Q&A Session with Martin: B&W Photography

Hello Folks

Pardon me for digressing this thread a bit. I have a hard time to judge tonal range of any photo. Do you folks have link(s) to some good tonal range guides? I am looking for some thing illustrative rather than theory explanation. Thanks.

Heres a brief explanation Chets
http://gug.sunsite.dk …the-GIMP-v1.0/node60.html
Also thisphoto shows tonal range from white to black with al itermidiate tones

http://www.digital-monochrome.com/jpg23.h​tm

Martin

martin-images wrote:
Heres a brief explanation Chets
http://gug.sunsite.dk …the-GIMP-v1.0/node60.html
Also thisphoto shows tonal range from white to black with al itermidiate tones

http://www.digital-monochrome.com/jpg23.h​tm

Martin

Thank you.

Martin and other interested parties,
I was supposed to be writing a tutorial on HDR this weekend, but on doing some research for it I found this excellent tutorial at luminous-landscape and thought there is no point in re-inventing the wheel:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/hdr.shtml

There is also an excellent application called Photomatrix here http://www.hdrsoft.com​/ which is more automated.
It's about $100 but is quite impressive.
I've just bought it and am having a play with it now.

Heres another to have a go at, this pic was done again using my method of editing, as i have said before the exp as to be right to get this look plus in the taking of this i used a grad grey filter as allways, theses filters help so much i cannot stress the importance of using them, see if you can get the dynamic range thats here by carful use of sective lightening and darkening using layer masks and usm, soz about the dirt in the sky area my scenser realy needs a good wash lol, edited version also for comparison
Martin

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Here's my shot at it. Of course, a little darker than yours (I always seem to go darker). I tried to focus on a couple things.

• no halo
  
• extra detail and contrast in foreground grass (dark and light areas)
  
• emphasis on light projection to tie sky with forground
  
• drawing more attention to the foreground (slight smooth vignette)
  
• add attention to the person (instead of removing) in a subtle way (contrast)

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Guys,
I have been busy those couple of night, sorry could not participate in this exercise. But I will be back.

RAitch, love your conversion.

Thanks, as usual it took a lot of work to make it look not that much different.

Martin,

I guessed I was lucky for the last few conversions! This conversion would be the hardest I tried! Had serveral shots at it still doesn't look close... Need to go to zzzzzz...:p

Regards,
Boutty

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I think you did a good job. The only problem looks like the haloing (which is pretty hard to handle).
It looks like you painted or selected using 100%. If you use a softer brush (30%) to open up highlights it'll blend easier.

Don't want to answer for Martin. The rest looks fine though. You brightened the image up nicely where it's comparable to Martin's. Tone wise, you nailed it. The only problem is the dark trees and the edge of the roof. With several small edits (like Martin recommends) instead of a single dramatic change, you'll be able to clean that up. Just be patient and you'll have a winner.

Good job!

Well Iv'e had a crack at it and I hope it generally looks groovy

I made several attempts at this, took me about an hour, not on this one version but just generally getting the hang of what I weanted to do

haloing is something I just couldn;t get rid of witout spending a lot more time on it, however there were a few odd things that happened , I thinkj perhaps due tpo making a small pic so large to edit, e.g. on one occasion the whole of the top edge of the hut went clean white

Well Iv're done me best in the time - what d'yer think?

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Quite good RAitch, dramatic look to it, i agree more detail in the shadow regions would be better, the sky looks good, what i was asking for you to try and do was give the pic a dynamic tonal range but its lost on this , to dark, but having said that its a good interpritation and you seem always to go this way in your edits so "its your style"

Martin

Hi Botty, well you did mess up a bit on the trees but you have got what i was suggesting a decent tonal range, the sky is nearly perfect for my taste, loads of diff greys there, also the land, again you have managed to pull out the greys there, its a pity that you cocked up lol, on the tress as this is the best conversion so far, try and do it again, but as RAitch says be gentle with the brush tool
Martin

Boutty wrote:
Martin,

I guessed I was lucky for the last few conversions! This conversion would be the hardest I tried! Had serveral shots at it still doesn't look close... Need to go to zzzzzz...:p

Regards,
Boutty

Simon what a great sky you done there, for the rest i would say what i said to RAitch,
"more detail in the shadow regions would be better, the sky looks good, what i was asking for you to try and do was give the pic a dynamic tonal range but its lost on this , to dark," but remember Simon thats only my opionion and its all good fun
Martin