Need help with B/W Contrast

[bleaudoggie]

I took this photo last week and like the shot but am unsure of the contrast. I've tried playing with it but can't seem to get it quite right. Any thoughts? Also, I'm very much a novice so any tips on compisition would be very helpful.

[Murtasma]

How did you take this picture? With a point and shoot camera set to black and white or do you have a SLR that you shot in RAW with? Did you do a conversion from color to black and white on this? If so can we see the color version as well?

[Kpclark1959]

Not sure what app you have but I brought this into photoshop and adjusted the curves. I will post it if you would like. I am also curious as to why when I download this picture it is in RGB and not grayscale. That might have something to do with why it might not look right to you.

[bleaudoggie]

I took this with a point & shoot on B/W setting. I have some color shots but a little different composition. Kp, I would certainly appreciate it if you would post the edit. I have Photoshop as well but am not very proficient in it. One of these days I'll take some time for classes. :-)

Thanks for the comments.

[Kpclark1959]

I converted it to grayscale and messed with the curves. Took about 10 seconds.

[Murtasma]

Originally Posted by bleaudoggie

I took this with a point & shoot on B/W setting. I have some color shots but a little different composition. Kp, I would certainly appreciate it if you would post the edit. I have Photoshop as well but am not very proficient in it. One of these days I'll take some time for classes. :-)

Thanks for the comments.

Always best to shoot in color even if you want black and white you can do post processing to convert the image to black and white with much better results you can mimic the effect of diffrent color filters if you have a color image that translates nicely for black and white images.

[aetnajojo]

Kpclark1959 did a great job of improving contrasts, but his options were limited. If you'll notice, aside from the black and white colors, there are probably just two shades of gray in the image.

To provide better definition and detail of the various elements (so that it does not look flat), you will want to get a different shade of gray each for the tree, the shack, the grass, the clouds and sky.

Murtasma's recommendation of capturing in color, then coverting to B&W later, gives you the greatest range of creative control if you have Photoshop. Photoshop (both CS3 and Lightroom) will break down the RGB color photo into its red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue and purple components, which in turn are mapped into different shades of gray. B&W conversion, when done in-camera, loses most of this information.

[bleaudoggie]

Thank you Kpclark1959. I liked your version a lot better. Also a huge thank you to each of you for your knowledge. I didn't realize what a difference it would make to photograph it in color. Luckily I have the opportunity to get another shot of this. I will try it again in color and see if I can get a little better shot. Thanks.