I've been experimenting with my black & white processing lately, trying to reach some understanding in what works for me. If there's a BW look that I prefer, I don't know it... or I don't know the exact attributes so I can consistently produce it. Mostly, I just keep playing around with different settings and sliders until I'm content.
I recently watched "Manhattan" by Woody Allen again, and this time I was paying more attentions to the BW scenes than to the plot. In many of the night scenes around New York, I find stronger contrast to be attractive. There exist both deep black and white highlights that are close to being blown.
Trying my theories out... I have these 3 images to show. First one, on the left, is shot from the family room with the afternoon sun casting shadows on the sliding door and floor. The scene was already high contrast because of the strong sun light in a dark room, but instead of bring back the details in the shadow, I just left it alone to give me the deep black that I wanted.
The next two is captured at LAX. I noticed this well defined light and dark separation and took a few shots. In processing, I actually darkened the scene a little bit more to make it more contrasty between the left and right. I think it came out quite well, making the image unmistakably split right down the middle. The second shot is of the overhead monitors in the waiting area, and I just wanted to accentuate its curves.
I recently watched "Manhattan" by Woody Allen again, and this time I was paying more attentions to the BW scenes than to the plot. In many of the night scenes around New York, I find stronger contrast to be attractive. There exist both deep black and white highlights that are close to being blown.
Trying my theories out... I have these 3 images to show. First one, on the left, is shot from the family room with the afternoon sun casting shadows on the sliding door and floor. The scene was already high contrast because of the strong sun light in a dark room, but instead of bring back the details in the shadow, I just left it alone to give me the deep black that I wanted.
The next two is captured at LAX. I noticed this well defined light and dark separation and took a few shots. In processing, I actually darkened the scene a little bit more to make it more contrasty between the left and right. I think it came out quite well, making the image unmistakably split right down the middle. The second shot is of the overhead monitors in the waiting area, and I just wanted to accentuate its curves.
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