Shaker Village B&W

[Becca]

This is my first attempt at B&W. I've been admiring all the great B&W shots here and I thought this picture would work well in B&W. What do you think? I'm also attaching the color version for comparison.

Comments and critique very appreciated! Thanks!

[stoneylonesome]

Both are very nice and I'm a big fan of B&W, but I really think the colored one works a little better in my opinion. Which shaker village was this, the one in Hancock MA or the one in New Hampshire? Where I think B&W really shines is in old stone work or old machines and there parts.

[Becca]

Thanks Sandy! I liked the colors in the picture too, but since it was kind of "old fashioned" stuff, I thought it might look good in B&W. One of these days I'll find something that looks good in B&W! Gives me another reason to take pictures (not that I need one!)

This was taken at Canterbury Shaker Village in NH, just north of Concord. Found it online when I was searching for a place to go take some pictures since I had the day off today!

[stoneylonesome]

BeccaNH: If you ever venture to western MA, you should really try to get to this one. I think this is the largest one.
http://www.hancockshakervillage.org/

[Becca]

Thanks Sandy! I will be out that way the end of this month on my way to Michigan. Maybe I can work a stop in on my way. It looks great!

You couldn't go into any of the buildings unless you were on a guided tour at Canterbury, and they didn't allow photography indoors (kind of disappointing!) These pictures were actually taken in the museum store of a display, not in one of the village buildings.

[JMAS]

Becca,
I'll have to agree with Sandy on this one.
Though I took the liberty to edit your color image and convert it to B&W.
I don't know what metod you used but mine was:
Channel Mixer Layer set to monochrome
Then set the sliders : Red 12%; green 90%; blue 8%
Then did some burning and dodging up to 13%, using layers of levels adjustment and changing the mode from normal to the prefered one and the set the opacity to 13% on each.

After that, only some USM (300; 0.3; 0)

I usualy find this metode better and more flexible.


BTW, I like the mood in this shot. sugests a good life in the country with friends, to me.:cool:

[Becca]

Wow! Yours is a lot nicer! Of course, all I did was use the Saturation setting to take the color out of the colored version. I learned another new thing today! I'll have to take my color version and try your method. It sure worked out a lot better!

Thanks for the information! Thats the thing I love about this forum. I'm always learning something new!

[stoneylonesome]

Thanks Sandy! I will be out that way the end of this month on my way to Michigan. Maybe I can work a stop in on my way. It looks great!

You couldn't go into any of the buildings unless you were on a guided tour at Canterbury, and they didn't allow photography indoors (kind of disappointing!) These pictures were actually taken in the museum store of a display, not in one of the village buildings.
Never had a problem taking photo's inside this one, I even took some flash although I don't normal like to, don't want to bother other people. You can even take photos of the docents demonstrating how everything works. :)

[JMAS]

I'm glad I could be useful. ;)

You know what? I also learned here this method some time ago!;):D this is also the one that seems to best simulate what was done on film, since there was also a great deal of dodging and burning on the revealing process.

See Martin-images posts and I'm sure he will be able to show you a great deal more, using this method.

There are others like:
*- setting to layers of saturation and desaturating the last layer then playing with the hue on the 1st;
*-setting the photo to grayscale mode (Image-> Mode-> Grayscale) This one has given me also good results on ocasion.

But just go ahead and try for yourself. It's the best way to learn.

Have fun!

[hoopscoach]

i like your b&w a lot. i think it would look good in sepia, too. just has that feel to me.

[Becca]

Sandy, Thanks again! I may even try to work in a stop in Springfield at the Dr Seuss memorial. You're turning out to be a good source for places to visit!

Jamie, I will check out Martin-images posts (I've heard a lot of people mention them, but I've been too lazy to do a search!) Thought I could figure it out for myself, but I see its much more complicated than I thought! Thanks for the pointers!

Hoopscoach, I thought about Sepia too. I may have to give that a try too! Thanks!