First real try a Lightroom editing: Color to B/W

[swiftaw]

Hi, I made my first real attempt at editing a photo in Lightroom. I took a color photo, converted it to black and white and then did a few minor touch-ups. Comments and Criticisms please.

Original Photo (taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XT)

http://homepage.mac.com/swiftaw/IMG_0963o.JPG

Modified Photo

http://homepage.mac.com/swiftaw/IMG_0963.jpg


Click either image for full size version.

[taylorwilsdon]

It looks okay but honestly I prefer the original image. nice picture though.

How about this? (Just tonemapped your JPG) - no post processing. I don't like how yellow it is but that was the white point that produced the most effect with the least noise.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2090/2121219771_b44b496f93_b.jpg

[swiftaw]

It looks okay but honestly I prefer the original image. nice picture though.

How about this? (Just tonemapped your JPG) - no post processing. I don't like how yellow it is but that was the white point that produced the most effect with the least noise.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2090/2121219771_b44b496f93_b.jpg

Sorry, I'm a little new at this, tonemapped?

[taylorwilsdon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_mapping

I'm not sure I like my picture either, its just another technique. I think your original with a little tweaking would be best.

[thr33face]

swiftaw:

I hope you don't mind me playing around with your image. If it does bother you, i can remove them again.

The White Balance in your original image really is an unsatisfying yellow/orange. Without a WB-Adjustement there is not much working room for a BnW conversion in Lightroom; highlighting different parts of the image.
Also, your original BnW conversion looks really flat.

So here is a quick edit done in Lightroom to get the image to look like i think it really looked:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3853/nffho5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Now with all that color information we can convert the image to BnW (in Lightroom). Now we have a nice background/foreground separation:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/9815/nff2zh8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[jessica.]

To the OP, the conversion is not bad for a first try. Make sure your monitor is calibrated. I think you'll find you'll get a better b/w conversion if your original image is more appropriately balanced. It is a bit yellow but I happened to like it to be honest. Also b/w night shots in my opinion are a tough sell sometimes when you don't have a lot going on in the image by way of various levels of dynamic range.

Taylor was telling you that he "tonemapped" your image. That is a fancy way of saying he tossed it into an application called Photomatix and messed about with it. It's an application that is used often in HDR photography and something that many people around here are very new to (me included) but it is "all the rage".