New England stone wall

[grouch]

I am trying to learn what makes a good black and white. My first attempt. What should I be looking for?

[RecurrentNerve]

The most common problem with black and white shots is that quite often they don't have much black or white. Straight out of the camera, they tend to be a little flat, when what you need is a punchy, high contrast shot.

You've got a good starter shot here with some nice shadows and highlights, but it is a little grey; fortunately there's a lot you can do in post-processing. Check out my tutorial here.

Something you can look into for getting better black and white straight out of the camera is called the 'Ansell Adams Zone System' - pop it into Google and you'll find lots of tutorials.

[grouch]

Thank you for the link. I will spend some time with that and see how it goes.

[danbaileyphoto]

Also, whether you shoot BW or color, you'll want to have a definable subject element that catches the eye. I don't really know what I'm supposed to be looking at with your shot, because you haven't accentuated anything in particular that helps anchor down the composition.

[grouch]

Yea, I know what you mean. I was trying to get some sort of pattern and the way the shadows fell on the rocks looked cool. That's my problem in a nutshell, I never seem to capture what I see. My pictures are either subjectless when I thought there was one or flat as a railroad penny.