Black and White Help

[patnanna]

I have taken these two pictures and converted them to BW after the fact. I used Aperture as my software. I am really happy with the Rainbow Bridge picture. I like how the different layers of rocks stand out. On Lilli, my grand daughter, I have tried to make her eyes and lashes stand out. I want the sand on her face and hair to sparkle. I have also attached the original colored picture which was taken in the bright sunlight.

[Pat]

Hello patnanna. I'm not at all familiar with Aperture so I have no idea of what tools you have at your disposal. What I did with Lilli's pic (and what a sweetheart she is) was: first off, I took the colour image and had a look at the different colour channels and chose the blue channel as it gave the most contrast between the sand and skin tones. If you don't have a channels function you could probably just change it to black and white and increase the contrast.
I didn't feel that the increased contrast was quite enough so I magnified the pic about 400% and brightened each individual grain of sand with a one pixel (very small) brush. Then I went to Lilli's eyes and brightened the whites slightly and further increased contrast in the area of the eyes inclusive of the lashes, As this increased the brightness of the skin in the immediate area of the eyes I then darkened the area to match the surrounding skin tones.
Very nice pic of Rainbow Bridge. I would have liked to see a bit of the base on the left via a slight shift of the frame to the left or a view from just a little farther away, But I quite like the contrast and exposure.

[bobgaither]

I came here from twitter via you. I'm new to that and new to this website. I just wanted to say I use to spend a lot of time at Lake Powell when I lived in Utah with my boat. I'm into digital photography since it came out. I'm looking for other photographers and photography. Your black and white images looked just fine. You can tweak them very easily with cs4 in black and white mode.

[Pat]

Hi again, patnanna. I was just looking at your Rainbow Bridge again and notice you have a few spots where the highlights are blown. Is there any detail in the original in the blown areas?

[StephenK]

Hi Patnanna :^)

I know you weren't asking to have this done but I liked the photo of the Rainbow Bridge so much that I wanted to spend
some time re-coloring it... My wife has seen the Rainbow Bridge in person before and would love to see the original version of the
photo if you wouldn't mind posting it!

Loved the picture of your grand daughter as well! I didn't covert it to b&w but I did focus on warming up the skin tones and brightening
her eyes....

Very nice selection of photos Patnanna!

[kinetic]

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1353/2009072020at20162909cop.jpg

[Hype]

Wow Mark, Just wow!

[Pat]

Beautiful, Mark.

[kinetic]

Hype and Pat thank you very much for your comments; hopefully Patnanna like’s it.
Mark

[jomanros]

Great work Mark! Congratulations!:)

[kinetic]

Thank you Jomanros..
Mark