Views on this B&W conversion?

[Swordfish]

Given the rotten weather I've been playing about with split raw conversions (in B&W in this case).
Any critique of the result welcome:

Before - after normal processing in LR4 - it was a very drab day so it still looks a bit flat:



After combining two raw conversions to improve the sky and further tweaks in PSE:



Thanks

Martin

[Imageryone]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

That works a treat, just what this image requires to really bring it to attention. Is this , by any chance, Nene Valley Railway?

[grissley]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

much prefer the first image, softer.
the second image is to much in your face.
great shot.

[Seonnaidh]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

The first shot is overwhelmed by too much blank sky top left and middle right.
Your processing has taken it to just about the limit and looks pretty damn good to me.

[al_kaholik]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

Its number 2 for me, captures the grit of what steam is about. It is well processed as Seonnaidh has pointed out, the loss of some little details doesn't bother me for the result

[Bikie John]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

The first looks good to me, except for the washed-out sky. The second is better but a bit overdone, so I would suggest somewhere between the 2. Combining raw "exposures" and so on is probably overkill, all it really needs is pulling the sky back a bit and LR should let you do that pretty easily.

Nice shot, anyway.

Ciao ... John

[Guest]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

The second image looks a bit unnatural, mostly the dark "smoke" from the engine. And the drama of the sky/atmosphere competes with the train, to me, the latter being powerful enough on its own. I do agree with Seonnaidh that the blank area is too much. I'd try a tighter crop and a treatment of the sky that falls somewhere in the middle between the two. It's a beautiful photograph, in both cases, though.

[alfbranch]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

The first shot is overwhelmed by too much blank sky top left and middle right.
Your processing has taken it to just about the limit and looks pretty damn good to me.

I agree with this the second one for me. If you hadn't shown us both people would have just told it was good

[Swordfish]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

Thanks for comments. I tried the technique out of interest more than anything else as I couldn't get enough detail in the sky in LR4 alone, but I agree I may have gone a tad too far to the dark side.

It was taken last October at the Great Central Railway (Rothley Station) on a major steam weekend. I'm afraid I don't know what the loco is as I'm not really a train buff - I just like them as subjects.

Martin

[sponner]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

+1 for number 2

[DerekC]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

I do agree the bland sky lets the 1st image down, but the sky in the 2nd image is very close to being over done. The smoke looks a bit dark, but it depends how heavy the fireman was being with the shovel. (Tends to be a thing at some galas to over fire to produce black smoke for photographers)
By the way the engine is 'Cheltenham' a Southern Railway 'Schools' class.

[Roberta]

Re: Views on this B&W conversion?

Prefer the first with a crop to get rid of the blank sky.
I have started using this for BW conversions.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/cameras/by-the-power-of-greyscale-20120620-20mmw.html

but I am no expert.