BLACK AND WHITE LESSON Post your Pictures Here

OK, that is better. I like that there is more contrast to the trees. I think the auto contrast has given it a slightly harsh look. I want you to do this. Go in to PSP>Adjust>Hue/Saturation>Hue/Saturation/Lightness. Using the Saturation slider, slide it all the way to the bottom (-100). Experiment with the lightness slider. See if you like the changes the lightness slider makes. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. Click ok when its like you want it. Now, go to Adjust>Brightness/Contrast>Brightness/Contrast. Fiddle around with the contrast slider until you find something that you like. You can also move the lightness slider to see if you like that, too. I don't want you using the auto corrections this time. Sometimes they do a good job, but usually you can do a much better job yourself. Give it a try and post your results.

I went out today & took this. I used the B & W setting.

Canon Rebel XT
SS - 1/160
f/5
ISO - 100
Focal length - 27mm
Kit lens (18-55mm)

"Sunlight on the birdhouse"


This is one of Abby:
SS - 1/200
f/5
ISO - 100
Focal length - 27mm
Kit lens

"Abby"


This one I wish had been clear. Two geese flew down on my neighbors pond...when I uploaded I noticed how blurry it was. Boy, I wish I had my Zoom lens on.

SS - 1/60
f/5.6
ASO - 100
Focal length - 55mm
Kit lens

"Geese"

Here is my effort....this is probably a good one to start out with as I am sure there is a lot wrong with it! I think the exposure is all out of whack? Help! I probably shouldn't try to shoot a black dog against this afternoon sky in b/w?

PS. Jake is SCOWLING at me. I think he didn't want to pose for this picture! Hey, he got a treat for the sit/stay!



Camera: Sony DSC-H5
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 6 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/167772160 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

I am posting 4 pictures of the same shot.


This was taken in color and change using saturation control.


Same picture using what is called black/white in Microsoft Digital Image Suite.


Taken in B/W on my camera.


Original picture

I am not sure I can tell any difference in the 3 B/W's. What am I looking for?

KLM - That's not that bad a picture. One think you are going to have to watch is where the sun is located. The biggest problem with this picture is the placement of the sun. It was behind or to the left of the picture. This makes getting proper exposure almost impossible. The B&W isn't bad. There's good contrast. I want you to reshoot this when the sun is behind where you standing now. If that's not possible, turn the dog and wheelbarrow around and shoot from the other direction.

Lablover - These are pretty good. The reason they look alike is probably because they all use desaturation to convert to B&W. I think you need to up the contrast on the B&W some. There is very little contrast. There's just a lot of gray. I like the composition of the B&W taken in the camera the best. It took me a minute to realize it's taken from a different perspective. I like the way the clump on trees in the background is between the two trees in the foreground in that version.

Labs4Me - This is a great B&W. Your camera did a great job on this conversion. Not all do. You have lots of the lighter colors in the foreground all the way to the darker colors in the trees. Good job.

I was thrilled to get out in the sunshiney-cloudiness yesterday to shoot this assignment. It has rained for the past week straight with brief breaks in between. The ditches and streets were still flooded to some extent, which made for fun navigating, but the clouds were amazing These pics are from a property that I've shot before, but with a different perspective. I shot it in color and edited to B/W with PSP.

#1 Original Image-- Canon Rebel Xti, Manual Mode, SS 1/40, Aperture F/29, ISO 200, Focal Length 27 mm



#2 B/W conversion desaturated to -100



#3 B/W conversion desaturated to -100, Highlights 100, Midtone 50 & Shadow 0



#4 B/W conversion using -100 Saturation + 7 Lightness



#5 B/W conversion using Greyscale



#6 B/W conversion using the Black & White Film feature on PSP ** I love the contrast in sky/clouds**



#7 And just for fun. . I went the other way with saturation upped to 36



#8 Another "just for fun"--Changed the hue to 94 and the saturation to -46. Candy Land LOL.

Emma the Lab - I like this. Good job on the conversion. The shot is a little blown out on the side of her face. I would try bracketing this shot. Reshot this and go one step darker after the original shot. Go up one stop in the SS. Don't change more than one thing at a time. Try upping the SS. Then set the SS back and try upping the AV. Well done.

Raian - The only thing to do with the windmill shot is to crop out the background. Even in color you would have had nothing but blue sky around the windmill. If I wanted a shot of this windmill, I would wait for a cloudy day to shot it. The clouds would give some interest to the background. I like the tree shot. It makes a good B&W. You might go into Highlights/Shadows/Contrast to try to darken the branches just a little. It needs just a tad more contrast. Try using the Infrared filter. This will look so cool as an infrared shot.

Cinder4evr - This is a wonderful conversion. Shutterfly has done a great job. Unfortunately, you haven't learned anything about converting to B&W. Try downloading Piscassa editing program from piscassa.com.

Emyly N Rio - Good job. I like the cameras B&W conversion the best. But, like Cinder4evr, you haven't learned anything. Go back to the saturation picture again. This time destaturated it to -100. Don't change the lightness right now. Go into Brightness and Contrast>Highlights/Shadows/Contrast and fiddle with these. I think you'll like this better. The greyscale is very nice. I'd like to see a little more contrast in the clouds with it. I love how you upped the saturations. It needed it. You did just enough with overdoing it. Could you please post a little larger pictures for critique. It's hard to see the details when they're too small. Thanks.