Spring is just around the corner in my little region of the world here in nothern California – in fact things have already bloomed – like daffodils, japanese plum/cherry trees, hyacinths – but it’s still a bit blustery and cold today – we’re on the cusp of seasons. I came across this image and thought it would make a great black and white, as there wasn’t much color when we did the hike – only green grass, a pale blue sky, and bare trees. But the ‘bones’ were there – the graphics of the trees, and the texture of the grass – all brought out by the light. And that’s all it takes at times for an image to work in black and white better than it works in color. It takes some practice to see in black and white if you are used to working in color. You must learn to see the tonality changes, not the color or hues, of each element in the frame. If you have some contrast of tonalities,  it will likely make a decent black and white. The simply way to find out is just try it on many of the pictures you’ve created and see what you learn!

I converted this using Nik Software – namely Silver Efex Pro 2and the Tonal Contrast filter from Color Efex Pro 4. Frame and text was added in Photoshop CS5.

This image was made with a Canon 5D MKII, and 24-105mm f4 lens,  f/14 at 1/15 sec.

Back to editing!