At the country park taking shots of dragonflies when this swan took off on the far side of the lake and flew straight towards me. I have a whole sequence of shots of him flying right over my head until he was too big for my lens!! You should have heard his wings creaking - magic!!
Many thanks for your great comments and Favs on yesterday's shots - it was lovely to see the dragonfly on the PP again!!
Lovely to see this on the PP this morning! So pleased you like it!
@jgpittenger@taffy@888rachel It's funny how some things just do not convert to B&W. I have processed two shots today - flowers - which just did not convert well. I want to be able to see the shot in B&W before i take it - do you think that's ever possible or is it just trial and error?
@pamknowler@jgpittenger@888rachel@taffy I don't think I see in b and w yet... I do know though with my boys which at present is mostly what I'm photographing I rarely chose colour. But I have no logic as to why.... I vaguely know it's to do with colour balance and different colours together will work well and others don't. I have a feeling green and red together just don't work but I'm trawling the depths of my mind now for tit bits I've read in articles! Wanting to know more now!
@newbank@pamknowler@jgpittenger@888rachel@taffy
This is a really good question and worth helping each other think about, as I also work more from 'gut' feeling. I can imagine things in b&w before taking, but don't know why. Sometimes I see a scene and it just feels like it will be 'right' in b&w. I think for me, if color isn't important, then it becomes an option for b&w, but I think that's backwards thinking...I'm not yet at the point where I think of color in terms of b&w. I can think of contrast, but not color. I have a few B&W photography books but they are still in storage. Think I may look online for tutorials and see what I can find. I'm going to need to do that for the artificial light theme anyway.
@taffy, @newbank, @888rachel, @pamknowler, @jgpittenger This is an intriging question. I'm not very experienced in b&w at all, and, in fact haven't shot a b&w shot per se since I've had a dslr camera. I take everything in colour and then convert and/or process as I see it. I may be barking up the the wrong tree, but I seem to recall some 'expert/s' advising that the quantity of data available in RAW colour shots allowed the creation of better b&w images than shooting in b&w sooc. Whatever, that's the way I prefer to go about it.
@golftragic I have always shot in colour and then converted to b& w. I have not thought about taking the shot in B&w in the first place. I suppose my camera does that? I must investigate. It may help in some way to see immediately if the shot works in b&w. @taffy@newbank@888rachel@jgpittenger
@pamknowler If you want to know what things look like in B&W, ask my son. Except for blue and yellow, he sees everything in B&W and shades of grey. He would gladly swap places with you. @newbank@888rachel@taffy
@terryliv Poor guy, to be colour blind. Although I guess he doesn't know any different. We had a guy in China with us who was colour blind, and he almost bought a purple fur coat for his wife until I intervened!
@pamknowler I do know shooting straight into b and w is not a good idea if in jpegs as much more restricted in ability to edit it. I think some cameras have a function where they shoot raw colour but you view on the screen b and w so can "see" the end result as such. I now never shoot direct b and w and now in last few weeks started shooting raw can see I have better editing control.
@taffy@newbank@pamknowler@golftragic@jpittenger I also struggle to see things in b&w, and have to do the trial and error thing in processing to see what works. I suppose it takes practice, and if we did a month of this (no thanks!) we would be better at spotting opportunities. I look at Ruth's high key boys, and think they lend themselves to b&w as they have dark hair and dark eyes, so the contrast works well. I tried b&w with Matthew, who is blond with olive skin, and it looks all wrong!
One from my last visit to the country park - what a sight this was!! I think Finlay ducked!! Converted to B&W with Nik Efex Pro.
This is a really good question and worth helping each other think about, as I also work more from 'gut' feeling. I can imagine things in b&w before taking, but don't know why. Sometimes I see a scene and it just feels like it will be 'right' in b&w. I think for me, if color isn't important, then it becomes an option for b&w, but I think that's backwards thinking...I'm not yet at the point where I think of color in terms of b&w. I can think of contrast, but not color. I have a few B&W photography books but they are still in storage. Think I may look online for tutorials and see what I can find. I'm going to need to do that for the artificial light theme anyway.
@taffy @newbank @888rachel @jgpittenger