TeChnique
10 easy mono effects
sTarT image With messy, muddled tones, all the atmosphere in this picture (SNOWDONIA.jpg) is being lost.
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Dodge & Burn for atmosphere B
Give your black & white shots a helping hand with this traditional darkroom technique technique & pictures by kingsley singleTOn
ecause black & white pictures rely on shapes and textures for impact rather than colour, you need to know how to make the most of what’s going on in your shots. take our example picture for instance – it’s not a bad picture in itself, but the simple, desaturated version shown above is a bit of a flat, muddled mess where the shapes of the rock in the foreground and the receding hillside are almost completely lost.
start convert to mono. open Snowdonia.jpg from the Start images folder on our cd and press Ctrl+Shift+U to convert the picture to mono (or use one of the conversion methods explained at the start of this guide). check there’s a full range of tones in your pic by pressing Ctrl+L to open Levels and drag the Black and white point sliders in to meet the ends of the histogram. hit oK.
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contrast this with the finished version and you’ll see that the picture has extra clarity and depth – and it’s all thanks to some precise tonal adjustments using the dodge and Burn tools in photoshop or elements. this process is very similar to traditional hand-printing and it’s a really nice tactile way to work up your shots, giving you the feeling that you’re interacting with the image, just as though you were making a print in an old-fashioned darkroom!
final image By selectively lightening and darkening parts of the picture using the Dodge and Burn tools you can make it shine!
copy the picture. we’re now ready to start the handprinting process, but we want to do it safely, so first copy the picture to a new layer by pressing Ctrl+J. open the layers palette (window ➔ Layers) and you’ll see it appear as Background copy above the original. working on this new layer will let you compare your work with the original and fix any mistakes along the way.
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inspiration
Portfolio Ray Bradshaw Up until 2010, Digital Photo reader Ray Bradshaw worked as a potter and owned a tiny compact camera, taking the occasional snap. He now makes a living selling his photos in various guises via his thriving waterfront gallery in Cornwall interview by katE hardy 48
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inspiration
Left: ‘Hot Cobb’ – the famous Cobb landmark in Lyme Regis, Dorset, is stunning and is a particularly well-photographed location. Here Ray captured it at 5am in the morning!
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hEn SuE BradShaw arrived home from a trip to truro with a copy of Digital Photo for her husband ray, he was instantly hooked. having been given a copy of photoshop he was keen to learn all about it and the magazine was “just what he needed”. his interest then snowballed so he invested in a
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canon eos 5d Mark ii and lenses then set about learning “the skill of landscape photography.” within months ray was making a living as a photographer, putting his work on frame mounts and canvases, and displaying it via his waterside gallery in st Mawes, cornwall, “where i have a thriving business selling my imagery in different ways.”
Above: ‘Evening Glow’ – Godrevy Lighthouse with rocks in the foreground. Godrevy is a spectacular stretch of North Cornwall coastline, owned and managed by the National Trust.
Moving from london to cornwall 15 years ago, “to escape the rat race”, ray bought a dilapidated cottage with some outbuildings, turning one of them into a pottery workshop. he bought a potters wheel and “worked day and night” for several years learning the art of throwing pots. he eventually started picking up sales and
Below: ‘Rocky Walking’ – Trebarwith Strand, Cornwall, at high tide, “a fascinating sight of powerful surging seas pounding over the rocks creating a hypnotic scene.”
getting into better galleries, then six years ago decided to buy the gallery in st Mawes, “i haven’t made a pot in over a year now as all of my time is devoted to photography!” the sudden change in ray’s life is quite remarkable – did working in pottery stand him in good stead for photography? “being a potter and running a
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Your Pictures our ExpErt opinions on your bEst digital imagEs Every month in Digital Photo, we run a critical eye over readers’ images and give expert advice on how they might be improved
Meet your experts Jon adams is Digital Photo's editor – he knows great images when he sees them and how to coax top results in camera – or in Photoshop.
Kingsley singleton is Digital Photo's Deputy editor – he's an expert in Photoshop and camera skills and is always ready to help out with imaging problems.
get involved! send us your best pics & get an honest appraisal if you’d like your photography and image-editing to benefit from our experts’ opinions, e-mail your selection of images to:
dpimages@bauermedia.co.uk Please put ‘your Pictures’ in the subject box so we know you don't mind a bit of constructive criticism!
Blackheaded Gulls By Beatrice Myers Beatrice shot this at Newmiller Dam country park near Wakefield, yorkshire. she used a beanbag to lean the camera on some railings while shooting in continuous mode. "the action of the camera caused the beans in the bag to shift and vibrate, which made the background appear almost like a pastel drawing." Beatrice’s shot has not been manipulated in any way. Jon says: Beatrice's shot is a great example of how experimenting with a slow shutter speed can really pay off. though the subjects are indistinct, it gives a fantastic sense of the birds' movement, resulting in an almost
impressionistic style. using a beanbag as a camera support when you're out on a shoot is normally a way to keep things sharper, but here, the camera must have sunk slightly on the bag during the exposure, the shift causing camera shake and a double impression of the background, and that's what's caused the gritty pastel-like texture in the background. Kingsley says: although Beatrice has chosen not to manipulate her photo, the whites are looking a little grey and would benefit from a bit of a boost. By injecting a healthy dose of contrast into her image, she could really make those vivid blues and whites pop out, resulting in a pic with loads more impact. having said that, it's an intriguing image and one to be proud of.
● technique tip
get creative with shutter speed arguably one of the easiest ways to capture creative results with your D-sLr is using slow shutter speeds, allowing you to blur movement and create abstract effects, as in Beatrice's picture. if you want to try something similar, switch your Mode dial to shutter priority (s or tv) and dial in a speed of around 1/8sec. Finally, set the isO to the lowest setting (usually isO 100 or 200). Don't worry about setting the aperture – in shutter priority mode the camera will take care of this for you.
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CANON eOs 5D MARK III vs NIKON D800
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hen nikon Announced the d800 earlier this year it was only going to be a matter of time before canon responded with a new full-frame, enthusiast d-slr. as expected, the 5d Mark iii arrived a month later and sparked questions as to whether it would be a match for the d800’s impressive specification and jaw-dropping 36.3Mp resolution. rewind to 2008 and it was a different story entirely... when nikon launched its previous full-frame enthusiast
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d-slr, the d700, it featured a conservative 12.1Mp sensor compared to the 21.1Mp chip found in its closest rival – canon’s 5d Mark ii. clearly the tides have turned as nikon now claims the class-leading resolution crown, but does canon’s 5d Mark iii have what it takes to fend off the stiff competition? of course a d-slr has to offer a lot more than a headline-grabbing resolution to get our vote. it needs to have the performance, handling and
Gear
At A glAnce Street price: £2,599 resolution: 36.3Mp (7,360x4,912px) Lens mount: nikon F Viewfinder: 100% Focusing: 51-point selectable Burst rate: 4fps Write times: 2.4secs (raw), 1.1secs (Jpeg) ISO range: 100-6400 (expandable 50-25,600) Shutter range: 30secs-1/8000sec Flash Sync: 1/250sec Monitor: 3.2in, 921k-dot Live View: Yes Video: 1920x1080@30/25/24fps (1280x720@60/50/30/25/24fps) Storage: compact Flash/ sd,sdhc,sdXc Weight: 1000g (body with battery) Dimensions: 146x123x81.5mm Visit: www.nikon.co.uk
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