Still not seeing in black and white. Took some lovely photographs of droplets on red berries, so bright and loud. BUT red becomes a very drab grey and the whole feel of the shot is lost.
So here instead you have droplets on daffodil leaves with the background texture of a brick.
Three good things
First Monday gluten free fish and chips night
Bubbles photogging deemed success by camera club members
Autumn holiday on booked
Try to think of it more in terms of "what will this color look like in black and white?" Reds will usually translate as blacks and grays- so when you see those colors you will need to adjust your "seeing" accordingly. If there are a lot of grays your black and white will be more muted and neutral in value (how strong or weak your contrast is). The reds that translate as black will make your black and white appear to have a high contrast (strong light and dark areas). Since you were working with green leaves and water drops here- you have some dark gray areas to deal with. I'm not really technical with this stuff- but with strong grays if you wanted more contrast you probably needed to push up your exposure or use a fill light. Don't quote me on that! haha However, thanks to digital and the wonderful delete button, you can play with different exposures and take as many photos as you like until you get the result you're looking for. Another option you had here was to focus solely on the water drops by using a vertical rather than horizontal crop. That way you lose the large unfilled area of darkness on the right. This approach is an artistic choice. What you've done here is fine with a nice balance between the positive and negative space. But if you wanted to lighten up the picture some, removing the larger dark area will also do that.
All that being said, you have captured some very nice detail on those water drops! I think it's a good shot!
@olivetreeann Ann thank you for taking the time to look and type so much. There is not enough contrast here, I see that now. I think I was excited by the sparkles, I lost my goal.
Am day off tomorrow, it's going to be wet and dull, (again!),and I'll take camera out and look for contrasts that are obvious!! Lots to learn, onwards and upwards!!
Hi Jackie - it was interesting to read your intro (I do like your final choice to post!). The whole b&w is a big learning curve and I was wondering if you are actually shooting in b&w or converting later? :)
@robz shooting in colour and removing in edit. Ann recommended that technique. @Dawn thank you, love the light on the drops though @salza she's a good long distance coach, and I learn so much by this sort of critique @shannejw thank you @jacqbb very kind thank you @phil_sandford thanks
It's a colour option on GIMP and/or Photoshop (GIMP Is freeware). Decomposition converts the image into a R, G and B layer - and I think that linked ladybird is based on the red layer with the G and B layers mixed in with layer masks. The first times I tried I just got a dark grey blob with no spots, and a similar grey background from the grass.
@shannejw Just downloaded GIMP, played with thered,green and blue sliders, no idea what I was doing, but could see a difference. Cropped and rotated ( it's very slow though!), bu when I went to save, I couldn't get it to save the just image, it seemed to do a screen shot, so will look on line for an idiot's guide. Thank you @olivetreeann Think I'll be learning as much about editing as seeing in BnW Ann!!
There's an option under the colours tab, a long way down, that gives you a drop down menu that includes greyscale and decomposition. That's the one I mean for this. Using decomposition opens another window with the three layers.
To save in a form for posting you File -> Export as and save as jpg or png. If I want to save the layers part way through processing I save the xcf file so I can come back to it.
I love it, the tiny droplets are perfect in black and white.
I am not thinking in black an d white at the moment either. I posted a photo of a window at the museum yesterday and someone suggested it would look good in black and white, so I posted it and she was right, it does look better in monochrome.
@shannejw Thanks for sharing that Shanne- there are so many things that can be done to a picture thanks to post processing. I don't have GIMP or PS but I understand the concept you're talking about here and I will probably experiment with it on a rainy day!
@shannejw I don't know what I don't know at the moment. Just taken a photo to play with to practice later today. Great if you could be my go-to person though!!!! Please????? X😎
Yes, no problem - I used to do a lot more when I was completing 365 originally, but that was 2011-12 and 2012-13. I've had plenty of time to get rusty and forget things, aggravated by changing operating systems and GIMP updates.
All that being said, you have captured some very nice detail on those water drops! I think it's a good shot!
Am day off tomorrow, it's going to be wet and dull, (again!),and I'll take camera out and look for contrasts that are obvious!! Lots to learn, onwards and upwards!!
@Dawn thank you, love the light on the drops though
@salza she's a good long distance coach, and I learn so much by this sort of critique
@shannejw thank you
@jacqbb very kind thank you
@phil_sandford thanks
@olivetreeann Think I'll be learning as much about editing as seeing in BnW Ann!!
To save in a form for posting you File -> Export as and save as jpg or png. If I want to save the layers part way through processing I save the xcf file so I can come back to it.
I am not thinking in black an d white at the moment either. I posted a photo of a window at the museum yesterday and someone suggested it would look good in black and white, so I posted it and she was right, it does look better in monochrome.
@ludwigsdiana thanks
@grammyn ohhh, thanks Katy
@onewing it's another skill to process(!)
@merrelyn a holiday on The Thames for a week
@hrs thank yiu