Posted by Chuck Beatty on August 21, 2007 at 11:32 AM
Tim's posting inspired me to get out this morning and shoot my favorite local waterfall. A visit to the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Cleveland Institiute of Art this past weekend inspired me to try it as B&W.
We received lots of rain over the past few days, so I figured Blue Hen Falls would be rolling. It was still drizzling this morning when I was shooting. I converted to B&W using the Channel Mixer in PS. I think it worked pretty well, but if anyone has a better way to do B&W conversions I'd be happy to hear about it.
Hope you've all survived the deluge. Some places got a lot more than we did--but I still spent most of yesterday bailing out the basement.
As much as I like the waterfall, I really like the way that the background fades into the fog, which helps to draw you more to the falls, I feel. It's going to be wet & rainy here all week, and everyone's thoughts have helped me. I'll be out tomorrow, I think...
Lovely tones and soft light Chuck. This is certainly a picturesque falls, and I recall having seen a number of variations of it here on the midwest forum. Personally, I'm not 100% sold on the foreground here, partially because I can't quite distinguish how far away the middle foreground rock actually is. Anyhow, a minor nit, it's a very nice shot.
Posted by Jack Graham on August 21, 2007 at 3:16 PM
Chuck,
I really like this a lot. As we know, that background at the wrong time can really be blown out. This seems to solve the problem.
Af far as B & W goes... check with Bob K. He uses a different plug in ( I think its Convert to B & W Pro, by Image Factory). I haven't tried it but I think Bob swears by it.
Chuck
This really works nice as a B&W. Ansel was on campus quite a few years ago for a week long workshop. Very inspiring.
Phil
Posted by Chuck Beatty on August 22, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Thanks for the comments, folks. For those of you interested in B&W conversion, there's a good tutorial here:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-black-white.htm I tried both the channel mixer and the Hue-Saturation adjustment filters and got similar results with this image. On images with strong blue skies I found the second method gave a more dramatic look in B&W.
Tim: Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
Joel: the foreground rock is probably 20 feet away and 10 feet down. I shot from a ledge, so there's nothing but air between me and the nearest foreground element. I've tried shooting low to include the edge of the ledge, but have never been happy with the results.
Jack: I'll check with Bob about that plug-in. Nice post on the PNW forum (looks just like the CVNP!)
Phil: I think it would have been great just to listen to Ansel's stories of being in the field in the days before you had to get in line to visit Yosemite. I know seeing his images at full size and up close was a great way to spend a Sunday.
Chuck - haven't seen you at the market in few weeks. Saturday is shaping up to be the first rain-out of the year.
Anyhow - yes, the plug-in is called "Convert to Black & White Pro". It is very oriented towards anyone who used to do traditional silver based darkroom processes. I think it is way more extensive and logical than any of the other methods including the facilities in CS3 or Lightroom.
Send me a downsized JPEG and I'll give it my interpretation. Or I could try it on my version of Blue Hen, but the results would different since my original has the Fall colors.
Chuck - I worked the file over. I'm not sure the results are any more effective than what you squeezed out using channel mixer, but, this took 10 seconds from start to finish.
I think you and I had the same aim as far as tonal mixing.
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Wow - I just noticed - the rendering on this website KILLED the fine tonal gradations I see in photoshop. I saved it in SRGB, quality 8. What's up here? All my other hosted pictures elsewhere have no problem. Does NPN reprocess images on the fly? Nasty and harsh.
Posted by Chuck Beatty on August 23, 2007 at 12:25 PM
Bob - Thanks for taking a run at this. I like the sepia tone that you applied. Typically, I would do that with curve adjustments. I have standard curve values that give a nice sepia tone similar to what you arrived at. Sounds like your software does everything I do -- plus things I haven't considered -- and a lot more quickly.
Discussion
8 repliesWe received lots of rain over the past few days, so I figured Blue Hen Falls would be rolling. It was still drizzling this morning when I was shooting. I converted to B&W using the Channel Mixer in PS. I think it worked pretty well, but if anyone has a better way to do B&W conversions I'd be happy to hear about it.
Hope you've all survived the deluge. Some places got a lot more than we did--but I still spent most of yesterday bailing out the basement.
D70s, 18-70 @ 18mm, 6 sec @ f/18, tripod, polarizer
As much as I like the waterfall, I really like the way that the background fades into the fog, which helps to draw you more to the falls, I feel. It's going to be wet & rainy here all week, and everyone's thoughts have helped me. I'll be out tomorrow, I think...
Good work,
Tim!
I really like this a lot. As we know, that background at the wrong time can really be blown out. This seems to solve the problem.
Af far as B & W goes... check with Bob K. He uses a different plug in ( I think its Convert to B & W Pro, by Image Factory). I haven't tried it but I think Bob swears by it.
It's nice to see some action in the MWNP!
Way to go Chuck.
JG
This really works nice as a B&W. Ansel was on campus quite a few years ago for a week long workshop. Very inspiring.
Phil
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-black-white.htm I tried both the channel mixer and the Hue-Saturation adjustment filters and got similar results with this image. On images with strong blue skies I found the second method gave a more dramatic look in B&W.
Tim: Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
Joel: the foreground rock is probably 20 feet away and 10 feet down. I shot from a ledge, so there's nothing but air between me and the nearest foreground element. I've tried shooting low to include the edge of the ledge, but have never been happy with the results.
Jack: I'll check with Bob about that plug-in. Nice post on the PNW forum (looks just like the CVNP!)
Phil: I think it would have been great just to listen to Ansel's stories of being in the field in the days before you had to get in line to visit Yosemite. I know seeing his images at full size and up close was a great way to spend a Sunday.
Anyhow - yes, the plug-in is called "Convert to Black & White Pro". It is very oriented towards anyone who used to do traditional silver based darkroom processes. I think it is way more extensive and logical than any of the other methods including the facilities in CS3 or Lightroom.
Check out: http://www.theimagingfactory.com/data/pages/info/cbwp.htm
Send me a downsized JPEG and I'll give it my interpretation. Or I could try it on my version of Blue Hen, but the results would different since my original has the Fall colors.
I think you and I had the same aim as far as tonal mixing.
--------------------------
Wow - I just noticed - the rendering on this website KILLED the fine tonal gradations I see in photoshop. I saved it in SRGB, quality 8. What's up here? All my other hosted pictures elsewhere have no problem. Does NPN reprocess images on the fly? Nasty and harsh.