After doing the post yesterday on Mark Simms I found myself inspired by his black and white images and the touch of colour in them. I have been sitting on the images that I took up in the Mallee, thinking about what I could with them, then I thought maybe I should try making them black and white and adding a touch of colour.
I played around with the highlights and the colours in the images. It was an interesting thing to do. I don't do a lot of black and white. I have struggled with the idea of doing black and white, as I don't always know which images to use. I don't believe every image is better in monotones, but some can be.
It would be easy to just convert them, but I wanted more control than that. I have the Nik software silver efex, and was going to use that, but in the end I just used Photoshop.
I also wondered how the fire photos would turn out, so I played with a couple from Yaapeet. I don't know if I have added drama to them, but I actually quite like them. When I converted them to black and white I played with the colours again, and lightened some, darkened some. I really love how the tree came out.
I am not going to go through each one individually, but instead will put the five images I did into a gallery so you can see each one on its own.
Great job, Leanne! In my opinion, you have chosen the right photos for the B&W process. Thanks very much for sharing such good outcome! Take care! 🙂 And you all stay cool!
I thought so too Fabio, they really seemed to work for these. You are welcome, and thank you too. The weather has cooled down a little here, so that is nice.
I especially like the church photo. There seems to be something so forlorn yet beautiful in an old abandoned church.
It could be symbolic, but perhaps we won't go into it here. Thank you.
Thank you Lisa, it seemed like a good thing to try, so glad I did.
Beautiful job in these. The tones are gorgeous.
My favorites are the images with the trees, especially the highlights on the dead tree trunk. As always, I enjoy viewing your artwork.
Thank you John, the trees came out really well.
Great work, Leanne! These are good choices, and I think you really increased the drama and enhanced the photos by making them black and white with a touch of color.
Thank you, that is great to hear, I was hoping that people would see that.
Fantastic job Leanne!!! Love the photos! Guess what? I got my Nikon D5200 the other day, so I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with it! I can't get over how amazing it is!
Oh wow Jemimah, so lots of fun again, how exciting. I love getting new toys. Going to be interesting seeing what you come up with.
You can get them for about $30 or $40 I think. You just need a UV filter, many photographers will say not to get a cheap one, it could distort your images, but I never really noticed, so I don't know. I would at least start with a cheap one and if you don't notice anything different stick with it.
Thanks so much!! I'll probably start with a cheap one, and see how it goes. I guess it's not a hugely necessary thing for me at the moment, but it would be good to have that extra protection for my lens! Thanks again!!
It is better to be safe than sorry, as the saying goes. That is the way I would go, I need to get one for one of my lenses.
I bought a UV filter today, it wasn't too cheap, at $40, but well worth it! It works fantastically, I couldn't be more happy with it!!
Love these photos, very epic looking. Especially, the first and last one of the abandon tree.
Thank you Leah, the processing has really transformed them.
They work well Leanne, especially like shots 1, 3 & 5.
Thank you Mark, and thank you for the inspiration.
Wow suggestive as usual Leanne…and yes, sometimes it's a good thing to play a little!
Thank you Georgia, it is great to play with some photos, you just never know what you will get, you must find that with writing at times.
🙂 words can be just as tricky…it's still a question of creating a clear and precise image!
Oh yes, I agree, I used to try writing, but I didn't really have the imagination for it, I am so much more a visual person.
Interesting…never thought of it that way…I'd say though a visual person, you certainly have a fine imagination or you wouldn't be able to pull off some of the fine photos you pull off. So, it's something else I think that keeps you from writing.
I think I have the imagination, but putting it into words is another talent altogether. I like to see, if that makes sense. I am the type of person who it is better to show, than to tell.
Yes, it does make sense. I don't have the imagination to do the artistic takes on photography that you have…a true genius by the way.
It is funny how we are one way or the other.
I agree MM, you never know and looking at other people's work can be really inspirational that way. Thank you MM.
I like black & white but agree that it has to be the right photograph. If I'm looking to seriously edit a photo in B&W I use Photoshop, keeping the base layer as colour then adjusting using a layers. For quicker adjustment I use Lightroom, with 0% saturation & adjusting individual colou luminance be fire plating with shadows & highlights.
I think you've chosen your images well & I particularly light the use of shadow & highlight.
Thanks for sharing how you work. Thank you so much, it was fun and I think working in Photoshop is great.
Out of these photos, the one that stands out to me is the very first one. Very abandoned feel to it. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of black-and-white (BW) photos. Don't know why, maybe it's because with every photo you make BW, a timeless feel becomes attached to it – and all the photos become, feel the same. Sometimes I feel that BW images are overdramatic, a bit of fakery here and there.
I appreciate your honesty Mabel, and I think I agree with you, you get many people who will love an image in B&W regardless, and I think it can be good for some stuff, but not everything, which is probably why I don't do a lot of them. I like the colour, and I like playing with that.
Once I converted a chunk of my photos from my digital camera into BW, just for kicks. After looking at about ten of them, I felt bored. But playing around with photos is always fun, I'm learning this!
Today wasn't exactly a good day for me. But I like this cool summer weather. Went to the beach in the morning, so refreshing and I enjoyed it :).
