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Session One of the Creative Black and White course started this week and it takes you back to basics with editing your image in colour then continuing to edit it in the BW module in Lightroom.
Our exercise is to do just that and post the side by side image to Flickr. Rather than use an image out of my archives, I wanted to shoot a whole new image and yesterday I spent some time in my shaded courtyard with my macro lens.
This is a pink clover in full bloom, and keeping in mind some of the artistic concepts I deliberately shot this to be a very shallow depth of field with a lot of softness. When I edited in in LR I used a preset which boosted the colour on the edges to give that shocking pink tone to the edges and it also bought in some softness which I liked.
The BW conversion is only via LR – no futher presets were used here. I did bring up the blacks a tad to add the slightly crunchy edges where the colour is a bit darker.
Honestly I’m not particularly overwhelmed with this image, I like it and it was good practice with using manual focus with the macro lens. I did spend some time playing with my lovely Kim Klassen Still Life Presets and this one below is Rain and its quickly becoming a favourite.
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I shot specifically for the soft focus look because I knew I was going to use one of these presets on the image. They are a very different style and colour/tonal palette to what I normally work with but I am enjoying the images they create much more than I expected.
Here I love the softening of the pink, but there is just enough colour to show the tiny details in the petals.
So three different variations of the same image – which one do YOU like and why?
Learning to See Light 
I think the macro clover was a good choice to work with. There are a lot of versions you could do when converting to b & w. Love your colour image at the bottom.
Thanks Raewyn, yes the softer pastel colours really seem to work there, and its so NOT my usual style 🙂
I like the subtlety of the Kim Klaasen preset – softly muted. When working in BnW do you find you have better control converting from colour than shooting in a BnW camera setting?
I shoot in full colour so can’t answer, sorry. Everything I have read or heard on the subject recommends you shoot in colour and convert in post so that you capture the maximum amount of data.
Much prefer the KK preset, the softness of the preset compliments the softness of the taken image and makes me stay in the only sharp area where the detail is, much more so than the other two.