What is your BW preference?

Cunniffe66_

Cunniffe66_

Suspended / Banned
Messages
505
Name
Steven
Edit My Images
Yes
Quick Question, whiich do you prefer when creating a black and white conversion; subject - white / background - black or vice versa?

I know the subject often swings one way or the other but for those that could be done in both ways which do you tend to go for?

Steven.
 
I assume you mean portraits ?. Surely that all depends on the mood you want in the shot.

Or am i missing something really important ? ...
unsure_1_.gif
 
Are we talking true black and white, where it's litterally black and white, no grey shades or middle ground. Where you set the threshold of luminosity to decide how much is white and how much is black?
 
I'm speaking generally, for all kinds of photography.
as in do you prefer darker backgrounds or lighter backgrounds.

This was probably a silly question I was just curious.
 
so when converting a colour file to b/w, there is a choice between having a dark background or a light one ?

wouldn't you choose it before you took the shot..:thinking:
 
no, you're missing the point.
You're thinking of portraits and 'setup' shots.

That's understandable, I should've been clearer.
For example, if I took a shot of a heron that had an equal amount of light and dark values to it, and the green background could be toned darker or toned lighter you could process the BW conversion in two very different ways.

You could go light subject/dark background or the opposite way around.
 
Surely for a portrait would depend on the skintone of the subject???????? ;)
 
*shakes head
I don't do portraits at all (yet) so my question has nothing to do with portraits.
Landscape, macro etc.. you can't go and paint a tree a nice shade of blue before you shoot it..
 
:lol:

would you prefer a white heron on black or a black heron on white...


I'll take mine on granary.....with mayo...:nuts:
 
Cunniffe66_ said:
This thread fails...
Click to expand...

The problem is that people (myself included) don't understand the question. The background and subject are what they are when you photograph them so what to you mean about what people prefer when doing a B&W conversion? or are you on about creating a negative image (Changing black to white and white to black) ? :shrug:
 
I THINK I might get it - using CS4's BnW conversion layers - if you slide the yellow slider to the left you can make green tones a lot darker, to the right and it'll lighten it up quite substantially. So - for a wildlife shot, with lots of O-O-F foliage as backdrop, you could choose a brighter or darker background. Would that be what you are considering?
 
TheBigYin said:
I THINK I might get it - using CS4's BnW conversion layers - if you slide the yellow slider to the left you can make green tones a lot darker, to the right and it'll lighten it up quite substantially. So - for a wildlife shot, with lots of O-O-F foliage as backdrop, you could choose a brighter or darker background. Would that be what you are considering?
Click to expand...
Yes Exactly!
Sorry I presumed most people had control over individual tones when creating a BW conversion, rather than just being able to click "make it black and white".

That is exactly what i meant but you can also invert the image too...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top