Posted by Karl Buiter on November 16, 2013 at 3:38 PM
.. continuing a bit of the earlier story from Second Winter Storm.
Good lunch was found at Village Smithy in Carbondale. I met up with Jimmy Gekas and his friends - all the names escape me - as they were touring Colorado on their own loop.
Carbondale is a fairly good crossroads, as one can easily reach the Aspen area, Marble area, McClure Pass, and looking on the map Kebler Pass and Crested Butte with some driving. Mt Sopris is just to the south of town, and other peaks are easily within grasp.
But enough of Carbondale. I headed back south that afternoon to Maroon Bells to shoot sunset at the far end of the lake, one of several locations I scouted with Doug Koepsel earlier that day. But unlike earlier, the sky was filling with dark winter storm clouds. I set up and waited, and waited, and took several test exposures and waited, and barely a shade of pink appeared before the sun ceased to illuminate the cloud tops. Grumble.
Yet I was still interested in the shot comp, as it had been shot yet again with my new toy, a 24mm Tilt-Shift, and that meant a quick stitch job on the laptop. Yep, I liked the sweeping curves, but the color was just bad. Decided to look at it again later when I got back to my home studio.
To be honest, I just dont do much black and white. I like it, but I am not a student of it. I suppose there is a yellow/black book called B&W for Dummies I could use. Heh.. ok I decided to pull out NIK Silver Efex and pick a preset, then play with it some. I was pleased with the essential result, then went back in today with Vivesa for some selective dodge and burn.
And then crop. I really worked to retain the sweep of the top mountain curve and the "mirror" curve of the water. Its a different type of mirror than Maroon Bells is famous for.
So yep, I think a much better image than the dingy color version I started with.
A larger 1200 size is in View Larger.
Posted by Kane Engelbert on November 16, 2013 at 6:29 PM
Hi Karl, I think the clouds make this comp work but I'm not digging the huge pool of water shot at such a fast shutter speed. Its just too busy for my eye. The B & W application just intensifies the scene, essentially going from busy to nervous. The overall image is way too contrasty for my taste. Be careful with that Structure slider in Silver Efex, it has a tendency to cook highlights and shadows all at once. Karl, I recommend processing your image in histogram, staying in midtones, then finishing up in Curves.
Posted by John Mumaw on November 17, 2013 at 5:58 PM
I like the b&w rendering you chose and the unique composition from this range. Exposure and contrast look mighty fine to me. This is an excellent image, Karl!
But (..there's always a 'but', right?), the first thing that caught my eye were the ripples in the water. If perchance you didn't capture them at a slower shutter speed, then maybe backing off of Clarity and/or Structure (as noted earlier) would help 'soften' them up a bit. I would recommend a crop down to just above the ridgeline on the right in order to lose a good deal of the large area of blank blue sky near the upper left corner.
I applaud you for capturing something unique from this iconic area!
Posted by Karl Buiter on November 17, 2013 at 8:26 PM
John - yes, I shot at 1/30 F8 ISO1600, so yes the water was caught fast. I do generally like catching water at long exposure, so at best I can remember I changed that up because it was likely breezy with the front coming in. Or I was more occupied with the sky and/or the three-image TS-E shift issues. The crop is a fine idea.
Kane - I'll take a look at my processing pipeline with B&W. As noted, this is an area I need to learn, so tips like these are appreciated.
I'll see what I can do with softening stuff up a bit. It will give me a chance to learn more about the conversion.
Posted by Stan Rose on November 18, 2013 at 9:07 PM
Yeah, i like the comp, has some potential. but it's either oversharpened or too contrasty (or both). You might play around with some variations in the conversion, might help.
Posted by Karl Buiter on January 22, 2014 at 2:18 AM
Took a long break on this one. I agree what I had was really contrasty. Not sure what I had for breakfast that day.
So I played again. Different B&W filter, and cropped a bit tighter in the vertical to reduce open sky.
I am not totally sold on this, but let me know if this is a better direction.
Discussion
5 repliesGood lunch was found at Village Smithy in Carbondale. I met up with Jimmy Gekas and his friends - all the names escape me - as they were touring Colorado on their own loop.
Carbondale is a fairly good crossroads, as one can easily reach the Aspen area, Marble area, McClure Pass, and looking on the map Kebler Pass and Crested Butte with some driving. Mt Sopris is just to the south of town, and other peaks are easily within grasp.
But enough of Carbondale. I headed back south that afternoon to Maroon Bells to shoot sunset at the far end of the lake, one of several locations I scouted with Doug Koepsel earlier that day. But unlike earlier, the sky was filling with dark winter storm clouds. I set up and waited, and waited, and took several test exposures and waited, and barely a shade of pink appeared before the sun ceased to illuminate the cloud tops. Grumble.
Yet I was still interested in the shot comp, as it had been shot yet again with my new toy, a 24mm Tilt-Shift, and that meant a quick stitch job on the laptop. Yep, I liked the sweeping curves, but the color was just bad. Decided to look at it again later when I got back to my home studio.
To be honest, I just dont do much black and white. I like it, but I am not a student of it. I suppose there is a yellow/black book called B&W for Dummies I could use. Heh.. ok I decided to pull out NIK Silver Efex and pick a preset, then play with it some. I was pleased with the essential result, then went back in today with Vivesa for some selective dodge and burn.
And then crop. I really worked to retain the sweep of the top mountain curve and the "mirror" curve of the water. Its a different type of mirror than Maroon Bells is famous for.
So yep, I think a much better image than the dingy color version I started with.
A larger 1200 size is in View Larger.
But (..there's always a 'but', right?), the first thing that caught my eye were the ripples in the water. If perchance you didn't capture them at a slower shutter speed, then maybe backing off of Clarity and/or Structure (as noted earlier) would help 'soften' them up a bit. I would recommend a crop down to just above the ridgeline on the right in order to lose a good deal of the large area of blank blue sky near the upper left corner.
I applaud you for capturing something unique from this iconic area!
John - yes, I shot at 1/30 F8 ISO1600, so yes the water was caught fast. I do generally like catching water at long exposure, so at best I can remember I changed that up because it was likely breezy with the front coming in. Or I was more occupied with the sky and/or the three-image TS-E shift issues. The crop is a fine idea.
Kane - I'll take a look at my processing pipeline with B&W. As noted, this is an area I need to learn, so tips like these are appreciated.
I'll see what I can do with softening stuff up a bit. It will give me a chance to learn more about the conversion.
So I played again. Different B&W filter, and cropped a bit tighter in the vertical to reduce open sky.
I am not totally sold on this, but let me know if this is a better direction.