Church in Black and White

[MonkeyWrench]

Our town like so many small towns is blessed with many picturesque churches. This one is one of the most photogenic. Let me know what you think.

[SmartWombat]

Is it red brick?
I think it deserves colour.

[MonkeyWrench]

Okay here is the colour version.

[PrevailingConditions]

I like the color version better. Is there a time of day when the sun is on the front? Having it in the shade doesn't really do it justice.

PC

[Greg McCary]

The B&W seems a bit flat. How did you convert this? Also why is it cropped so tight at the bottom. I really like the church, great subject....

[Frog]

I like the color version better, too. Does seem cropped a bit tight especially on the right.

[MonkeyWrench]

I like the color version better. Is there a time of day when the sun is on the front? Having it in the shade doesn't really do it justice.

PC

I was facing west when I took this picture. So I guess a morning shot would provide that. I'll give it a look next Sunday morning. Thanks for the advice.

[MonkeyWrench]

The B&W seems a bit flat. How did you convert this? Also why is it cropped so tight at the bottom. I really like the church, great subject....

Thanks Greg. I've wanted to take a picture of this church for some time and finally got the chance/time this last weekend. I think it is a great subject and posted it's picture to get some tips to help me capture it better. I used Picasa2 a free Google tool for all my post processing. To my shame I have PS .7 but have not taken the time learn it. Both you and Frog mentioned the tight crop. Welllll. The only wide angle lens I have is the 18-55mm kit lens that came with the camera. This is as much as I could fit in from my vantage point. The only cropping that was done was when I used another editor Helicon Filter to take out the distorted angles. Both sides of the church were angled in. I then expanded it horizontally to adjust for the squeezing from adjusting for the angel distortion. This cropped some of the sides and I lost some of the bottom when I had to straighten it a little. Do you think I should try a vertical pan?

[Greg McCary]

I like the Composition just fine. It seems to need a little unsharp mask to sharpen it some. gahspidy has a great technique for B&W coversion on his site. Well worth a visit. It covers a couple of methods.
Greg

[MonkeyWrench]

I like the color version better, too. Does seem cropped a bit tight especially on the right.

Thanks Frog. For the record, I like the color version better too. I posted the BW first because I am starting a BW class this coming Monday and I was using my digital to get a feel for some suitable BW shots. About the crop on the right. The church has yet another part that comes off the side. I took it out because I thought it was distracting. I'll take another look and see what works best the tight crop our include it. Thanks.

[MonkeyWrench]

I like the Composition just fine. It seems to need a little unsharp mask to sharpen it some. gahspidy has a great technique for B&W coversion on his site. Well worth a visit. It covers a couple of methods.
Greg

Thanks Greg, I'll give it a look/try.

[GB1]

I like the color version better, too. Does seem cropped a bit tight especially on the right.

I agree with Frog. Color rules here, but the crop is just too tight... makes me want to stretch out and push the frames out some more.

GB

[Xia_Ke]

My vote is not to knock the b&w yet on this one. I think it just needs little more umphh. I played around with a couple different b&w conversions on this shot and with a little more pop, a b&w version definitely gets my vote.

[Frog]

I later wondered if there were another part of the building itself on the right so I can't really say if it should or shouldn't be less cropped on the right.
If you're good at editing I suppose you could take a wider shot and then clone out what you don't like. It's a great subject for sure.

[MonkeyWrench]

I later wondered if there were another part of the building itself on the right so I can't really say if it should or shouldn't be less cropped on the right.
If you're good at editing I suppose you could take a wider shot and then clone out what you don't like. It's a great subject for sure.

Thanks Frog, I plan on doing a re-shoot and plan on taking some pics this Sunday Morning. One before church and one after to catch the morning sun. This Church is canty-corner from the one I attend. I'll try and shoot wider, but 18mm is as wide as I go, and am not sure how much further I can backup.

[jbaldocchi]

Beautiful church. I think your image cropping is too tight. Also the angle of the photo could use some correction to make the building look upright.

Cheers,

Jim B.