File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
Hi /p/,

I got my first roll of b&w film back from the developers today (I don't have the time or space to develop myself). If I'm going to do more of this, I'm going to need a lot of practice - it really does need a different way of looking at shots. Many would've been great in colour but now disappoint, while others were surprisingly effective (pic related).

Two questions, though. These shots look better than a simple digital conversion to greyscale of a colour photo. First, is there an easy way to convert a colour photo to monochrome and get similar results? Secondly, would I get similar results by shooting to b&w on a DSLR?

Any other hints?
>> Anonymous
>a simple digital conversion to greyscale of a colour photo.
There lies your main problem with color to b/w pictures. A direct conversion to greyscale or a desaturation of color leaves images rather flat. There are many techniques to get your black and whites looking better. A quick thing to do, if you have CS3, is to apply a red filter to the image (I believe under image > adjustments) and then with CS3 you can use the handy "black and white" button, and adjust the levels of colors accordingly.

I'm sure there's much better ways to do it than that though.

As for the photo, well, it's fairly boring.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>223926

Sorry for the boring shot - when displayed full-screen the pattern has an interesting way of drawing the eyes... Not something I noticed when taking it, of course.

How about this one? Bad lens flare, I know...