A Very Desaturated Recap

So, following yesterday's horsing around one of my friends suggested trying the second, very mediocre, horsey picture in black and white as a high contrast thing. I don't want to give away names, so I'll call him  "Mr. Wood". No, that's too obvious. "Callum", that's better. Well I thought I'd give it a go and here's the result:

If you missed the first attempt, you can see it here (hopefully.)

It's still not amazing, but I think it works better than yesterday. Obviously the main difference is the colouring, but to be honest that bright grass only pulled the eye away from the horse. Now it stands out boldly against the darker trees, but the cloudy sky has gone from overcast to white. Nice. Thanks "Callum"!

I thought this might be a good opportunity to go back and look at some other mediocre shots to see what I could do if I blackandwhiteised them. Yes, that is a word.

First, this shot from the New Forest back in march. This DEFINITELY works better in black and white - I'd kept it in colour before because of the movement captured in the red flash, but actually if anything the train looks even faster in B/W, probably because the door and windows are all less defined.

Finally, the rubbish boy next to a lake on a misty day. I tried this one in black and white at the time, but wasn't a big fan because of the way his jumper contrasted with everything else. This time, rather than going for full black and white I figured I'd try just desaturating everything apart from the red. It definitely brings out the contrast a bit more, but I left a hint of colour still which you can in his skin tone and in the grass. The heavy mist stops the trees on the other side of the lake looking coloured, as they were fairly desaturated anyway. So still not a stunning image, but better than before I think.

Anyway, now I should really do some dissertation. More photos soon - feel free to stick your email address in the box on the right hand side if you fancy getting a wonderful automated email after the morning after I've posted something. There are worse things to wake up to, honest! It's near the top on the right somewhere, if memory serves.

Right, work.

J