Maple leaf, 100X, in color and B&W

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon May 21, 2007 9:09 pm

Natural colors...

B&W, curves stretched to increase contrast.

Colors with same curve stretch.

"Ken made me do it!"

OK, I confess -- I was testing a new copy of a lens, and since the maple leaf subject was unrelentingly GREEN, I decided to try rendering it in B&W to get some eye relief. Pic #1 is like the camera saw it (with a bit of sharpening), pic #2 is the same image converted to B&W in Photoshop plus some curves adjustment to punch it up, and pic #3 is the color image again with the same curves adjustment.

To my eye, it's pretty obvious that a curves adjustment that looks just fine in B&W is flat-out garish in color. And I think in this case, I like the B&W rendition best of the bunch.

FWIW...

--Rik
Technical: Canon 300D, Olympus 38mm f/2.8 bellows macro lens at f/2.8 and maximum extension, moderate crop. Stacked at 0.0005".

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Mon May 21, 2007 11:04 pm

Very nice Rik!

It even makes an impression like kind of liquid is circulating through the veins.

And if it is what it looks like, maybe, if you shot burst of images, you can find a slightly different pattern of cells inside the veins on other images.

Actually, I think you got a "bloody" excellent image!

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Tue May 22, 2007 2:42 am

I see my remark about excessive green did not go unnoticed.

I cannot say which I prefer in this series of images Rik. Maybe I am living in the past but black and white shots taken at high magnifications are reminiscent of my school science textbook images and I do favor such images too. I remember when running across color plates in such books were something special.

It is a good idea, posting both color and black and white images for comparison, though I think most will prefer the color image. Irwins remark about, "for black and white images to be good, they have to be great," really makes a lot of sense, for they have to be taken in such a way as to profoundly capture ones attention. Considering that statement, I would say black and white photography seems to be more demanding of the photographer. Color seems to solicit ones attention, where if it were black and white, it would have to demand it.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:59 pm

Well, I prefer the color photo. The color helps me identify the subject better than B&W in this case. Without the color, I would be guessing at the ID, it could be snake skin. It seems that if the subject has some great forms and very contrasting shades, they will work in B&W. Sorry, but the B&W here is kinda boring where the green is alive and vibrant IMO

Ken is right, you really have to pick the right subject to get good results in B&W. I would take the photo in color and then mess around and see if it works in B&W, if it didn`t, I would still have the color copy of the photo.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue May 22, 2007 6:14 pm

beetleman wrote:Well, I prefer the color photo.

Would that be color #1 or color #3?

I'm kinda conflicted, myself. As I type this, I'm on a different monitor in a different room, and what looked garish last night just seems impactful right now -- like it's a stained specimen or something.

--Rik

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Wed May 23, 2007 4:19 am

I would have to say #3. The details are more pronounced.