# Amish Blacksmith



## PropilotBW (Sep 7, 2015)

Taken in Nappanee, Indiana @ Amish Acres farm.  

I was playing around in Lightroom.  I don't really know much about Black and White, but I felt this picture was much better in BW than it was in color.  

Any suggestions?


----------



## The_Traveler (Sep 7, 2015)

a bit flat and grey, imo.


----------



## pixmedic (Sep 7, 2015)

im not really a big B&W fan to begin with, so I wont comment much on the tonal range...doesn't look _*bad*_ to me though. 
It is nice to see some "street" style photography that isn't just another "here's some random person doing random stuff" shot. 
lot of substance with this one...lot of history and culture. 
I suppose the only other critique I could offer is that personally, I would crop it just a hair tighter and get the last bit of those trees on the far right and far left out of the frame.  (well, you would still have leaves from the left tree, but i think you should crop out the partial trunks at least)


----------



## KmH (Sep 7, 2015)

No one can make much in the way of suggestions without:
1. Seeing the original color photo, and
2. You saying what edits you did to convert from color to B&W.

IMO the wagons, wheelbarrow, and hitching post need to stay in the frame.
The picnic table in the background can go.

I agree the photo is flat and ab it to gray, but that may be because of the cloudy skies. Maybe not.
I say it over and over again. Add supplemental lighting if you want your photos to 'pop'.
A flash unit and umbrella on a light stand 1o feet or so camera right and aimed at the shop would have made a big difference.

How did you convert from color to B&W?
Did you just crank the Saturation all the way down, or did you adjust a variety of color sliders and do some dodge and burn?


----------



## robbins.photo (Sep 7, 2015)

I'd love to see the color version. Say, did you get any shots of the Amish NASA while you were there?

Sent from my 306SH using Tapatalk


----------



## pixmedic (Sep 7, 2015)

KmH said:


> No one can make much in the way of suggestions without:
> 1. Seeing the original color photo, and
> 2. You saying what edits you did to convert from color to B&W.
> 
> ...




um...yes we can. aaaaand....we did. 
in fact, you made several relevant suggestions without seeing the original photo _*or*_ knowing what edits were made so...


----------



## PropilotBW (Sep 8, 2015)

Here's an edit that I did.  Does it look less flat now?  I removed the picnic table, although a really crappy job of it.  
 I lowered the red saturation to almost zero, and decreased the blue saturation to bring out the detail in the clouds, added contrast, clarity, and some tone adjustments.  



 


Original Photo, straight out of camera.


----------



## waday (Sep 8, 2015)

robbins.photo said:


> did you get any shots of the Amish NASA while you were there?


How many horses does it take to break free of gravity and get into orbit?


----------



## robbins.photo (Sep 8, 2015)

waday said:


> robbins.photo said:
> 
> 
> > did you get any shots of the Amish NASA while you were there?
> ...



Roughly 37 million.  Boy, don't they teach anything in high schools nowadays?  Lol


----------



## robbins.photo (Sep 8, 2015)

PropilotBW said:


> Here's an edit that I did.  Does it look less flat now?  I removed the picnic table, although a really crappy job of it.
> I lowered the red saturation to almost zero, and decreased the blue saturation to bring out the detail in the clouds, added contrast, clarity, and some tone adjustments.



Ok, could just be me but I like the color version myself.


----------



## PropilotBW (Sep 8, 2015)

robbins.photo said:


> PropilotBW said:
> 
> 
> > Here's an edit that I did.  Does it look less flat now?  I removed the picnic table, although a really crappy job of it.
> ...



I much prefer color over B&W almost every time.  I just thought converting to B&W was my attempt at making this piece timeless (ignoring the power lines in the background).   I think a Sepia conversion would be nice too, I just couldn't find that "filter" in Lightroom.  lol.


----------



## JacaRanda (Sep 8, 2015)

I like the color version better also.


----------



## vipgraphx (Sep 9, 2015)

I think I would have preferred a different angle and maybe a little lower for composition purposes. The right side background to me throughs this off a bit.


----------



## PropilotBW (Sep 9, 2015)

vipgraphx said:


> I think I would have preferred a different angle and maybe a little lower for composition purposes. The right side background to me throughs this off a bit.



I agree, the background isn't ideal, I can't do much about that without spending time in Photoshop.

For composition, I wanted the chimney showing on the roof, so that's what I was thinking there.  
I though about lower angle, but it didn't feel right.  I don't normally view a barn from laying on the grass.  The wagons would be too tall on the barn from a lower angle.


----------



## Benjo255 (Sep 15, 2015)

I like the BW. I'm distracted by the light pole in the background on the right.


----------



## Tim Tucker (Sep 21, 2015)

Older film was almost always ortho-chromatic, or at least more sensitive to blue than red, the sky is nearly always blown out in old photographs and you have the odd shift of contrasts. Also contrast and sharpness was an issue so lay off the clarity or sharpening.
Shadow detail, oddly, was not an issue. One of the properties of the old uncoated lenses was the overall flare that acted like pre-exposing the film lifting the shadow values. Honestly, I have a 1910 Tessar that I use on my half-plate and it captures incredible shadow detail, just don't point it towards the light. The photo is of the forge with the doors invitingly open, yet your eye is barred from entering because of darkness.
It's when you stop trying to add the detail, sharpness and contrast to make it look like a modern image that it starts to resemble an old one, not just the addition of sepia toning.


----------

