C&C Please BW Conversion

Welcome C&C as I seem to struggle with BW conversion
Here is original

1.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

My 1st attempt - seems a bit flat to me.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

i'm not sure how this will look on your monitor... last time i tried a black and white on this uncalibrated monitor, it turned out too dark on others.

this isn't a pure black and white... i applied a warming filter at 25%. first thing's first, i masked the man's shirt and flowers to bring back some detail, then merged the layers, adjusted contrast, sharpness, and added noise.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Thanks, Reign, unfortunately it looks really dark on my calibrated monitor, however I think I can see what you are trying to achieve. I was way wrong and I ran it through Noise Ninja, instead of adding noise.

i really need to buy spyder2... sorry about that

Sorry tamtanium yours is even darker on my monitor. Are you PP the original or my darker BW, maybe thats why they are coming up dark

If you have problems with your base image, blown highlights, your conversion won't improve things.

Anticipation of a conversion starts when you squeeze the shutter.

Reign wrote in post #6498278
i'm not sure how this will look on your monitor... last time i tried a black and white on this uncalibrated monitor, it turned out too dark on others.

this isn't a pure black and white... i applied a warming filter at 25%. first thing's first, i masked the man's shirt and flowers to bring back some detail, then merged the layers, adjusted contrast, sharpness, and added noise.

I don't think this looks better than the OP's version. Kind of looks like a bad flash shot on my monitor.

This was my second attempt at a black and white version. I guess I'm not sure of what it is really that I want to achieve.

I added a few touch-ups to show how I think it should look:

Method:

1) Hold down alt and click the new layer button in the layers area.
2) Select overlay and tick the 50% gray box.
3) Now select a nice soft brush and lower the opacity to between 20 and 30%
4) Press "D" to set the palette to B&W. Paint on the image as if you are dodging and burning.
5) If you make a mistake switch to the opposite colour.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

image deleted

dkord wrote in post #6500953
Here's the tweaks I made in CS3, took about 15 minutes.

yeh, that looks good! although I think their skin looks too dark.

fadetoblack22 wrote in post #6499151
I don't think this looks better than the OP's version. Kind of looks like a bad flash shot on my monitor.

My histogram stated at capture that there were no blown highlights, however the grooms shirt was very shiny. I personally think I could have turned down flash compensation a bit more.

I will try a few different conversions using the tips given here and see what I get.

Thanks everyone, your C& C is appreciated.

The groom's shirt in the original picture isn't bad at all... I just thought it better to tone it down a little in a b&w because it stands out a little too much, in my opinion... I was careful to note, however, that the flowers details seem lost in the original post... look at mine and you should see more detail.

I looked at the my edit on a calibrated monitor and I'm not too concerned about how dark it is. I would lighten it up a notch, but I like the high contrast and grainy look.

Otherwise, I think the image does suffer a little from direct flash (if that's where all the shiny spots on the face, flowers, almost blown shirt cuff, etc... comes from)

Yeah, the faces can be lighten, but I would check the histogram again, it was definately climbing up the right wall on these jpegs. Could be the background highlights too.
Soft bounce would of help control the harsh lights.
Glad you've moved on, I'll delete my conversion.