I know, I've been crap at updating the blog lately, but there don't seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment to even cover the basics, let alone find time to go out shooting.
As for this shot: it was taken in Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria) and I may well use it as next week's Mini-PSD as the processing was quite interesting. Take a look at the original, and see if you can tell me why.
captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?
comment byMatteo at 11:45 AM (GMT) on 5 September, 2011
Let me try, maybe because converting with BW adjustment (or camera raw) you were able to separate blue from cyan, darkening the blues and lightening the cyans, something you can't do with a black-white conversion using the channel mixer for instance. I'm not entirely sure but it's a good try :)
comment bydjn1 at 11:50 AM (GMT) on 5 September, 2011
Matteo: close - it's definitely something to do with the black and white conversion - but that's not it :)
comment by Alexis at 05:26 PM (GMT) on 5 September, 2011
Who cares? Wow! Excellent processing. I wonder if you "saw" it at the time you took the picture or if you "discovered" it while trying to process the picture. The micro-contrast at various parts of the image is particularly impressive. One thing that looks slightly artificial to me is the difference between the top right and the bottom right parts. But overall: fantastic!
comment byCarlos Garcia at 05:42 PM (GMT) on 5 September, 2011
I wouldn't mind seeing the results of your work if you processed this as a color image. I do love the B&W results too :) Did you say seascapes? Yes!
comment bydjn1 at 07:03 PM (GMT) on 5 September, 2011
Alexis: this one came together while I was processing it as I wasn't quite sure how I wanted it to look when I was processing. As for the top-right corner: do you mean it looks a bit too dark? If so, I'll probably change it as I was thinking the same thing.
Carlos: yep, seascapes :D
comment bydjn1 at 07:11 PM (GMT) on 5 September, 2011
Alexis: I've posted a slightly different version, that opens up the top-right corner a bit. It's not hugely different, but I think it looks a bit more balanced now.
comment byRobbie Veldwijk at 08:31 PM (GMT) on 5 September, 2011
Really awesome this! Nice contrast
comment byIan Mylam at 02:00 AM (GMT) on 6 September, 2011
Given that some of the blues have become light tones after the b&w conversion (e.g. the band of blue middle top of the image), and some have been darkened (e.g. the face on the right), this would suggest that you have performed at least two b&w conversions biased towards different colour channels, and used a mask or masks to hold back some of the first conversion. There surely must be more than one b&w conversion layer here, as otherwise all the blues would map to broadly similar tones in b&w.
comment bydjn1 at 07:06 AM (GMT) on 6 September, 2011
Ian: yep, spot on. I used three different black and white conversion layers (though only two were especially significant, the third made a minor change to the face on the right), blended using masks.
comment by Alexis at 11:56 AM (GMT) on 6 September, 2011
David: yes, that's what I meant, it looks more natural now -- in my opinion at least
comment bydjn1 at 02:27 PM (GMT) on 6 September, 2011
Thanks Alexis, and I agree - the vignette was too heavy in the original version.
I know, I've been crap at updating the blog lately, but there don't seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment to even cover the basics, let alone find time to go out shooting.
Fortunately, I'll be heading back to the UK soon – for some one-to-one training sessions and my The Art of Black and White Photography and Creating Dramatic Images workshops – so will definitely be out and about shooting some seascapes :)
As for this shot: it was taken in Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria) and I may well use it as next week's Mini-PSD as the processing was quite interesting. Take a look at the original, and see if you can tell me why.
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
image editor
plugins (etc)
cropped?
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
24mm
f/8.0
1/80
aperture priority
+2/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
Camera Raw
Photoshop CS5
none
no
Let me try, maybe because converting with BW adjustment (or camera raw) you were able to separate blue from cyan, darkening the blues and lightening the cyans, something you can't do with a black-white conversion using the channel mixer for instance. I'm not entirely sure but it's a good try :)
Matteo: close - it's definitely something to do with the black and white conversion - but that's not it :)
Who cares? Wow! Excellent processing. I wonder if you "saw" it at the time you took the picture or if you "discovered" it while trying to process the picture. The micro-contrast at various parts of the image is particularly impressive. One thing that looks slightly artificial to me is the difference between the top right and the bottom right parts. But overall: fantastic!
I wouldn't mind seeing the results of your work if you processed this as a color image. I do love the B&W results too :) Did you say seascapes? Yes!
Alexis: this one came together while I was processing it as I wasn't quite sure how I wanted it to look when I was processing. As for the top-right corner: do you mean it looks a bit too dark? If so, I'll probably change it as I was thinking the same thing.
Carlos: yep, seascapes :D
Alexis: I've posted a slightly different version, that opens up the top-right corner a bit. It's not hugely different, but I think it looks a bit more balanced now.
Really awesome this! Nice contrast
Given that some of the blues have become light tones after the b&w conversion (e.g. the band of blue middle top of the image), and some have been darkened (e.g. the face on the right), this would suggest that you have performed at least two b&w conversions biased towards different colour channels, and used a mask or masks to hold back some of the first conversion. There surely must be more than one b&w conversion layer here, as otherwise all the blues would map to broadly similar tones in b&w.
Ian: yep, spot on. I used three different black and white conversion layers (though only two were especially significant, the third made a minor change to the face on the right), blended using masks.
David: yes, that's what I meant, it looks more natural now -- in my opinion at least
Thanks Alexis, and I agree - the vignette was too heavy in the original version.