suggestions for these two photos

[Freedbaby]

My son loves to sit on the ledge but by the time I get the camera ready.....nevermind you know the drill. I have been trying a while to get these.

so, its a tough shot for me because of the direction the house faces; I metered the best I could. In the case you can only have one correct. I want to turn these two into black and whites in Photoshop Elements. Can anyone A)critique the photos and B)give me a semi step by step way to turn them into B & W and work on the highlights a bit.....or for that matter any other help these could use.

Here they are:

oh yeah, sorry about the wet dog nose streaks...with two dogs clean windows are impossible.





PS-why cant I post photos using the little "insert image" icon?? I have tried with my flickr but its not working.

Freedbaby

[LEATHERNECK]

Jay....to turn your shot to B/W you have several choices...
Go to enhance and click on hue/saturation then move your saturation slider all the way to the left. Go to the lighting/contrast (enhance) and use those sliders or use the levels adjustments in the same box. In enhance you can also just use the remove color and play with that or pick remove color. Also you can make a duplicate (as in all layer work) and in your palette bin go to monotone colors then drag the color you want into the picture...you can adjust the strength with the opacity slider.

[Donb10]

Jay:

I hope you don't mind my attempt with one of your photos. I don't have "elements" but use Adobe CS2. I cropped out alot of the window then used an action that selects the lightness channel, then inverts the selection to the darker part of the photo, and then changes the blending mode to screen. The effect is adjustable using the opacity slider.

There are numerous methods to convert a photo to black & white. The first example is a modified form of a method created by Gregg Gorman. THe second was done by using a channel mixer layer. This has a built in layer mask which allows you to paint back in some color.

[ara.bentley]

I like your black and white conversion. Not sure I would draw attention to his diaper with the color though - just personal opinion. I'd keep the whole thing black and white if there's nothing better to color.

Very cute little boy!

[Donb10]

Ara:

I agree with you about the color on the diaper. My
intent was to show Jay what could be done with a converted photo. Sometimes, re-coloring, a flower or pretty blue eyes on a child adds a little special affect on a converted photo. In this case of this photo, there was very little color.

[ara.bentley]

gotcha - that was just my first reaction to the colored photo! Agreed - I love b&w baby photos where the eyes pop with some color!

[afrikaner07]

There are several ways to create a black and white.

1. If you have elements 6 (and I am not sure if the previous versions have this) under the Enhance tab you will find Convert to Black and White (or Ctrl + ALT + B). Here you can choose to enhance the effects of certain colors on the black and white, and as best as I understand it, can be used similar to colored filters.

2. Under the Enhance tab, select Adjust Color. Within this section there are a variety of methods to create a black and white, or to remove color.

2.1 Click Adjust Hue/Saturation and the lower the Saturation all the way to the left.

OR

2.2 Click Remove Color.

Going beyond. There are several ways to do selective coloring. My method (and it might not be the best of fastest), is to use the Selection Brush Tool (A). It shares a shortcut with the Quick Selection Tool. Rightclick on what looks like a stick with a crop section on the icon. Select what looks like a brush with a crop section on the icon. Now you have a brush that you can use to select things. I normally feather it, in other words, if you look at the line shape next to the brush size, you will see it has either harsh edges or softer edges. To go from harsh edges to soft edges (feathered) hold Shift and press [ repeatedly until you get the look you want. To go from soft edges to harsh edges hold Shift and press ]. Sorry if I am providing too much information, I just want to be thorough.

Now that you have the Selection Brush Tool selected, you can select the eyes of the person or thing in the photo you want to retain color with. I usually zoom in for this. (CTRL + or -). If you have selected too much, you can press ALT and remove the selection with your mouse. Now that you have the proper selection, you can selectively sharpen the eyes with the unsharp mask or do whatever else you want with it to make it look they way you want. Once the eyes are the way you want them, you need to select the inverse of the selection. Under the Select Tab click on Inverse or press (Shift+Ctrl+I). This will select everything but the eyes (or what you want to eventually leave in color). Now repeat the previous steps to remove color and tada! you have your selective coloring.

Now it might not be the fastest or easiest way to do it, but you asked how, so I thought I would share my method for doing it. I hope this helps, and if I confused you even more, send me an PM or something.

Cheers,
Johan

[jstpeter]

I think you have gotten some great info on the B&W conversion so I will focus my response on critiques.

If this is an West facing window try to get him over there later in the evening with some soft light coming through, this can really create some very nice natural lighting on the face. A bounced flash could also help by highlighting the subject a little more and taking away some of the harsh shadows that are out of place. Some shadows are good if properly toned in a B&W but in this case the shadows are a little harsh taking us away from the subject. The crops on the edits do improve the overall composition of the photo so I would look to shoot a little tighter next time. Like you said timing is not easy with toddlers but natural light through a window can produce some great images. It just takes patience and a sometimes mother nature can help. For example if you get a rain storm through that clears in the early evening you can get a beautiful golden light coming through windows. Also something that may help is possibly shifting your view a little to the side so you are not shooting directly into the window. This can give some great natural light highlights on your kiddos face.