I decided to try a conversion of an animal we don't often see in b&w, a polar bear. Taken in August 2013 in the waters north of Svalbard, Norway.
Canon 5D3
300 II plus 2x III
1/1600
f5.6
ISO 800
Monopod from moving boat, cropped for comp, converted in CCPS, levels, curves, dodging and burning, Nik DE at 3%, NR, sharpened in CCPS.
Hi Rachel,
great idea of trying this to treat a PB in B/W.
I like the tones and the conversion .Great detail and sharpness.The shoulder area looks a bit washed out with lesser detail than the rest ? The only thing that bothers me a bit is the BKG , specially the darker line in the upper part of the image.
Comp works for me. Good job , Rachel.
TFS Andreas
Rachel, it's brilliant! This certainly works for me. I agree with Andreas about the bear's shoulder area, but the dark part in the BG at the top not much of an issue for me. Love the detail on the bear's muzzle and the pose-well captured! Crop is perfect.
Sorry to be so brief, been wrestling (struggling) with my hyena the whole evening, I will be back soon, wishing you good night and gentle sleep...
Hi Rachel, I just wonder about a slight drop in Exposure or add some mid tone, but the laptop is not ideal, so... I might also try a crop where you use the front leg as the crop, so you have a solid part of the animal. This female looks in good condition.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
I really like this, Rachel - great look & feel.
How about this crop - getting rid of the darker line topside and I also added some more midtone and LCE (bear only). WDYT?
Hi Rachel, certainly a good idea to try B&W on PB. They are truly B&W and look good in B&W. Does the ice looks less white in colors than the PB? In this image, it looks just a bit grey to me. I wonder how it would look if you warm it up a touch with say a warming filter? Loi
The actual polar bear itself looks superb, and I think its a fantastic subject for the conversion. The only 2 bits of very minor adjustments I could come up with have already been mentioned above, namely the dark line going into the shoulder, but more importantly the grey ice. As always I feel I' going a little OTT about criticising anything from a shot of this quality, but I do feel the grey ice needs recifying
Thanks everybody for the comments and suggestions. I had looked at a similar crop to what Steve and Morkel are suggesting but felt it was too tight at the top and you know I like my negative space. . The line at the top is actually a line of water between the floating ice. I purposely went darker with the ice in the image to give the PB some separation from the ice and to give the image more tonal range. I can take another look. Morkel - the LCE looks good.
Certainly a different approach with a PB in B&W and looks quite nice with great detail, all good comments mentioned above although I am seeing a slight halo around the head area Rachel, .....I had to get you on this at some stage
Polar Bear
Rachel Hollander thanked for this post
. The line at the top is actually a line of water between the floating ice. I purposely went darker with the ice in the image to give the PB some separation from the ice and to give the image more tonal range. I can take another look. Morkel - the LCE looks good.
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