The color works…but

Yes, I’m still digging into my archives because I haven’t been out shooting for the past week. It seems like forever to me but I’m sure most readers don’t even notice. Looking at photos from this time last year, I noticed that we had a nice covering of snow which, of course, makes things somewhat pretty around here. When there is no snow in January it’s just a filthy brown/gray mess. That means taking any nature and landscape type photos are out and I need to focus on urban detail and macro shots if I want to do any type of shooting at all. So it looks like I’ll have to make a trip into the city soon.

In the mean time, I found some photos I took in Pittsburgh last summer. I originally processed these in color but I was curious how they would look in black and white. The first shot of the gate and doorway was all about color. The brightly painted walls were the subject, but it takes on another look completely in B&W. The second shot of the iron gate had subtle color, especially in the glass inlays but the B&W leads the focus to the lines.

I processed both of these in Photoshop using Topaz B&W Effects for the conversions. I played around with contrasts and some dodging and burning and finished with some slight vignettes. How successful they are as B&W photos (or even photos in general), I’m not sure, but it was fun to revisit them and try something new. In fact looking at these in black and white has tempted me to go out and shoot only for black and white for at least a week. Since there is no color to speak of anyway, it should be fun.