Black and White Tomfoolery ;)

[William Squires]

I've gotta say that I really do love black and white pictures the most out of all the different styles. Not only does it feel classic and timeless but there's just something about the wonderful contrasts that get to me. Here are some of my pics:

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q339/Williamsquires/winter2009027.jpg?t=1231643175

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q339/Williamsquires/winter2009025.jpg?t=1231643156

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q339/Williamsquires/winter2009011.jpg?t=1231643140

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q339/Williamsquires/winter2009001.jpg?t=1231643136

This is more experimental:

http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q339/Williamsquires/winter2009exp.jpg?t=1231643134

[Grumbledook]

hey welcome to the forum

my crits:

one of the key things in a good black and white shot is good contrast

if you look at the histogram of your first shot (in photoshop or on your camera if it can) you can see the blacks and whites are very low, whilst there is more of the greys in the middle

they all suffer from this apart from the second which has the shadow cast over it, which is the other key for B&W, shape, the shadow unfortunately isn't an interesting shape, the bike frame could make this shot worked if you tried again at a different time of day

the dog you have the focal point out of focus/blurred and the rest of the picture in focus

this makes the image kinda flat as there is no colour

the last one hasn't really worked, there is a lot of clipped shadows (again seen in the histogram) some of the highlights are clipped and there is hardly any greys in it

hope that helps

[William Squires]

Thanks. My least favorite are the last two anyways. I tried sharpening the dog digitally but it was a failed effort. I kind of like the contrast of the kid's skin with the shadow of the tree in the first one though. How do you think i could emphasize that more if you think it's too bland?