I struggle with Black and White ~ HELP: Took a hike on a snowy day in Western Pennsylvania and took this photo. I struggle with black and white and I'm looking for CC, thanks.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

Took a hike on a snowy day in Western Pennsylvania and took this photo. I struggle with black and white and I'm looking for CC, thanks.

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

A great scene in the woods. To your question, try three changes:

Make the image a bit brighter overall.
Make the contrast greater, with the whites a bit whiter and the blacks a bit blacker.

If you'd like, confirm if you'd me to post an example of these minor changes.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

CHG_CANON wrote:

A great scene in the woods. To your question, try three changes:

Make the image a bit brighter overall.
Make the contrast greater, with the whites a bit whiter and the blacks a bit blacker.

If you'd like, confirm if you'd me to post an example of these minor changes.

Go for it! And thanks!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Here you go. I also cleaned some white specs / distractions in the tree on the left and cropped just a bit from the right, with the goal of removing anything that takes my eye away from the trees and cabin along the trail. Open and view full-screen as the embedded thumbnails have changed recently at UHH. This version is resized just for sharing. If you want a full-sized file, confirm, and I can send via PM.

(Download)

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

rydabyk wrote:

Took a hike on a snowy day in Western Pennsylvania and took this photo. I struggle with black and white and I'm looking for CC, thanks.

When taking snow pictures, your metering system gets confused with the pure white and as you can see it turns the snow grey. If you were taking a picture of a black horse, your metering system would turn that horse grey. So you have to think like your camera. When it see's snow it says this very bright and I will see it to see it as 18 percent grey and tell you to shutdown the aperture by 2 stops typical. So you need to tell your camera to give you plus exposure to make the snow white. Each camera is different as to how you tell it more Aperature.

No need too struggle. It is mind over meter.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

rydabyk wrote:

Go for it! And thanks!

rydababyk,

May I try my hand at this too? It's "old school" but polite to ask an OP for permission to work on a photo.

Bob Yankle sends ..... Keep smiling!

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

CHG_CANON wrote:

Here you go. I also cleaned some white specs / distractions in the tree on the left and cropped just a bit from the right, with the goal of removing anything that takes my eye away from the trees and cabin along the trail. Open and view full-screen as the embedded thumbnails have changed recently at UHH. This version is resized just for sharing. If you want a full-sized file, confirm, and I can send via PM.

Thanks so much, I appreciate the comments. I should have caught those pesky snowflakes on the tree

(I need to be more aware of edge control sometimes) and I liked the subtle re-crop.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

Bob Yankle wrote:

rydababyk,

May I try my hand at this too? It's "old school" but polite to ask an OP for permission to work on a photo.

Bob Yankle sends ..... Keep smiling!

Of course, and thanks for asking.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

PixelStan77 wrote:

When taking snow pictures, your metering system ge... (show quote)

Thanks!

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

I upped the contrast, upped the brightness, lowered the highlights and as you can see, cropped it vertically. The path tends to make this image more vertical in composition rather than horizontal for me. Also I found the tree framing on the left side being out of focus being a distraction.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

ORpilot wrote:

I upped the contrast, upped the brightness, lowered the highlights and as you can see, cropped it vertically. The path tends to make this image more vertical in composition rather than horizontal for me. Also I found the tree framing on the left side being out of focus being a distraction.

I originally looked at this in portrait orientation also but I just wasn't keen on the way the cabin became more prominent. I really do appreciate the feedback.

Thanks!

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

rydabyk wrote:

Of course, and thanks for asking.

Like CHG CANON, I cleared up the edges of the tree to the left, and while I didn't crop the right side, I blended in a bit of the border to remove a white sliver, using Content Aware blending. I actually started out by using PS CC 2020's Camera Raw filter, and moved the Highlights Filter to the left (darkening the snow) and the Shadow/Black sliders to the right, to bring in more detail from the trees. I then used the Dodge Tool to brighten up the snowfield considerably, bringing it closer to the tone of the path. I used Topaz Adjust to spread out the tone patterns in the snow and trees so as to differentiate the details, then used Stroke to add a 2pixel "frame" around the edge of the image.

Thank you for giving us access to your image.

Bob

(Download)

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

ORpilot wrote:

I upped the contrast, upped the brightness, lowered the highlights and as you can see, cropped it vertically. The path tends to make this image more vertical in composition rather than horizontal for me. Also I found the tree framing on the left side being out of focus being a distraction.

Your tonal range is the best of all examples. Why, pure whites and pure dark images.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

Bob Yankle wrote:

Like CHG CANON, I cleared up the edges of the tree... (show quote)

Thanks! The more I looked the more I can see where I was a bit aggressive when i originally "Dodged" the path.

I appreciate the feedback, thanks!

Walt

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

PixelStan77 wrote:

Your tonal range is the best of all examples. Why, pure whites and pure dark images.

Thanks, Lots of years doing B&W silver printing plus classes with Minor White and Ansel Adams, back in my College Days