This is a shot I took earlier this year and have now reworked it as high contrast black & white.
I have twisted my knee and am out of action for a couple of days so am looking at some old photos to convert to B&W high contrast for our mentoring group's theme for next week.
Many thanks for your wonderful comments and Favs on yesterday's shots - so very much appreciated!! My dragonfly in my garden actually went on the PP - so thrilled!! Thanks again!!
It's fun to go back to older photos and rework them. The 365 Project pace is so fast and unrelenting that it is easy to overlook some gems. Very nice details in the petals. Love how the b&w brings out the textures.
@pamknowler@newbank@888rachel@sullivar@golftragic
One thing I've noticed with contrast is that the bigger the differences in color and in lighting, the bigger the contrast. I'm trying to think of how I think about it when I decide. Guessing it's like this: (a) see a photo that color doesn't really matter in, (b) think about composition and take the photo, (c) look at it on computer screen and convert to b&w, (d) decide whether I want specific features to stand out, or if I want to soften the whole image. IF features matter, go for higher contrast, or if shadows matter or if lines matter. If not, try a lower contrast. I think this is an example where the high contrast doesn't buy anything. Rather, the soft folds and structures do. Here's one I just stuck in my flickr account to show what I mean. I went with lower contrast since there was nothing really worth contrasting. https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffyraphael/14860937132/
@taffy@newbank@888rachel@sullivar To my eye this is an image that would probably benefit from some colour. The high contrast technique is well executed, but I don't think the fairly sharp visual distinctions do justice to a soft, colourful subject.
@pamknowler Hi Pam, I'm sorry to hear about your knee and I hope you start feeling better soon! The conversion is interesting in that it really transforms the softness of flower petals into a different texture - it looks much more wrinkled than you'd expect. However, it's also made the tips of the petals look much more feathered. It's really an inversion of expectations and makes it so alien. There's a bit of texture to the bottom right of the flower that I find distracting. I think it might be interesting to see the photo in a square crop as well with the tulip being in the center rather than off to the side.
Interesting. The b&w has taken the softness out of the image for me. But it brings out the dark flower tips. I think I would prefer colour on this one.
August 12th, 2014
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One thing I've noticed with contrast is that the bigger the differences in color and in lighting, the bigger the contrast. I'm trying to think of how I think about it when I decide. Guessing it's like this: (a) see a photo that color doesn't really matter in, (b) think about composition and take the photo, (c) look at it on computer screen and convert to b&w, (d) decide whether I want specific features to stand out, or if I want to soften the whole image. IF features matter, go for higher contrast, or if shadows matter or if lines matter. If not, try a lower contrast. I think this is an example where the high contrast doesn't buy anything. Rather, the soft folds and structures do. Here's one I just stuck in my flickr account to show what I mean. I went with lower contrast since there was nothing really worth contrasting. https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffyraphael/14860937132/