Camera Labs

My Dear Friends on Cameralabs Forum

As the subject of this thread clearly shows that i need some valuable points in making B&W photos

When i was going through some links on google i found that some of the guyz were actually advising to take shots in color first and then make them into B&W. Whereas some other advice to shot it in monochrome mode and then the photo will be more sharp.

In both cases they advised to shoot in RAW mode , which eventually i does normally everytime as it gives lot of scope for us in post processing.

I tried taking both but i am not satisfied with either of them , out of frustration i deleted all those photos from my camera(now i realised it would be more helpful if i would have posted those photos here to get your advices ).

Now please advice me if there are any tips or any website where good tips have been provided in taking B&W photos as i love them and i wanted to make a niche for myself in this area.

As always thanks a lot in advance for your tips as i know i'll get valuable suggestions from this thread.

Cheers
Mano

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Canon EOS 5D mk III|Canon EOS 7D | 70-200 F2.8 L IS II USM | 400 F5.6 L USM

Id advise shooting in colour, then at least you have the colour data if you decide you like the colour better. Id also shoot RAW because you are going to have to edit anyway to make it B&W and this gives you just a bit more play. Play around with the contrast and white balance mainly. Remember to add sharpening though seeing as you are shooting RAW.

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Nikon D5000 and D300 with 12-24mm, 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4, 60mm f2.8 Macro, 18-200mm, 17-55mm f2.8 (all Nikon)

Reshoot some pictures, and upload the B&W you've made along with the color version and indicate what you wish to get out of the photo that you seem to not be able to get out of it, I'll see if I can give you more info at that point.

Sure

I'll come up with some photos and only then i can expect some comments and suggestions on my work from all you guyz..

Thanks for taking time and replying back for both of you (capital and jeremy)

Cheers
Mano

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Canon EOS 5D mk III|Canon EOS 7D | 70-200 F2.8 L IS II USM | 400 F5.6 L USM

Hi

As said here are the pics which were taken in color , then changed to B&W.

He is my nephew (Sister's Son , taken on his 1st Birthday function)

Now please tell me which one is looking good or none of them are appealing? Please advice me if there are any corrections to be done either in color or in B&W

Here are the photos.


IMG_6172_1 by Dilbarmano, on Flickr


IMG_6172 by Dilbarmano, on Flickr


IMG_6173_1 by Dilbarmano, on Flickr


IMG_6173 by Dilbarmano, on Flickr

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Canon EOS 5D mk III|Canon EOS 7D | 70-200 F2.8 L IS II USM | 400 F5.6 L USM

If I may, your B&W conversions are lacking contrast...

I started with the colour version of your photo and ran it through aGorman-Holbert B&W conversion in Photoshop, then added some levels and curves. It's a bit more involving but this took 3-4 minutes to do, tops



Is this the kind of thing you'd like to see out of your images or am I off the mark?

Ninja-edit: added link to conversion method

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Canon EOS 5D MkII | Canon EOS 7D | Canon Digital Rebel XSi | EF 35mm f/1.4L | EF 50mm f/1.8 II | EF 85mm f/1.8 | EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM | EF 135mm f/2L | EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS | 580EX II | LumoPro LP-120

My Flickr

Hi dilbarmano,

It is not what we want to see in your photo it was you want to see in your photo. Please tell us exactly why you are dissatisfied, we could come up with a million permutations on how to edit these.

Just such below (click the photo to download the photoshop edit):

Hi Plymer

Thanks for that good tutorial ... it will help me going forward for sure.

Hi Capital

I just wanted to know whether the original photo(color) looking sharp, the same with B&W ... ? sometimes i feel like have i just screwed up the good looking photo into a bad one in post processing? I constantly feel that i am not taking good photos.. i am bit depressed on that .. whenever i share my photos with my colleagues they often praise me as if they have not seen such photos earlier , they will like each and every photo which even i didnt liked myself.. They are no professionals , when i show the same to one colleague of mine who is quite elder to me and he knows ins and out of photography who maintains a website of his own for the photos taken by him , he often critisizes my work by telling me what went wrong and what should have been done. This happened many times even for those photos which i thought were good..

So i seriously need some suggestions from you guyz on how to make good photos or it just happens ?

Regds
Mano

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Canon EOS 5D mk III|Canon EOS 7D | 70-200 F2.8 L IS II USM | 400 F5.6 L USM

I can certainly sympathize with you about finding people who will actually take the time to critique a photo instead of rehashing mono syllabic words when one wants to actually grow.

Did you download and see what adjustments I had made to your photo? Did you like my processing of it or is in the wrong direction?

If you just want to know about if your photo is "good" well I'd say I'd personally I think it'd be better to have been shot vertically. As for your post processing, its a little flat, contrast wise but you of course can change that. Things about the candid of boy is I'd change are clone out the all the crumbs on his mouth, see my photos.


If you have a fatalistic photographic attitude, things will tend towards failure.

You can not expect to start from dust and end up with a fully functioning repertoire of photo skills over night. It takes going out and shooting and reshooting and observing WHY you failed and making adjustments and EXPERIMENTING.

You have as part of your signature that you are still an amateur, well an amateur is one who does it for the fun of it. I think you need to turn your frustration about being a novice into a creative motivation.

One last point, USE the your colleagues inability to judge photos as an OPPORTUNITY for you to LEARN by TEACHING them WHY your photos don't work.

Thanks for your advice capital. I really appreciate it.

Yes i have downloaded your photos and going through them. Infact i didnt erased the crumbs coz i want it to be a little realistic. But its good now that i can see what you made and how to do it in PS.

One more important thing which i would like to know ..



What difference does it make and how do we know if the pic is good or not in vertical or horizontal ? Is it just the feel the viewer gets if the photo is vertical or are there any technical reasons behind it?

Your last point was great i didnt realised it till now.



Thanks a lot once again capital.

Regds
Mano

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Canon EOS 5D mk III|Canon EOS 7D | 70-200 F2.8 L IS II USM | 400 F5.6 L USM

Two things:

-In this case the photo has a lot of wasted BLANK space to the right of him.

-I personally think it would be a stronger composition as a vertical.

So with that said, when framing a photo try both orientations.

Yep.. Pointed noted .. Thanks a lot once again mate.

Cheers
Mano

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Canon EOS 5D mk III|Canon EOS 7D | 70-200 F2.8 L IS II USM | 400 F5.6 L USM