Pixiq

I am not a black and white photographer because I love color so much.  But some images look so dramatic in black and white that I am compelled to explore those possibilities.

A case in point in the photo of a Balinese dancer I photographed in Indonesia about ten years ago, above.  I always loved the shot, and in preparing for a webinar today for Nik Software, I experimented with this image in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.  Color images always lose contrast when converted to black and white – this happened in film and now it happens in the digital realm, too – but using the presets in Silver Efex takes care of that problem.

When I opened the software and saw this photo as a monochromatic image, I realized that the dancer needed to be highlighted.  Using one of the control points, I lightened just the dancer.  That made her stand out from the complex background.  To further dramatize the effect, I then added a dark vignette to force our attention in the center of image. 

 Finally, I selected one of the many tones in Silver Effects to add the blue color.  As much as I like the original photo, I think the black and white toned image has a lot of drama and visual impact.