B&W Feedback

Hi all, took this while out walking the dog earlier today. It was a bit cloudy and dull so changed to B&W. Any feedback appreciated, would be interested to know if any of you would have done anything differently? Other photos from the walk can be found here. Thanks.

I think one of the things that helps a lot of b&w shooters is understanding the old Ansel Adams Zone system... with particular attention to tonal range from 0 (pure black) to 10 pure white... If you can encompass the full range in a photo... the photo works, and should be your goal... shooting digital b&w is difficult because it doesn't have the same tonal range that film does...

I did a little adjustment in lightroom and nik tools, just to get a little more out of the clouds, was a bit tricky as I only had a small file size to use.

FredKingston said:

I think one of the things that helps a lot of b&w shooters is understanding the old Ansel Adams Zone system... with particular attention to tonal range from 0 (pure black) to 10 pure white... If you can encompass the full range in a photo... the photo works, and should be your goal... shooting digital b&w is difficult because it doesn't have the same tonal range that film does...

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Thanks FredKingston, something else to read up about when I get chance

paul04 said:

I did a little adjustment in lightroom and nik tools, just to get a little more out of the clouds, was a bit tricky as I only had a small file size to use.

Click to expand...

I like what you've done with it paul04. Just out of curiosity which sliders did you change in Lightroom to achieve the look of the edit you have done? Also what did you do in nik tools that couldn't be achieved in Lightroom?

I have Lightroom and as I shot it in RAW I was able to change the highlights to -100, lower the whites and blacks slightly and then up the shadows a little bit. You seemed to have been able to bring out the clouds even more though.

I like the overall shot, however comp wise I would have moved forward as not to get the gates in the shot, or move back to get both of them in. The shot does seem a little dark, but the second one is way over processed for my tastes.

moose24 said:

I like what you've done with it paul04. Just out of curiosity which sliders did you change in Lightroom to achieve the look of the edit you have done? Also what did you do in nik tools that couldn't be achieved in Lightroom?

I have Lightroom and as I shot it in RAW I was able to change the highlights to -100, lower the whites and blacks slightly and then up the shadows a little bit. You seemed to have been able to bring out the clouds even more though.

Click to expand...

Nik tools lets you add control points, so you can change different areas light or dark without affecting all of the picture, then I added a little more structure to the picture. this is nik tools with a picture I am working on.

Lovin Our Life said:

I like the overall shot, however comp wise I would have moved forward as not to get the gates in the shot, or move back to get both of them in. The shot does seem a little dark, but the second one is way over processed for my tastes.

Click to expand...

Thanks lovin, will try and remember to keep the composition in mind when taking similar shots next time i'm out and about - it is fun/challenging trying to remember everything when you are a beginner.

paul04 said:

Nik tools lets you add control points, so you can change different areas light or dark without affecting all of the picture, then I added a little more structure to the picture. this is nik tools with a picture I am working on.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight paul04, nik tools looks very interesting and after watching a quick video on youtube about it my head is scrambled! haha. maybe one for the future if i start to get more serious about my photography