calla lily in B & W

[Gary Hamilton]

Calla Lily

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm macro
ISO 200
f/18
1/250 sec.
Canon 580 EX II flash in high speed synch mode
flash bounced off of foam core board to right of camera
PS CS5 black and white conversion, added contrast

I don't do very much black and white but thought I'd give it a try here---what do you think?

[Julie Kenward]

Gary, can I offer a few suggestions? One of the main things about black and white photography is that you try to capture at least a little bit of all ten shades between jet black and whitest white. You have about 7 of those 10 zones represented here, missing the darkest black and the two whitest whites. Now, rules are certainly made to be broken, but...I think if there were more highs and lows and less "middle gray" you'd have a much more interesting image. Also, where the blacks are the darkest is in a highly visible area and there's literally no detail left for us to see. Using a reflector or flash to open up that area would have been helpful.

I do like the waves and curls here - the form is very nice. It would be even better if the contrast was boosted so some of the texture showed up as well. See all those lines running down the base of the bud? Those might show up even better with more contrast.

Just some thoughts for you to dwell on. I'm going to focus on black and white photography in 2012...hope you take some more and show them here!

[Brendan Dozier]

Good subject for B&W and nicely composed, Gary. Like the form and simplicity, and think Jules gives some excellent advice about bringing out a wider range of the tones. Keep experimenting and trying new techniques.

[Dave Leroy]

I really like the subject and maybe a bit more sharpening after the contrast boost would bring up more details. Very interesting comments by Jules. Also I am not quite sure what I might be seeing in top left corner. Noise??

Well done and looking forward to seeing more.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Gary. I'm not really a B&W guy so I can't offer much advice here. Jules has made some very helpful comments for you to consider. Like Dave, I'm seeing some noise-like artifacts in the background. Maybe some NR on the background will clear that up. :S3:

[Ken Childs]

Hi Gary, like Steve, I'll defer to Jules about what is needed to make a good B&W image. I've done a few but have never been all that happy with the results unless they were taken into the OOTB way of looking at things. I think this would be a good subject for B&W so if you are able to revisit it, following the suggestions by Jules, I'll be looking forward to the results. :S3:

[Gary Hamilton]

Thanks for all of your comments. I decided to start over so today I'll post a different image of the same calla lily with different lighting and treatment and, hopefully, better results.

[Hazel Grant]

thanks, Jules for the information about shades in a BW. Makes it all much more clear now.