In Black and White

[Don Lacy]

Trying my hand at some BW imaging now that I have Silver Efexs Pro 2 this was the last image I really like from my Christmas morning shoot since you guys had already seen the other color images from that day I never posted it before. Looking for any advice I can get on working in BW.
Thanks

[Diane Miller]

I love the FG!! The clouds are a little muted, to me. Maybe it would be possible to layer and mask a second processing for them with a different choice of color filtering?

[Rachel Hollander]

Don - I agree with Diane. The b&w conversion has worked well on the rocks but the sky and clouds aren't really doing it for me. The color version was much better in that regard. Rather than a double processing, I would consider cropping tighter and concentrating on the rocks with the b&w.

TFS,
Rachel

[John Ippolito]

Hi Don, the image has a lot of B&W potential with the smooth water over the beautiful, and interesting FG rocks. I'm certainly not an expert, but with conversions - since we can't separate by chroma and hue - I feel we need to separate the elements of the image by contrast, structure, and luminosity. Silver Efex has some great tools with control points and a myriad range of possibilities with all of the contrast and structure controls available. I usually start with one of the presets that seems to fit the image best, then adjust from there.

I took the liberty of making a VERY quick and dirty Silver efex just to illustrate separation. I started with the fine art process preset, and went from there. The possibilities are endless. Sorry if I ruined it.

A very fascinating book on the subject from Vincent Versace:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/from...=9780321794024

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice one Don...though the OP lacked some "oomph" for me tonally and in terms of contrast.
John's repost has addressed that and I think it rocks, nice work John. Ideally for most, perhaps it is somewhere between the two. Certainly the water needed to have brighter whites and the rocks more contrast

[Grady Weed]

I second Johns version as better. But it needs some toning down on the rocks right side upper frame. The highlights are a bit bright. A very nice image here Don. Thanks to John for a huge improvement in the conversion process. I bet your final version will be outstanding. I like the crop as is.

[James Fuller]

I really like the foreground rocks...how long was this exposure? Asking because the water looks soft up front but looks like it has more texture in the background.

[Don Lacy]

I really like the foreground rocks...how long was this exposure? Asking because the water looks soft up front but looks like it has more texture in the background.

hi James, i like to drag the shutter when shooting these beach scenes for this image is was around 15 seconds

[James Fuller]

Thanks for the response Don, I like the effect you got here...also like the color version. You've got some great shots in your smugmug gallery as well!