Black and White series :]

I've tried doing a little b/w series with a weak total of 4 images..

. .. Still learning ;)

Watch the photos

it's a nice start. i think there are good things in the photos that can be brought out further with some detail work:

photo 1 : lots of grey tons, overcast day? your shot has a lot of medium greys, and i can see you shortened the depth of field to bring her into focus-good call, but getting the right background is important too (i'd try going either lighter or darker than the foreground and with less detail) also, the tree line is a bit distracting- because of the high contrast (i.e. between the trees and the sky) that part draws my attention (instead of the intended subject). also, there's a pole coming out of her head.

photo 2: grey again, there are a lot of things you could do, depending on what you want to emphasize in the pic. if it's things like manmade structures, contrast is always good to sharpen lines, but the sky is already blown out (white), so you might have to compensate for that. trees seem a bit distracting, could blur/ligthen them (i.e. shorten depth of field) to bring out the bridge.

the problem with too much middle grey is that there isn't a point that draws the viewer into the photo, it just seems flat/2D. at the same time, you don't want too much contrast or else photos become unrealistic and flat (again with the 2D). so take more time to picture how things would look in black in white before snapping the photo, you usually want a good range of greys, or you might find that the shot works better in colour.

photo 3: this would be my favourite with a bit of tweaking. there's something almost surreal about those white flowers(?), or maybe because the whole photo is a bit soft. i think you can enhance the effect with a bit of contrast and cleaning up, maybe even some cropping (some photographers swear by in-camera cropping, but if you're just starting out, experimenting with cropping can help you to see natural frames around shots in the future).

photo 4: nice to look at, but i lost interest pretty quickly. i think it's a matter of imagination/preference, i like photo 3 because it made me think about things and not just pure aesthetic. or if pure aesthetic is what you want, pick one or a few elements (line, shape, texture, etc.) and really emphasize them - so in this case, either with cropping or a less distracting background to bring out the grass.

that's all =P hope i wasn't talking out of my ass, but i finally found something i could post about and i guess got a little over-excited.

Im not going to lie.

I hate kind of soft images, like not very sharp, but...

These. These are well, good. I like them very much for some reason, so don't ask lol. Good job!

Thanks for the comments guys..

There's a lot of different ways to look at photos, and no way is more right that the other. Things like the pole sticking out of the head, doesnt bother me personally, but I know a lot of people pay attention to theese things. Also, I didn't take the photos with the intention og making the b/w, I was just playing around.

I've read sometihng on the internet, about a good way to grayscale your images.. I just can't remember where, maybe somone in here knows what I'm talking about?

Oh - and I'm glad you finally found something you could post about ;)

sorry, didn't mean to sound snotty =P they've been telling me that stuff for so many years that it just came pouring out and i've been in photo withdrawal since i started working over the summer (didn't mean to "take it out" on you).

i completely agree about no "right" way to look at photos (all art for that matter), especially since i tend to like the ones that others don't for some reason (i probably just have bad taste =P).