Q&A Session with Martin: B&W Photography

Here's a post from a late-comer to this great thread. I captured this yesterday at the top of Arctic Valley Road. The starkness of the tree against the blue sky caught my eye...

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And here's my first pass at a conversion...

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Ah, using a hard brush for those sharp edges is a good tip/reminder. Thanks. And I really like your latest conversion. Looks great!

Just trying to get into the swing of things
Still haven't got into the techniques from Martin but where do I get mort time in the day???

C&C welcome

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Okay Martin. Here's my attempt at your latest challenge. This was a tough one for me. I didn't totally eliminate the contrail from the sky... and didn't get the sharpness in the far trees I was aiming for... Maybe I dodged out the details? Anyway. This was my best of several attempts.
Beth

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OK, I gave this one a shot too. Again, always trying something different and out of the box.

I loved the contrast in the close rocks so I tried to emphasize it while keeping a dark mysterious mood.
I used the local contrast methods for all of the trees and rock in separate layers with separate values to suit.
I also flattened the water and tried to narrow the sun reflections. I felt the super contrasty water stole something from those awesome rocks. I also left that spot light through the trees as a point of interest. Some people would claim that is distracting, but I find it natural... almost as if the light is actually piercing those trees.
I tried to form the sunlight like a spotlight shining down on the rocks to again boost the focus of the image.

I'm not totally happy with the water... it still looks a little too processed for my liking... but I ran out of ideas to try to improve it.

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When i first seen this i thought no to soft, but the more i look at the water the more i like the softness against the sloping stones, i think maybe if there was a little more texture in the water it would work very good, might experiment and soften the water in my shot, you see ideas eh

Martin

Again Beth a good conversion from you, was not an easy picture to do because of all the lens flare and diffraction, RAitch has given is own look to the picture which i like to see people doing, have a look it might give you ideas

Martin

oh I like thaat effect! even though it looks slightly unreal - I think it looks reaaly interesting

Open~ctrl j~usm~amount 25~radious55~threshold 0~apply~Alt and add layer mask~soft brush~forground to white~paint back where you require the added contast, the usm is only a guide, try the amount anywhere between 13~60 to suit, this might then give the picture the look your after
Let us no how you go with that

Martin
www.digital-monochrome .com

PetersCreek wrote:
And here's my first pass at a conversion...

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I know I'm missing something that would make this a much stronger image but I can't put my finger on it.

RAitch, i was not happy totaly with the edit i did on my resavoir pic, but coudnt put my finger on why, your edit answered that, as you pointed out there was a clash between the water and the stones in the forground, i have re-edited it and taken the harshness out of the water, not as much as you have as i wanted to retain some texture there and i think is 100% improvement, you see we can learn so much with this, tips and suggestions, thanks

This is the re-edit http://www.digital-monochrome.com/jpg108.​htm

Martin

Go to the link tell if you thin

martin-images wrote:
Open~ctrl j~usm~amount 25~radious55~threshold 0~apply~Alt and add layer mask~soft brush~forground to white~paint back where you require the added contast, the usm is only a guide, try the amount anywhere between 13~60 to suit, this might then give the picture the look your after
Let us no how you go with that

Martin
www.digital-monochrome .com

COOL!

martin-images wrote:
RAitch, i was not happy totaly with the edit i did on my resavoir pic, but coudnt put my finger on why, your edit answered that, as you pointed out there was a clash between the water and the stones in the forground, i have re-edited it and taken the harshness out of the water, not as much as you have as i wanted to retain some texture there and i think is 100% improvement, you see we can learn so much with this, tips and suggestions, thanks

This is the re-edit http://www.digital-monochrome.com/jpg108.​htm

Martin

Go to the link tell if you thin

Martin how do you get that star effect on the sun, (sorry if you already said - I didn't see it)

Hi Simon, by stopping down the lens to its smallest apeture , in my case f22, the lens used for these shots is an L series 17~40 zoom, i think it has 8 iris blades and controls flare very well, as no softening of the image occurs just flare and diffraction, to try it just stop down to your lens minimum ape and see what happens

Martin

Thanks guys. Like I said, we can all learn from each other and we're all here to just help (if we can) and learn.

I think I should have applied some sharpening (or more contrast) to the lake after I softened it. I didn't do anything to it after. Perhaps that would give a nice detail that would make it seem a little more realistic.

You just gave me some ideas too. Your water seems nice and soft and dreamy... which gave me the idea of adding some fog to the picture. I'll play with that tonight if I get a chance... I think that would nail the image even more.

Now we're venturing into the artistic portion of photoshop. Some people don't like taking an image too far (when is PP too much?) but I think being creative is what photography and photoshop is all about.

BTW, I like how you highlighted the trees on the far shore Martin. It makes the sun seem like it's right in your face.