Photoshop Creative

I've done a few things to make the original color photo better but I decided to do a black and white conversion.
Comments always welcome.
Chas

The B&W looks too flat to me, Chas,
And..... I'm not good enough at B&W Conversions to Know how to fix it.

If you look at the color version, there is enough (not a lot but enough) color variation in the background to make it interesting. Plus, the "arms of the V" have streaks of tan that provides enough color contrast to make them stand out. Lastly, the blue sky gives another color contrast.

The conversion produces an awful lot of the same grayscale and most of your interesting features disappear. The sky ain't so hot either.

If you were working in RAW, the clarity slider might do something to midtone contrast. One thing you might try is to bring up a Shadows/Highlights adjustment. Pull both of the top two sliders all the way to the left so nothing is changed and then start moving the bottom slider, Midtone Contrast, to the right. See if that does anything; I've had success with that in the past. Another alternative is to duplicate the layer and play with blend modes.

I like the color version. Good eye to spot that very interesting subject.

Rusty

Rusty,
Thanks for your comments. The b&w version was done using Michel's technique. I had a lot of problems with the contrast. Added contrast wiped out the sky. So I backed off on the contrast. It does seem flat with a lot of mid-tones. I'll work up another version. The color photo was done in RAW....original color version definitely needed it.
Chas

Chas, on the black and white, go ahead and bump the contrast up a little and use the dodge and burn tools to lighten and darken some areas. Use the burn on the edges especially.

Edit: Not sure what Michel's method is. Here is what I did. Ctrl U, desaturate, burned the top edge slightly to define the edge of the photo and burned the areas of the dead tree that had the tan color. With some conversions, less is more.

Good job, Kim,

I had thoughts of dodge/burn but I don't use that much and, consequently, am not very good with it. When I see now what you did with it, that's clearly something I need to get better with.

I had one other thought...



I used the PSE5 Convert to black and white option on the color version and did nothing other than clicking the Infrared radio button. Sure got contrast And, the sky looks better too. But, I like what Kim did to the "tan edge detail" better.

Rusty

I could not resist.
I have tried 12 B&W variants on different layers in a PSD file (warning, 7 mb...)
http://mbret.club.fr/bretchermichel/bristle.psd
Excellent shot.

I love the image, Chas. The color one is super!!! Have been away for a few days, so it is interesting to see the other takes on the B/W

Chas, I think the real picture is somewere here.
See attachment.

Senor Don,
I have a cropped version almost as closely cropped as yours. I really wanted to show just the uncropped color vs, black and white.
Thanks for all the interest in this photo.
Chas

Michel,
Fine rendering of the photo. My b&w technique needs a lot of work.For some reason I'm always fearful of making the b&w too dark. I'm glad everyone is showing their creativity
with this photo. BTW I really like your bird photos on Nikondigital.org.
Chas