"Life of the Past"

I need some help with this. I am new to photography and have never

tied B&W and do not know if I did it correctly or not. I took the

image into PS7 and switched it to Grayscale. Is this right?

 

As always, any comments good or bad are most appreciated. -N

Hi Norman, I would have given the foreground a little more weight as far as light is concerned and maybe a forced flash but lightly.The frame could have been raised about an 1/8 to give the building windows some more share of the picture. Try setting the camera on B/W and experiment in the streets with strong light contrast situations.

A little dark and contrasty for my liking. 1/2 stop increase in exposure would have lightened up the shadows just enough

Hi Norman,

this is a great first B+W effort, composition is spot on and yes you did do it correctly; PS can be mind boggling initially but don't be afraid to experiment (Lab mode is worth trying). Further tools to look at are levels, histogram and brightness and contrast which can all give interesting results.

All of this however depends to some extent on the original capture and the "flatter negative" or less contrasty original tends to respond best to the above manipulations.

Hope this proves useful.

Good luck Norman it looks like you have a good eye.

Best wishes,

Paul King

I had an amusing thought about another image from the same material. For your consideration...

Very nice alternate crop here. I am still learning how to use Photoshop and this B&W was my first attempt at it. I appreciate the help and idea. -NP

I like very much the way you framed this scene, to me is well thought. I don't mind it being on the dark side but in my opinion is lacking some midtones. Sorry I can not help you on your digital questions but I'm sure the forums are crowded with good advise. As for the crop offered as it says is an other possibility, but for me that the kid is in this high scrapers environment is part of the story. ps I love the amount of ground in the foreground, if you know what I mean :-).

Thank you very much.