Nightscene during lunar eclipse

This was created during the lunar eclipse, and referred to in this post. Completely orange in the original due to tungsten lighting, but it somewhat works in black & white.  It’s not an earth-shaking image, but I do like the contrasts of the organic & mechanical, as well as the deep dark of the sky.

Post processing with Silver Efex Pro.

'Twas a snowy day

(image straight off the scanner)

This would be the German-built series, and it does pretty well.  There have been a few situations where a light leak has cropped in, but all salvageable images.  And beautiful grain, relative to digital.

Everything and the Kitchen Sink

Click through to view the large size – you can see the grain on it in full detail.

Technical details:

• Fomopan 400 (ISO 400) film;
• 1/60 at f/4;
• Drastically under-processed (used 1/3 the developer required, made for incredibly weak result);
• Shadow details brought back with ACR (Adobe Camera Raw);
• Dust & Lint removal from scan in Photoshop CS5;
• Single pass of sharpening;

Interestingly, I found that I can’t do much in the way of sharpening on these guys.  It sharpens grain more so than edges…

Campground Outhouse

My Father-in-law visited once, many years ago, from overseas. While travelling around, he marveled at the rest and camping areas – so civilized, not even smelly. Shoot, even clean, with toilet paper that’s not immediately stolen!

Despite the worldwide recession, I’m finding that this is still the case. We must be rich – people aren’t stealing the TP (reality: it’s usually locked up pretty well – you’d have to be fairly motivated).

Last month, we went camping.  As usual, the restrooms were surprisingly non-smelly, and the exteriors were… surprisingly clean.  Of all the photos that weekend, this was my favorite.

Rolling Kohala Hills

Rolling Kohala Hills, B&W

I never really intended to process this in B&W. To me, the tones of the green & blue of the sky were far too similar, and the low contrast would do no-one any favors.  After being prompted by a Flickr-friend, I decided to go for it.  This took a surprising amount of time to come up with something I found halfway passable.  Most of the work was done in NIK Silver Efex, with a tiny bit of dodging after that, and a very controlled sharpening layer in the end.

Overall steps:

• In Silver EFex, left defaults at “Normal”, then:
  • Dropped structure by 10% (roughly)
  • Upped contrast by 10% (roughly)
  • Added an orange filter (red was too harsh)
  • Added control points in the sky & darkened
  • Added control points to the left bank of clouds & slightly upped structured
  • Added control points to grass, slightly upped contrast and structure, lowered/darkened grass
  • Added control point to shadow, darkened
  • Added small control point to tree, lightened, dropped contrast (!), and upped structure significantly
  • Processed to a new layer
• On the new layer: dodged the tree slightly, at 30%.  A few passes, lightly, on a tablet.  Eventually got some detail back in.
• Added luminosity sharpening layer, then masked to hide everything.  Brought back in the tree, left everything else unsharpened.  Tree was at 80% opacity by the end.

Schoolyard Abstract, Color

Schoolyard Abstract, Black & White

The first is full color (despite appearances). The second has been converted to B&W with Silver Efex Pro.  Any preference?

I personally lean toward the full B&W version – I find that the appearance of selective color distracts a bit due to the proximity to cliche.

Young ferns, fighting through the recently-cut grass in our backyard

Sometimes it’s hard to be motivated. For me, this usually means that I’m too busy – working long hours, not enough time away from the computer, and not sleeping enough. When I get to that point, I go numb. The world is flat and uninteresting.

I can usually snap out of that by doing something new and interesting – going to someplace new, or finding a new perspective.  Witness the rooftop pic I took recently – that was inspiring.

Today?  Not so much.  It’s drizzling, but not heavily.  The mosquitoes are out, and I’m itchy.  It’s not warm, kinda dank and grey.  I’ve fought my way to the end of a tough week, but I haven’t had my normal opportunities to exercise.  I’m tired and somewhat cranky.

So I’m fairly unmotivated.  How to get around that?  Shift perspectives!  Yesterday I decided to find something that would come out decently in black & white.  Witness the ferns to the right (click for a larger pic – the larger one is much better!).

Details on this: completely manually focused.  In the flat, grey light it’s pretty uninteresting, but by boosting contrast in photoshop, the fronds begin to stand out.  Shift to black & white with NIK Silver EFex, work in some grain & add to contrast & you have this.

Not bad for 5 minutes of work.

In post-processing, I did actually do a bit of burning to the shadows of the trunk, and dodged the details back in to some of the branches. When working in black & white, I usually stick to that – I feel it’s closer to the original techniques in the darkroom.

Bird Creek Tree in B&W