Canyon in Utah (plus edit)

[Ben Egbert]

I have decided to find old images and convert them to B&W for presentation here. This is near newspaper rock in Utah in the canyon that leads to the Needles district.

CC welcome

Edit per Jim Dockery's suggestion with GND

 

[JimFox]

I like it Ben! That's a great composition and the B&W looks pretty good. I could see some more contrast in this being added, but as it is now it has a nice tone to it.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Jim, I also thought it needed more contrast, and did add some, but did not like the look. As you know, I am not well versed in B&W. I am using Topaz Studio 2 for my conversions. Any tips would be helpful to me.

 

[AlanLichty]

I like your B&W processing for this scene. There are a lot of ways to to enhance contrast when converting to B&W but in this case I like the simple balance you chose for this one.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Alan, I will be doing more of these and hoping to grow my skills in B&W processing.

 

[Amy Nelson]

Great shot Ben.....Love it!

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks so much Amy, means a lot to me

 

[Jim Dockery]

Nice shot Ben. I might pull down a bit of a GND filter from the top so it isn't so bright right on the edge. The contrast looks good to me, but if I was in Silver FX I might add some structure to give the clouds some more drama.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Jim I have done some cloud enactment in Topaz but if you think it needs more that’s a good call

 

[Ben Egbert]

Ok, I added an edit, I used about 50% of the effect for this one, so I could go more.

 

[AlanLichty]

The edit looks quite nice.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Alan, the edit was more dramatic in Photoshop, less when converted to JPG.

I went looking for Nik silver EXF and see that it's a $79 download. I have used it in the past, but I am not sure I cant get the same results using Topaz.

 

[AlanLichty]

Silver Efex is part of the Nik suite that DxO now handles. I am still getting by with an older version dating back to when Google owned the old Nik suite but am waiting for the day when it stops working before ponying up the $$ to DxO. Silver Efex is still the standard for B&W processing for me.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Nice edit Ben. Looks nice in B&W. Like Alan, I have the free version of Nik suite which works fine. I do use SilverFx mostly but sometimes use Viveza as well.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I used to have the free Google version, buy lost it during an upgrade.

 

[Jim Dockery]

Nice work with the edit Ben.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks for the advice Jim