Let's see your black & whites!!

Camera equipment and technique for taking photos.
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j babu
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by j babu »

vonmackle wrote:Lone Eagle Peak from Mirror Lake
LoneEagle-2689.jpg
Nice pic. I love this area.
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by mount_quandary »

Vonmackle...would you mind sharing some of your camera settings with your moonlight pic? Thanks!!!

Actually I would love to see that on everyone's pictures, I have really enjoyed everyone's shots but would love to see what your setting choices were with the picture!! :-D You all have amazing photo's!!!
I belong to a photo group and that is a requirement for posting a photo for Challenge of the month, it is awesome to learn from each other this way! Thanks!!
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by djkest »

Probably not even worthy for this thread, but I like it. I have a hard time envisioning what pictures are better for black and white. The cloudcover makes for some interesting shadows.
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Mark Curtis
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by Mark Curtis »

djkest wrote:Probably not even worthy for this thread, but I like it. I have a hard time envisioning what pictures are better for black and white. The cloudcover makes for some interesting shadows.
I think that's the nice thing about this Photography sub forum.....we are not snobs and everyone is encouraged to submit whatever they have. In this shot....as you alluded....I like the dark clouds and the peeks of sunshine on the forest.

Typically what makes a good candidate for black and white is strong contrast......as well as a tendency toward having somewhat of a monochromatic look even when shot in color (though certainly not imperative). In this case, with the relative colors not being central to the photo's appeal.....it makes for a good conversion. The only suggestion I would have for improvement might be to add some contrast in post processing (but also fine as is). Otherwise, the composition is nice.....having good balance both vertically and horizontally.
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by jduncan »

There are some great photographers on this site. I love seeing the work of others and sharing in a common passion of the high mountains and photography.

I figured I would post a couple from my recent climb of Pyramid Peak. The first one is a panoramic from the top looking west toward the Bells, Snowmass and Capitol. The second is an typical view of the Bells from the base.
Pyramid Peak Panoramic.jpg
Pyramid Peak Panoramic.jpg (282.31 KiB) Viewed 3267 times
The Bells.jpg
The Bells.jpg (273.81 KiB) Viewed 3267 times
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by vonmackle »

Mark Curtis wrote: I think that's the nice thing about this Photography sub forum.....we are not snobs and everyone is encouraged to submit whatever they have.
Agreed. People tend to play nice here. I enjoy seeing what everyone has to offer. Don't be afraid to share.
mount_quandary wrote:Vonmackle...would you mind sharing some of your camera settings with your moonlight pic? Thanks!!!
No problem. For that picture I used a 30 second exposure at f/4, iso1600. The moon was just past first quarter, so I would have preferred a bit more moonlight. I've been doing all of my conversions in Lightroom. One thing I'd really like to figure out with this shot is a way to bring out the brighter stars. The Big Dipper is actually hiding in that jumble of stars.
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by djkest »

vonmackle wrote:
Mark Curtis wrote: I think that's the nice thing about this Photography sub forum.....we are not snobs and everyone is encouraged to submit whatever they have.
Agreed. People tend to play nice here. I enjoy seeing what everyone has to offer. Don't be afraid to share.
mount_quandary wrote:Vonmackle...would you mind sharing some of your camera settings with your moonlight pic? Thanks!!!
No problem. For that picture I used a 30 second exposure at f/4, iso1600. The moon was just past first quarter, so I would have preferred a bit more moonlight. I've been doing all of my conversions in Lightroom. One thing I'd really like to figure out with this shot is a way to bring out the brighter stars. The Big Dipper is actually hiding in that jumble of stars.
Could you try using a brush? You could either use a broader brush and paint over the big dipper, and then tweak that in LR, or just make a small dot on each star you want to highlight and tweak them.

ETA: I may try running my B&W through lightroom again and see what happens when I put a little more contrast in it. I did crank up the "clarity" which tends to reduce saturation anyway. It was kind of a smokey day, so it's not going to be super clear I'm afraid. Darn wildfires. :/
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by vonmackle »

djkest wrote:
Could you try using a brush? You could either use a broader brush and paint over the big dipper, and then tweak that in LR, or just make a small dot on each star you want to highlight and tweak them.
Aha! Thanks for the brush suggestion. I already had the entire sky selected with the brush so I could control its brightness independently. Within that selection I just pulled the clarity down to -100 and that did the trick.

New
Valhalla-3141-2.jpg
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Old
Valhalla-3141.jpg
Valhalla-3141.jpg (148.42 KiB) Viewed 3153 times
Still could use some more tweaking, but it's an improvement.
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by vonmackle »

djkest wrote: I may try running my B&W through lightroom again and see what happens when I put a little more contrast in it. I did crank up the "clarity" which tends to reduce saturation anyway. It was kind of a smokey day, so it's not going to be super clear I'm afraid. Darn wildfires. :/

If you haven't already, you could try selectively adding contrast using the brush tool over the hazy distant mountains and the clouds.
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by mount_quandary »

Vonmackle ...Thanks I enjoy seeing what is chosen for settings ...especially for night shots...I'm just getting into that myself and was having difficulty with the tripod I had...fixed that with a much improved Tripod(my old one did not properly support my camera with the 75-300 Lens) I actually like your original I think the clarity is better there. It's really an incredible shot!! Thanks again for sharing!! I don't live in Colorado BUT cannot wait to come back next summer for now I will enjoy what all of you are doing and practice techniques to bring with me :)
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by vonmackle »

mount quandary- Thanks. I'm more than happy to provide the settings for my photos, and I'm sure many others on here would do the same. By the way, there's some great night sky photos on the Night Sky Pictures thread if you haven't seen it yet.
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Re: Let's see your black & whites!!

Post by mount_quandary »

:) Oh you can bet I've been lurking on the Night shots as well! Looks like I have 1 yr. to practice & improve my night shots...we are coming back next year!! I am thrilled beyond words!! and to have my new camera will be amazing!! thanks again!!
Hold your head up high, keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky, live like you're not afraid of dying, don't be scared just enjoy the ride!
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