Wow fantastic image very fitting for the challenge Hazel, wonderful tonal range, clarity and composition an instant fav, I've been waiting for the weather to improve to get out and capture my image for the challenge:)
Peter, thank you. We had a window of a bright sunny, but cold and windy day yesterday so it was a trip to the arboretum. This was taken in b&w and processed in FastStone.
@quietpurplehaze Thanks for the information Hazel, generally when I want a b&w image I set it in the camera, very rarely convert a colour image using software, seems to get better results in contrast and tonal range:)
Thanks for comment and first fav of the day, Jackie. Funny thing, I always photograph the pond from this angle, usually with the dragon fly sculpture in the foreground,
@quietpurplehaze I usually open the colour file in Silver Efex Pro 2 ( I think it is now part of a whole suite of ex-Nik software... now owned by Google and, I think, now free. To think I paid over £160 when I bought it from Nik a few years ago!) You are immediately presented with about 20 pre-sets on the left of the screen. On the right are various sliders to adjust brightness, contrast and structure both to the whole image and to selected parts of it. You can also add tints, vignettes and borders. I stuck to the pre-sets and global adjustments for a while... as a slow learner it took me a while to get on top of the rest!
You don't print direct from the b&w then? I was really thinking in more simplistic terms - such as does a bw image need to be lightened a bit before printing.....
@quietpurplehaze Not sure what you mean, Hazel. All my shots, unless using b/w film, are in colour, though many are conceived as b/w. I never use the camera's ability to produce b/w images... they never give me what I was after! Silver Efex Pro 2 does. Generally b/w images need more contrast than the colour equivalents (unless you have something more artsy in mind) and as with the chemical darkroom some selective lightening and/or darkening is often required. Happy to say more if I haven't answered your question
I realised after I had answered you that we were a bit at cross purposes. All my images, colour or bw, are stored on my laptop but from time to time I have printed colour images to frame and put on the wall (only 2 of these are purple...) Now I'd like to try pirnting and framing a bw image and wonder if I need to up/lower the contrast or lighten/darken the image? Or maybe I treat it just like printing a colour image. Hope this is not clear as mud!
@quietpurplehaze I had an A3+ printer that did superb b/w prints and I never had to increase brightness or contrast for printing. Most important was to have a very good quality printer, one that can give deep blacks: 7 or 8 inks including 2 blacks (one of them photo black) It cost over £400 and lasted 3 years (and a day, so it was beyond warranty period!) A full set of inks cost over £200 and were soon used up. So I gave up on printing my own and found a good professional lab that could give me what I wanted at a cost per print less than it was costing me to do the job myself! I'm sorry.. this isn't what you wanted, is it?
3 years and a day is fairly typical of anything 'mechanical' I think! David, you've convinced me that there is no big secret to printing b&w so I am going to patronise the local print shop where the chap did a great job on a large coloured print for me at a good price (and we then spent £109 on a frame!) - thank you!
Peter, thank you. We had a window of a bright sunny, but cold and windy day yesterday so it was a trip to the arboretum. This was taken in b&w and processed in FastStone.
Thanks, both - I thought maybe the reflections were on overload here!
Sam, thank you - I mostly play - not too scientific!
Thanks for comment and first fav of the day, Jackie. Funny thing, I always photograph the pond from this angle, usually with the dragon fly sculpture in the foreground,
David, thank you - I've been thinking to ask you for any tips on printing b&w. Not for this photo but just in general - thought I might try one.
You don't print direct from the b&w then? I was really thinking in more simplistic terms - such as does a bw image need to be lightened a bit before printing.....
I realised after I had answered you that we were a bit at cross purposes. All my images, colour or bw, are stored on my laptop but from time to time I have printed colour images to frame and put on the wall (only 2 of these are purple...) Now I'd like to try pirnting and framing a bw image and wonder if I need to up/lower the contrast or lighten/darken the image? Or maybe I treat it just like printing a colour image. Hope this is not clear as mud!
3 years and a day is fairly typical of anything 'mechanical' I think! David, you've convinced me that there is no big secret to printing b&w so I am going to patronise the local print shop where the chap did a great job on a large coloured print for me at a good price (and we then spent £109 on a frame!) - thank you!