b&w conversion

[seovina]

Originally Posted by ravncat

Your first conversion, as seen here shows good exposure - and shows detail in the highlights and shadows on my calibrated monitor. I disagree with the above poster that a good black and white photograph uses all of the tones from black to white. I think a good black and white photograph can use all the tones, but all require some areas to be pure black and others pure white.


I think your use of a long focal length has led to the more flattened image. If you want to alter this in your image as shot, you`re going to have to manipulate the light via dodging and burning. I`d also look into possibly cropping the image, you`ve got alot of lines going back and forth and there are some interesting elements to it. As it is, the branch is distracting, with a different crop, i think that branch can be emphasizing.

As a random aside, I quite liked Michael Freeman`s book - Mastering black and white digital photography. Since I read above you said you might want to find a book. Though if you can thumb through it before buying it, it might be a good idea. People have very different tastes in photography literature.

if you have a tripod and some filters to go on your lens, say like a Lee filter pro glass ND 3 stop and maybe a 2 or 3 stop ND Grad this will help you get a slow shutter speed and not blast the sky out to much, if there is still definition and detail in the clouds you can get a great blur effect happening, storm clouds and that eerie atmospheric weather can produce good results sometimes especially if you are shooting for an HDR type photo.

other than that, what junglebear says.