B&W help

[allanrube]

I started to go to a photo print group last month - for this month I have to bring a b&w image. Now, I never shoot b&w, so it was a challenge for me to find an image and convert it. Below is what I came up with - taken at Ft Desoto in February. When printAny suggestions for improvement gladly accepted (desired.) No EXIF provided as this is not what this post is about in Qimage I added a thin black border which doesn't show up here.ut. :)

[Arthur Morris]

Love the bird but the BKGR confuses me, esp. the wide white border and the dark smudge by the bill.

In addition a bunch of this is confusing:

"When printAny suggestions for improvement gladly accepted (desired.) No EXIF provided as this is not what this post is about in Qimage I added a thin black border which doesn't show up here.ut."

When printAny ????

Qimage ????

I added a thin black border which doesn't show up here... Why not?

ut. ???

ps: Perfect head angle...

[allanrube]

Love the bird but the BKGR confuses me, esp. the wide white border and the dark smudge by the bill.

In addition a bunch of this is confusing:

"When printAny suggestions for improvement gladly accepted (desired.) No EXIF provided as this is not what this post is about in Qimage I added a thin black border which doesn't show up here.ut."

When printAny ????

Qimage ????

I added a thin black border which doesn't show up here... Why not?

ut. ???

ps: Perfect head angle...

Wow! Sorry about the typos. I am just interesting in suggestions. I did not notice the smudge near the bill in hte printed copy - at least not as much. Definitely I need to work on that. The white border was just the way it came out in the b&2 conversion (silver effects pro.) One reason I added the thin black border.
Qimage is a rip, printing program. It has an option to add a border to the print without adding one to the actual file.
Here is the original color version.

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

Allan, i reallt like this color shot better, the B/W is a nice idea, but the big "eye grabber" around the beak is too much.
TFS..Don

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the info Allan. I am still a bit confused though :confused:. I do know that the color ORIG is sweet.

[allanrube]

Like the color better too but I need to print a b&w - group assignment. I see the need to get rid of the dark area. Do others besides Art dislike the large border? Maybe I need to go back to the original and do the b&w conversion again.

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Color certainly better. Image lost a lot of quality when converted to b/w.

[Tony Whitehead]

Hi Alan. The colour image definitely has more impact with the lovely yellow and blue. Your task is to create a B&W print and Silver Efex is an excellent tool for this. I'm wondering if this is the most appropriate image? Does it need to be a bird? - in my opinion, landscapes and portraits are generally more suited to B&W.
The broad white vignette is controllable in SilverEfex under the "Stylizing" option. I have tried a quick version using a neutral conversion and a very mild dark vignette.

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

Hi Allan, I also think that your large white border (vignette) is unappealing. Tony's rendition is a great improvement. IMO your B&W mapping of the color original went astray somewhere along the line, and I doubt it was Silver Efex Pro's fault. Also, you apparently introduced a lot of noise in the bird's neck and beak when you went to B&W.

More fundamentally, I think you should heed Tony's suggestion to change the image for your assignment.

[Tobias Hayashi]

I actually don't mind the original one posted BW with the borders. In away it brings out the bird more for me. I agree that the repost is good as well, although I think it is a fair bit too dark. Maybe some more lightness and contrast in the repost BW and it would look better? And hard one, its true that many people don't shoot in BW but I find that it can be very effective sometimes and that people underestimate it.