I think to convert images to black and white, you have to pick the right images, I usually choose ones that I think will be made more dramatic, there has to be a reason.
That isn't good to hear Mabel, I hope you are okay. I like the weather too. The beach sounds nice, I want to go down there to take some photos one morning.
I think images with a strong (sole) subject tend to make better BW images. Your branch image looked really good. Buildings with intricate architecture could make good ones too, in my opinion.
I'm okay, don't worry too much about me. Just a series of unexpected events that weren't in my favour 🙂 I only spent an hour at the beach this morning – not too many people around but the sun was very strong.
I agree with you. I don't always get it right.
I hate it when that happens, I'm having trouble with my back which is driving me crazy, I hate it when things don't heal quickly. The sun is always strong here.
Thank you Gypsy, something different.
Thank you, always happy to share.
How I love pictures.I love the effects here.
I love how you edited your images. I am working on black and white photos as well.
Thank you Francine, they can be a lot of fun to work on.
Great shots and fantastic post production! It is not easy to do proper black and white photo in Photoshop, it requires skills and experience. Well done.
Thank you, I think you have to know what you are doing, it does help.
These all are very dramatic – just the right touch of cold to each. I too use Photoshop – by blending a B&W image over the color base and then working with mode and opacity – it works better than simple desaturation. Sometimes I even HDR tone the B&W prior to final blending (such as my Rub-A-Dub post). Very nice treatment of this shoot.
It is good not doing the image straight to black and white, gives you loads more options. I have done some similar things previously but the black and white layer is full opacity in this instance, is that the right way of saying it? Thank you Robert.
Some really great shots here.
It is so amazing how I get inspired to create some work, and that work then inspires others, how wonderful that it. Thank you Inge.
Wow, those look good. I have taken a few B&W shots and sometimes wish I had better post skills. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, post processing skills are great to have, I have been learning photoshop for about 3 years now, I'm so glad I took the time to learn, there are many places on the net where you can learn.
I strongly believe that almost EVERY image looks much better in Black and White.
less distortion in perception of the subject, when colors don't bring additional geometry and noise. i'm sure that after a longer times of making BW ( i don't talk about monochrome with tones -tones can create different moods and to pull viewers to some direction not always desired ) you will love this process more and more.
I believe some images are really great in B&W, but I also believe some are better in colour. I like to take it image by image and see. Sometimes the colour is what the images is about, sometimes, B&W makes you focus on something else. I like to think that I have the skill in my processing now to make the viewer see what I want them to see, well I like to think that. Thanks Victor, and thanks for your views on this.
Thank you so much Laura, that is great to hear. I love how rich they came out too.
Please! I'd love to know. I just did a black and white today in fact and will be posting it on my blog in a day or two but I'm really not that good with B&W conversions. I took it B&W in camera and then changed it with an adjustment layer in Photoshop and then took it from there. I hate being nosey (LOL yeah right), but I'd love to know what you do. 🙂 Thank you!
I have done a couple of tutorials on it in the past, you could look at these, one is a straight forward one, using GIMP, the other is more about what you need to do with Black and White images, though I wrote the second one a long time ago, maybe I could do a new version on my blog today. What do you think?
That is great Laura. I don't know about all the colours, but you should have a good range of tones from black to white, and that means having a black and having a white in the image. I haven't heard that about the 100%, I tend to do it on feeling or instinct and go with what I like. I didn't do a tutorial, but I did do a post on things to think about when you do B&W images and I am sure many people will add their thoughts as well, there are so many different ways.
I meant to say that the 100% shows up in channel mixer. But I'd never thought of it as a picture should contain white and black like you described. That's very helpful!
Oh, okay, thanks for the clarification. That is great, I think it was really good advice when I got it.
B&W pictures are so atmospheric, & these especially so.
I think so too Kit, making some images B&W can really enhance them so much.
I love what you did with these Leanne. That touch of Sepia really makes it a different feel.
Thank you Emily, I think the touch of sepia really gave them that something extra and it is great you agree.
That's great Pat, thank you.
That's the word I was looking for, thank you.
Gorgeous, haunting, and extremely artistic!
Thank you, I like those words.
Gorgeous, Haunting, and Extremely artistic!!!
I'm a fan of B&W and something I'm leaning more and more towards in my own photography. Many colour images convert OK, some convert well, but the best are those that are taken with B&W in mind. It's a different mindset, a different approach – and that's why it's so rewarding … it opens up a whole new world on your doorstep!
It is not really a mindset I have Noeline, I think that is because I don't think that far ahead. I tend to just take photos, then afterwards when I get them on the computer I wonder what I can do with them. Thanks Noeline, love hearing how people work.
You're too kind!!! Thanks Marsha.
I sometimes play around with Photoshop and the color variations can be quite dramatic. The examples above are breathtaking.
I love being able to do that, it was one thing I really hated about film, unless you were great in the darkroom, you couldn't do anything with your images. Thanks Jackie.
All these are so amazing! The ambience is intriguing in each of them, but in a different way.
It has been so interesting hearing what everyone has said about the images, so thank you so much Tiny.
Yes, I have tried it before and I have it, though I wanted to try doing them in Photoshop, I quite liked the way they came out. Thank you.