Anyone got tips on taking black and white photos? I tried converting some of my photos to black and white but they don't look that good. I tried googling and found some stuff about how photos need to be taken with the intent of being black and white because you're needing to focus on different things in the shot and all that, but I don't seem to be able to get anything decent.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

IIRC black and white is all about contrast. So you want some deep contrasting colours in your shot. Or using light and shadow to have contrasting areas. Things in well-lit nature shots like plants and foliage don't work well as they all just end up kind of grey or similar.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aw but nature is all I have to take photos of :(

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Might have to get in close on something with a good colour to get it to contrast with the background. Maybe open aperture so you get that nice bokeh background

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm using a cellphone and I hate that out of focus background style because it reminds me of the super fake background blur that phones like to do to make the subject of the photo stand out. I will try not to forget to have a go this week and post something in the post. I didn't get to it today and things tend to be out of sight, out of mind for me.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah yeah the fake bokeh on phones did look terrible. Can’t beat the subtle look of it on a proper camera with a decent lens.

I should probably try do something for the post too. I feel like I have no creativity with photos any more. I’m the same, I forget about the post after a day. Can it be pinned or similar?

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can’t beat the subtle look of it on a proper camera with a decent lens.

Yeah, shame I don't have one 🙁

Can it be pinned or similar?

I forgot that was a thing 😆

The two options for pinning are community and local. Pinning in the community means it's at the top when viewing !newzealand@lemmy.nz, but it doesn't change anything when looking at the subscribed/local/all feeds.

Pinning in local means it's at the top of the feed, but only for lemmy.nz users. A good half of !newzealand@lemmy.nz subscribers have their accounts on other instances. I also think it's annoying having a post pinned to the top of the feeds.

I have pinned it in the community, which I think is the most appropriate. However, it might not be enough to remind me 😆. I actually wrote it on my to-do list now, so maybe I'll remember to do it before next Friday.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 year ago

Fair compromise. I tend to sort by new a lot and once it falls off the front page, like you said - out of sight, out of mind 😅