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It works. good job.

too dark here I'm guessing? I've been trying to nail down a simple no-brainer process for converting to black and white but no luck yet. Any ideas?

Trying to find the right black and white conversion look here. Just

re submitted this with a higher contrast look (the previous was

darker and smoother..lots less whites). Any thoughts?

Is this a Banyan Fig Tree?

Basically, I think you're on the right track here. But first my disclaimer, the things I'm about to observe are purely personal and subjective and may well not match with your original vision. But you asked for a critique so here goes :))

The roots are the central theme but for me there is competition for my attention. As a viewer I really want to focus my attention on the main root detail (centred) and you need to help me more with that by adding a vignette around the outer top and right-hand side of the image and/or crop that part of the image tighter. In other words you need to burn in those parts of the scene that distract from the real core or heart of the image or dodge those elements that you wish to draw attention to.

When you talk about altering contrast I think I know what you are looking for which is to establish better tonal relationships that emphasize the texture and form of the roots -- yes? If so, you will need to alter contrast relationships to achieve this but it is unlikely you will achieve the look you desire by using global contrast changes. I would reccomend a good duotone or tritone if you have access to one (i.e. PhotoShop) or subtle curve manipulation in individual RGB channels after your have destaurated the image.

Now, because a picture paints a thousand words I'm hoping th ecomment system will let me add an image that reflects what I have described above. If not, let me know and I can email it to you so you can consider (visually) what I have described and whether it rings true to your own vision.

You've got a very good eye Jeff.

Cheers...John.

The image ended-up above my post -- sorry.

Very much like your take on the photo & agree with your ideas wholy (sp) It may take some time for me to master the techniques to get there, but I'm excited to try (had a go last night at some chanel mixer adjustments on it & was surprised to see what changes could be done to a "black and white" image color wise.). Anyway, thanks again for your comments and ideas it was a pleasure to have you stop by. P.s., best as I can see, photos within a comment always show up above the comment. Confusing for me too but you'll get used to it