Oil Well pumping Unit

by Josh Moore
(Bakersfield, california)

Oil well pumping unit horse head and bridle outside Bakersfield, California.

Originally in color and converted to black and white within Photoshop CS3.

I like this black and white picture. The composition is simple, and the sky is clear, creating a nice backdrop.

It's also been taken when there are some fairly strong shadows which adds to the contrast.

Josh says that this was originally a colour photo, then converted to black and white (well done! – read about converting colour photos to black and white here).

It would be interesting to know how Josh converted this from colour, as Photoshop has many ways to produce a black and white image.

My personal favourite method is by using the channel mixer as it allows for fine adjustment of every colour channel.

For photos with lots of blue sky (like this one) it gives you control over how black you want that sky by adjusting just the blue channel, leaving other colours in the photo untouched.

Click to read more about using the channel mixer in photoshop to create great black and white photos.

All in all this has lots of elements that make a great black and white picture.

Thanks for the submission Josh.

Darrell.