For the past year and a half, I have had another blog, minimalist in nature, with just a picture now and again that I post for whatever reason. I haven’t mentioned it here, but now, I have decided to do so. You can find a link to it on the above “pages” bar. Take a look, let me know what you think. Photography is now a part of my creative life, so I think it should be posted here – along with whatever else I decide to do.
Putzing around with a lot of my images, taken over the years, and all in color, I am looking for ones that I think might look work in black and white. I am looking, analyzing texture and lighting, and then making a conversion to black and white. Mostly I fail.
What I am trying to do is to train my eyes to be able to visualize a picture in black and white before I take it. Given our world is filled with color, I find this especially hard to do. Awhile ago someone told me that people who are color blind in one area or another make great black and white photographers because they do not have the ability to see all the normal range. While I don’t know if this is true or not, I do know that “seeing” in black and white is very difficult for me!
When I first looked at this color picture, it immediately stood out. The original exposure was very dark – underexposed to the point that only the bright white light of the flower stood out. I increased its exposure in LR and saw that it had potential because of the contrast in light and dark. Leaf textures and fine hairs on stems and buds also caught my eye.
I popped it into Silver Efex, and scanned through it. Finally I chose the preset I liked best, and went to work a bit. I increase fine texture, used control points, and then returned to LR for final vignetting and detail enhancement. Last steps were in CS6 for some spot removal and a signature. The end result is not too bad, in my opinion.
Do I really need another new toy? Â I guess so, cuz I bought it. Â And I got a good deal on it from my favorite sewing machine store, too. Â It really pays off to support your local businesses, and it feels good, too.
Anyhow, the video . . . it shows the model prior to the CPX, the CP. Â I am not quite sure why the CP was discontinued – I think I read it had some feed issues. Â The reason the video is posted here is to show some of the attachments and how to use them. Â I like information like that. Â I am watching the video before I play with the machine, and probably others, too, to learn what it can do. Â Then, sit down and read the manual, and get around to playing.
I have been rather out of sorts for the last few weeks. Sorta know why, sorta don’t. Even when I was taking these I felt disgruntled, but looking back on these pictures, I realize I had a truly lovely morning.
I did a little post-processing of one of the few images I liked from my “checking for a light leak” roll of film. I pushed the colors, and upped the detail a little, as well as the contrast. Below is a detail of the same image.
I am rather intrigued by film and how it processes from analog to digital. I now have a roll of Kodak TMax 400 in the Nikon FM2N (same camera that had this image in it), and took it out for a walk under the nearby oaks. Black and white in the woods. I will have the TMax processed and scanned at a professional lab.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 