Shot thru store window

[BookMaker]

HI folks:

Recently took some photos of an old typewriter being used as a prop in a store window. After I cropped it and reduced the saturation down to near b/w, I'm still having doubts about the shot.

Overall I like the shot - although the cropping could be better. But most importantly, the shot looks too gray, too soft. Understandable, it was shot thru a glass window at high noon. But is there any way to get more of a dynamic range (whites to blacks) so the shot has a "deeper" appearance to the image.

Here's the image as it is now:



Please let me know what you think - even if you feel the overall shot should be trashed. I'm new enough at this I have no preconceptions about my abilities.

- Jeff

[bruceliv]

Jeff, Your image is not a macro. Your other image on flickr of the "key" is better, a nice closeup, though still not a macro.
Never, ever, attempt a B&W by decreasing saturation. It's flat and ugly.

This sight, DPS has a piece on B&W worth reading:
http://www.digital-photography-schoo...lack-and-white

When I convert to B&W I use channels, I use a well-prepared RGB image, convert to B&W, then boost or reduce any or all of the color channels. Photoshop has made it very easy to do this once difficult process.

The nice thing about PS is that you're working with layers and never destroy the original image.

[BookMaker]

Thanks for the guidance Bruce. I looked at the article and I'll try converting thru channels as suggested.

Do you think I should move this post over to the "Other" category in the Critique section?

- Jeff