I have found that experimentation with some older photos sometimes yields nice results. I had an old safari photo of Zebras taken from a little too close - and from the moving vehicle the results weren't the best. A few months ago, I was digging through old photos looking for stuff to play with in processing - just to try new styles out. ; I noticed how the zebra patterns caught my eye, and decided to try a close crop of the zebras, convert to B&W, and go for a high contrast look - extreme B&W. ; I darkened down the background distractions as well, and just went for the bold patterns. ; The end result I thought was actually kind of cool: It can give you some idea of how the lions on the Serengeti can get confused with all those B&W stripes herding together...trying to pick out where one animal starts and the next ends, especially if they are all in motion. ; Another example of nature's interesting way to evolve for survival!
Thanks all. ; A good advert on why not to delete photos that were on the fence or average - someday in the future, an idea may strike or improvements in technology occur that let you turn those old average photos into something cool or artistic. ; And it's just fun to play around with old photos sometimes!
Wait a minute...zebras are black and white! ; ; You really did a great job in making this pop. ; To me it looks beyond B&W. ; Very striking.
Indeed they are. ; ; I wanted to go for a real high-key, low-key, extremely contrasty look, and all those green bushes and such in the background were taking away from it a bit. ; I just wish I had more zebra shots to play with! ; Those things are kind of wily - and I actually didn't see ANY on my last two safaris.