Fine Art attempt #2

I'm not very familiar with black and white, this took me 3 hours to edit.

Thoughts appreciated.

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Why, was it an image of a flute?


Looks real good to me.

texkam wrote in post #18321531

this took me 3 hours to edit

Why, was it an image of a flute?


Looks real good to me.

LOL, no I just really suck at making decisions and the original file was rather flat.

Thanks.

Ya might want to take a look at one of the old film noir movies in B&W

I would like to see the instrument (wood grain/varnish) more in focus than the strings, to me that tells the story of the instrument. The wear on the wood shows a seasoned instrument with character. Strings come and go.

I have one old beat up guitar with a few dings and paint worn off, passed down from my father. If I shot that guitar, that tells a story in a photo, my fairly new Strat and Les Paul would look like a product catalog shot....

Here's a different one in color. This time the focus is somewhere midway down the bridge but focus when I have the extension tube in is very touchy.

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chauncey wrote in post #18321597
Ya might want to take a look at one of the old film noir movies in B&W

Chaunce, I'm not sure if that's a put down or an honest suggestion..

atsilverstein wrote in post #18321533
LOL, no I just really suck at making decisions and the original file was rather flat.

Thanks.

I can't imagine what the original looked like as my first thought looking at the B&W above was that it looked flat.

atsilverstein wrote in post #18323010
Chaunce, I'm not sure if that's a put down or an honest suggestion..

I don't think this is a put down at all. I believe he's referring to the same thing I'm thinking which is what's missing here. There are so many great film noir movies that show just fantastic lighting, Touch of Evil, Double Indemnity are two that I can think of right off that show this. The sort of hard contrast black and white, not grey quality is what I think would do this picture well.

.........but that's me.

Was in no way meant as a put-down. I am a fan of quality movies...the ones that have superior lighting and photography. In spite of not being overwhelmed
by the script, Celestine Prophesy, http://www.imdb.com …80857?ref_=tt_p​v_vi_aiv_1 has that superior photography and lighting.
We all could improve our own photography by watching those types of movies and analyzing how they do stuff.

chauncey wrote in post #18323279
Was in no way meant as a put-down. I am a fan of quality movies...the ones that have superior lighting and photography. In spite of not being overwhelmed
by the script, Celestine Prophesy, http://www.imdb.com …80857?ref_=tt_p​v_vi_aiv_1 has that superior photography and lighting.
We all could improve our own photography by watching those types of movies and analyzing how they do stuff.

Excellent advise. Film noir movies featured hard lighting for key and back lights and rarely used fill. I think that the B&W image above would have benefited from hard lighting. The lighting looks soft and lacks shadows. Also, side lighting may have helped bring out more of the texture of the wood. Personally, I probably would have wanted to include more of the violin since it's intricate shape provides many areas that are perfect for capturing the contrast between light and shadows.

Those that can do...do. Those that can't...teach.

atsilverstein wrote in post #18321528
I'm not very familiar with black and white, this took me 3 hours to edit.

Thoughts appreciated.

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forum: Critique Corner

I didn't attempt B&W conversion for a long time because I didn't like the results I was getting. Lighting (shadows) is very important w/ B&W. Also, for me, I found increasing the saturation a bit helped with contrast later during the conversion. You may want to look into NIK software (it used to cost $$, but Google bought it and it's now FREE). It's awesome that it's free, but now there are no updates or improvements since Google doesn't really care about it. I love the B&W conversion and the sharpening tools. It's helpful to watch some tutorials. Can't go wrong with free They are plug-ins for PSE and LR.

btw funny enough I am watching some film noir as we speak, LOL

Both images are truly beautiful. ya know like hanging on your wall beautiful!!!

For better overall focus, I'd go manual, use f/11, high ISO, and play with shutter speed.

trailguy wrote in post #18333749
For better overall focus, I'd go manual, use f/11, high ISO, and play with shutter speed.

Yes, but due to the extension tube there's little different in dof.