B&W Harley

Browncoat

Senior Member
Every Tuesday night is Biker Night down at a local watering hole. They usually have live bands as well...but I go for the bikes! I went with a B&W conversion on this one because I really liked the way it brought out the texture of the hand grip.

C&C welcome!


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Joseph Bautsch

New member
IMHO, and it is just my opinion. I like the concept of the shot. I like the cropping. The B&W serves the mood of the shot very well. It's a good sharp crisp exposure. I'm not a motorbike person but I can appreciate an impressive machine. This was a tough shot to get at night. Your comments indicate it was taken in a parking lot. What lighting did you use? Did you use your 50mm f/1.8 D lens with the parking lot lights? If that's the case your interpretation of a shot with extreme contrast with the B&W presentation was a good choice. I'm guessing about the lighting and lens, (not the first time I've made my self look dumb if I'm wrong), because it does not look like it was flash. If it was flash the background would be a lot darker. I went to your Gallery and looked at the same shot with a lot more detail than the small jpeg above. The only problem I have with it is the tonal range. The tonal range is a little too wide. I like the heavy contrast but IMO there needs to be a little more detail in both the highlights and shadows of the bike. The other way to have gone with this would to drop out a lot more detail in both the highlights and shadows and give the shot more of an outline effect, that would be cool.
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
This particular bike was out on the street, and not in a parking lot. The lighting was provided by a nearby overhead streetlamp. And you're absolutely right, this was taken with the 50mm f/1.8D lens! Well done, Joseph!

I agree with you completely about the tonal range. I converted this image to B&W in Adobe Camera Raw, so to not destroy any image quality. There was also some slight curve editing to make some details stand out more...the "Harley Davidson" logo for example is actually orange, so I increased the saturation of orange (even though it was now B&W) to make the logo the whitest part of the image. I was happy with this result and merely used some sharpening in Photoshop before saving.

After taking a second look, I wanted to bring out more detail in the texture of the hand grips and leather pouch, so I used a couple high pass filters to achieve the look I wanted. The result also had an effect on my tonal range. When comparing the two images (my initial and second edits) I like the second one better because of the high detail of textures.

Thanks for the input!
 
That's an interesting workflow you describe, Anthony. Nice pic, and a great job editing, so overall you succeeded in presenting a really good shot.
In the webinars I've taken regarding the Nik Software (I own the entire suite), the thinking is that you edit the image in color to create the colors, saturation and highlighting of the important detail, and then converting it with a black & white conversion (Silver Efex Pro for me), so the tonality is set while it's in color.

Just my .02 (.01283 adjusted for inflation)
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
I don't know what your exposure settings were so I don't know if there was enough exposure room for a one stop three shot bracket. That would be an interesting HDR. If it worked then there would be enough room to open or close the tonal range and play with it. I don't know if the HDR would work under those low light conditions but it might be an interesting experiment.
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
LOL, so funny that you mention that.

I love B&W photography, it's timeless. HDR B&W is something I really want to get into for that very reason, the tonal range offered. I have tried various methods, and my favorite photograph was an HDR B&W that I spent weeks perfecting. Sadly, I will never share that one over the internet. I don't get too wound up over the prospect of someone stealing my images, but that one holds a special place for me.

Incidentally, Outdoor Photographer magazine (August 2010) has some excellent B&W step-by-steps for anyone interested. I usually don't spend $$$ on print magazines anymore, but there is some really good stuff in there!
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
I exclusively use Aperture 3 for all of my photo management and post processing except for the Photomatix Pro HDR plugin. And even then I seldom use anything but the merger feature. After the merger I move it back to Aperture for any further processing. I'm primarily a scenic photographer. I don't do excessive enhancing, altering or apply special effects to my photos. I've seen some great work done with PhotoShop and other photo altering programs but that is not my style. As for B&W I understand a lot of todays photographers are using it. But I spent many years shooting in nothing but b&W and dreaming of the day when I could do something with color other than slides and drugstore prints. Since I have purchased my first digital DSLR I have not shot in B&W and have only converted one or two photos from color to B&W.
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
Just as a side note:

Thanks for the real critique, guys. I appreciate it. One thing that I can't stand about other photography forums is that their critique sections are so wishy-washy. There are some people who are simply tools and criticize just for the sake of sounding pompous. And there are others who don't offer any sort of insight at all. I handed out a couple helpful post rankings to you guys. Don't ever be afraid to tell me what you really think of my work. I'd rather hear that it sucks than to be coddled!
 
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