots, I especially like the first one.

[alfredo]

22. Thanks. I had access to an army darkroom for several years. That

Is where I learned my black and white chops. Dust was a real problem because we were in the sub Sahara.

[Marie Marie]

16. Always preferred B & W photographs.

They just add a type of mood to the picture that I find exquisite. B & W Photos are my favorite art form. (Love pic 3#)

[alfredo]

18. My M42 mount to Canon EOS mount adaptor has arrived. I am dipping back into

black and white film just for a bit. All I need is a good day.

[bluedigger]

19. Like the cat.

It's weird to see a cat photo without LOLZ.

The doorway gives me a headache. It's too askew.

[1620rock]

20. I'm falling in love with old black & white films from the thirties and fourties.

[alfredo]

23. Same here. If you get the chance watch the movie

"A Touch of Evil." pay attention, not just the shade and light, notice how he composes each shot. His interior shots are incredible. I know it is a more recent movie, but it is a masterpiece.

[Adsos Letter]

24. I was just looking at #3 again

and realized that it is a very modern door, door casing, and lock set, installed in a very old door. Interesting. I'm trying to figure out if B&W makes that more, or less, noticable.

[alfredo]

26. I did do a bit of HDR to recover highlights. So don't believe your eyes because the picture lies.

Well, I went out to shoot some B&W film today. As it turns out, the lens was not compatible and a whole roll of film destroyed. I will try again using the sucky kit lens.

[Adsos Letter]

27. Which kit did you purchase? Was it the Olympus?

I remember when you were talking about buying a new camera as an upgrade from your G-10, but I've been out of the loop for a while.

[alfredo]

28. The Olympus EPL-1. I was using the new Sigma 19mm 2.8. I'm sending it back to Sigma due to

an issue with the focus ring and aperture clatter. They will repair or replace.

[alfredo]

30. Update, Lens is OK, the body is weirding out.

That will give me reason to buy a newer body. <grin> Oly EP-2 or EP-3.

[Speck Tater]

25. Using Photomatix to get monochrome

The HDR program Photomatix has several monochrome presets, and you can play with all the sliders to alter the look of the result. You need at least three bracketed exposures which the program combines in different ways depending on the slider settings. The program is available to free trial, which watermarks SOME of the resulting photos, but not all of them.

[alfredo]

29. That looks good. I went to their site and checked out their gallery. I have a plugin with

several color filters, or I just use the channel mixer. For HDR I use G'MIC.