Dramatic Shadows Exercise

I snapped this picture at National Taichung Theater. I think the shadows are quite interesting and black and white editing might be the way to go to get the most out of it.

I usually edit in color so my B&W editing could be improved for sure. I would like to check how you all go about editing this picture.

Edit in B&W

The challenging part of this edit I think is darkening the shadows without making the image too noisy as a result.

Edit in Color

20241031_0873.RAF (28.6 MB)
20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (31.5 KB)
20241031_0873_01.RAF.xmp (21.1 KB)

This file is licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.

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20241031_0873.RAF.arp (11.4 KB)

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I rarely edit photographs in black and white, so an interesting exercise for me.
My attempt in GIMP.

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20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (15.9 KB)

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Play with B&W contrasty look


20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (39.3 KB)

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20241031_0873_01.RAF.xmp (21.2 KB)

20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (20.1 KB)

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A second attempt!

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Tried to emphasize the blocks and the lines between them. DT 5.0.0

20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (11.5 KB)

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With ART 1.24.5


20241031_0873.RAF.arp (11.9 KB)
Greetings. Roberto

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20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (7.3 KB)

I slightly improved the contrast.

7 Likes

Hello,

Here is my proposal, personally I also find that black and white suits this image well.
I tried to highlight the graphics of the photo.


20241219_0435_03.dng.xmp (13.2 KB)
Darktable 5.1 (Master)

Happy New Year,
Christian

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I almost never do BW conversions … here I used RT’s BW Tool


20241031_0873_RT.jpg.out.pp3 (15.9 KB)

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20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (13.0 KB)

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My fun with DT. Inspired by those TV shows and movies where a single colored umbrella is used in a BW scene, but this time a blue cap will suffice to draw the viewer’s attention.
20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (15.6 KB)

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RT - apse improv branch


20241031_0873.jpg.out.pp3 (20.4 KB)

Emphasis on tones rather than contrast. Cropped to give just enough context and a field for the subject to move in.

Colour version of the same crop. Tuning the contrast in the paving to balance surface and individual pavers.


20241031_0873-1.jpg.out.pp3 (20.5 KB)

Constrasty with film grain


20241031_0873-2.jpg.out.pp3 (23.2 KB)

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Inspired by Fan Ho style


20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (14.3 KB)

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I went in a completely different direction…I wanted to isolate (visually) the shadows and put a random focal point in the background.
Severe crop and chose to highlight the white box in the background with a drawn and feathered exposure mask. The rest of the image was adjusted with my usual left to right scene referred module adventure. I like the toning I saw further up the thread that boosted the concrete, and I chose to stay in color, even though I really like all these black and white renditions.
Edited in dt 5.0 Windows
20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (21.0 KB)

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20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (27.1 KB)

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20241031_0873-6.jpg.out.arp (11.3 KB)

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With DT 5
A negative B/W:


20250103_20241031_0873.RAF.xmp (11,5 KB)

Greetings!

5 Likes