Just taking a breath

[baongoc124 (Bao)]

Hi,
I shot this today near sunset. Granted the light is not interesting but the subject attracted me. Anyway, I struggled to get acceptable color so I converted it to black and white. I have to say I also don’t like my black and white edit.

I hope that our forum full of wizards can enlighten me with their edits. Comments on shooting techniques or angle … are also welcomed. I’m a newbie.
(I don’t care if it’s true to life. As long as it looks good it’s ok.)

Cheers!

DSC00138_01.arw.xmp (12.3 KB)
Oops, forgot the raw.
DSC00138.arw (41.5 MB)
This file is licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.

[Jade_NL (Jacques)]

taking.a.break.pp3 (15.8 KB) RawTherapee 5.8 (Development)

Different crop and a slight colour grading.

Thanks for sharing.

[Thomas_Do (Thomas)]

DSC00138.arw.xmp (12.7 KB)

[hannoschwalm (Jens-Hanno Schwalm)]

I would say this is just perfect for b&w. Nic1!

[Jade_NL (Jacques)]

I like the muted colours in yours.

[baongoc124 (Bao)]

@Jade_NL like your crop a lot. Thanks!

@Thomas_Do I like the feeling your edit gives. Thanks!

@hannoschwalm Thank you for your kind words!

[Tim (Tim Cuthbertson)]

dt 3.4.1

DSC00138.arw.xmp (8.3 KB)

[CarVac]

With Filmulator:

• Auto CA Correct 2
• Highlight Recovery 2
• Temperature 4387.8
• Exposure Comp -1/3
• Drama 67
• White Clipping Point 0.73
• Shadow Brightness 223

[ggbutcher (Glenn Butcher)]

This is one where I’d want to do a local adjustment, burn-in the face a bit. In rawproc, with no local tools:

I grayscaled it while still linear, filmic curve, and a crop to taste.

[paulmatth (Paul Matthijsse)]

Done in ART, Color/Tone Correction, crop.

DSC00138.jpg.out.arp (10.5 KB)

[age]

DSC00138.arw.xmp (13.9 KB)

[arctic (Andrea)]

Using dt 3.5 and filmic

DSC00138.arw.xmp (9.5 KB)

Edit: second version using dt 3.5 and sigmoid

DSC00138.arw.xmp (8.2 KB)

[kakashy (René)]

Testing B/W in darktable 3.50
DSC00138.arw.xmp (12,0 Ko)

[Jean-Marc_Digne (jmdigne)]

Thanks for posting, I cropped to focus on the man
darktable 3.4.1

DSC00138.arw.xmp (12.6 KB)

DSC00138_01.arw.xmp (22.2 KB)

[sls141 (St.Stephen)]

@Jean-Marc_Digne Nice crop!

[spidermonkey]

Like the tonality of both of these, will have to look at how you achieved it.

[baongoc124 (Bao)]

Nice crop! I also like the crisp look too.

[Underexposed (Bill Martz)]

dt 3.5

Edit: decided it was too blue; fixed.

DSC00138_11.arw.xmp (100.7 KB)

[Equifan]

Pretty close to the crop I was considering submitting.
You eliminated the “noise” on the right side. Maybe step back out just a tad (more as observer than intruder)…

[Underexposed (Bill Martz)]

Made a BW using

The mathematically correct “Decompose/Bucket Fill the A and B channels/Recompose” method for GIMP 2.9
https://ninedegreesbelow.com/photography/lab-lightness-to-black-and-white-gimp29-photoshop.html#decompose-bucket-fill

First, I changed the color calibration again on the above image:

DSC00138_13.arw.xmp (108.0 KB)

Then I switched to GIMP and used the above BW method: