The Digital-monochrome worker July 2009 issue By Martin Henson
www.digital-monochrome.com
I’m not going to tell you what's in the July issue, only to say that you will have to move your arm a little to click through the pages. Come on, I do all the hard work here! Trees are so beautiful, so open the page and see how it’s done in an artful manner. Plus, there’s much more to wet your desire for monochrome perfection. So, get reading!
How and when best to shoot trees I have always been a lover of tree images. Their shapes and beauty always instils a sense of majesty and serenity on our landscape. They are in a constant battle with the elements, but most survive and outlive us mere mortals. Unless they live in the rain forest where they are cut down at a rate beyond belief by people who don’t realize that they’re killing themselves in the process! Eee dear, mush for brains!! The idea of photographing them has to be right to show them at their best, keeping in mind that, in mono, the lack of colour, when all the leaves are out, has to be substituted with tone, luminosity and shape. How do we get that look? We get it by picking the right time of day when the light will do all the work for us. Direct frontal lighting, early morning or late evening, is the best. With the sun behind the subject, it emphasis the shape, structure and, at the same, time adds luminosity to the shot. The images which follow are examples of how “into the light shots” can do just that.
This is a shot direct into the light which was partially obscured by the central tree The whole image takes on a more three dimensional look with depth, the elements within the photo are also more separated. Tech geek info 1DSMK2 Canon 15mm Fisheye Exposure Time : 1/25Sec F Number : F13.0 Exposure Program : Aperture Priority ISO Speed Ratings : 100 This was the main exposure, however a second shot was used to protect highlights, the two files then blended together in PS
100% crop of the upper left hand corner
The light has separated the green tones in the leafs and made visible the actual branch structure. The large image on the next page shows in more detail the effect of this type of shooting technique, and in particular the overall texture is enhanced.
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What is this telling us? Apart from the fact that the silly sod who took it is now partially blinded, it’s a way of showing semi transparent objects at their best with the light shining through those areas and showing the structure and secondary shadows. If this shot had been taken with the light behind the camera, then all the atmosphere and mood would have been lost, resulting in a picture looking flat and relatively boring. Shooting this way takes it to another level.
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www.digital-monochrome.com Another image showing the delights of “into the light photography”, this image is titled “The Structure”. The reason is self evident, the leaves have the light partially striking through them giving a semi translucent look. The branches are not translucent and therefore define the main structure. Another important aspect is to separate the tree from its natural surroundings. It would be of no use if it blends in tone with the rest of the picture and gets lost in a sea of similar greys. Look for contrast, light against dark and vice versa. Trees without leaves are just as inspiring. Shape and texture all add to the subject’s beauty. The image to the right is an example of this. The white bark contrasts with the deeper greys of the background making a powerful study. Look for shape and include it sympathetically with its surroundings. Early morning shots in the mist contrast well with their shapes, light shining through the forest tops creating beams of light as the trees block its path. The opportunities are endless. It’s a great subject to study and photograph. So get out there..........with camera not chain saw! They are easy to subjects to take, the hard part is finding where and when to take them. Happy hunting! Martin
www.digital-monochrome.com
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Digital Infra-red Monochrome Written by Chris Brown The light we see and record with our cameras is part of the electromagnetic spectrum – the way the universe gets energy from one place to another at the speed of light. The differences in this energy can be represented by its wavelength. The shorter the wavelength of light the bluer it is and the longer the wavelength the redder it is. Just beyond the longer wavelength end of what we can see is the near infra red. We may not be able to see it but we can record it. The conventional way is with an infra-red sensitive film but it can be done digitally. The imaging chips used in digital camera are sensitive to the near infra-red and camera manufacturers spend quite a bit of time cutting out these wavelengths with filters in front of the imaging sensor. So if we could remove this filter we could image these 'hidden' wavelengths. There are now several companies worldwide that will either convert your camera or sell you one that has been converted. About a year ago I had my Fuji Finepix S20 Pro converted. There are several types of conversion. Those that remove the infra-red blocking filter and those that replace that filter with a filter that only
Filter
Exposure at f11 ISO 400
No filter
1/850s
No filter Basic monochrome conversion
1/850s
Wratten 29
1/340s 01/01/40
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Hoya R72
1/210s
SRB-Griturn 760
1/110s
950 cut
1/6s
For me, the images in the last three are reasonably similar. The R72 infra-red filter is the commonest filter on the market. My personal choice is for the 760 as I prefer the slightly more intense infra-red look. I mentioned that cameras can be converted to either have no filter or a filter over the sensor and usability can dictate which you go for. Most compact and bridge cameras have an electronic viewfinder so you can see what the captured image will look like. So for these cameras a clear filter conversion allowing the use of various filters give the greatest flexibility. You could even get a filter that allows you to take normal images, blocking out the infra-red again. For a DSLR, a filter over the lens will just block out the light and you will see nothing so for this type of camera a filter over the sensor is probably best. If you wish to convert a more modern DSLR then go for one with a 'Live-View' facility and this will allow to see what the captured image will look like. If possible capture the image in a raw format and work on it in a 16-bit mode to allow the best chance of bringing out the maximum number of tones in the image and use all your usual monochrome tool box of tricks such as Martin Hensons Contrast Grading Method. If you want to you can even use HDR techniques on your infra-red images
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A selection of Chris Browns images
And subjects for your infra-red capture... anything and everything. A search of the Internet will bring up companies that will convert a camera for you and the online auction sites have a reasonable array of infra-red filters. So do not let an old camera sit on a shelf – give it a new lease of life
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Alternative conversion process There a numerous ways to convert a colour file to monochrome and, to be honest the outcome is usually the same in many ways. Although I am an advocate of the Contrast Grading method of editing http://martinimages.photium.com/otheritems.html it is important to find a style of editing that suits your own way of working. Below are methods of doing this, kindly written by Bill Allsopp.
Black and white high contrast images Using Multiple Raw images 1.Making the Exposure Expose several frames at the same aperture but different shutter speeds so that in total the frames will have good detail through from shadows to highlights with no blocked out or burnt out areas when they are combined. This is generally better done with the camera on a tripod but if needs must…. well you’ll just have a bit more work to do in Photoshop (PS) when combining them. In many instances the most dramatic shots will be obtained by shooting into the light. However, flare then becomes a problem so use the best quality glass you can! Post Processing (PP) The main tools used; Masks Levels Channel mixer Unsharp Mask (USM) 2. RAW Conversion Open the frames in the Raw converter and adjust shadow and highlight areas so that there are definitely no areas lacking detail. The colour balance may also be adjusted to improve the final tonal range. It is also possible to have the individual frames at different colour balance/ temperature prior to the monochrome conversion if the photographer feels this will aid tonal adjustments (e.g. to increase the blue of the sky so that blue may be saturated and darkened to more easily adjust the sky contrast.This is not referred to in this tutorial). Export as .tif or .psd at 16 bit (16 bit will help reduce noise in processing; convert to 8 bit at the end if you want to reduce file size on the hard drive).
3. Editing a) Open the frames in PS, and, by copy and paste or “shift drag”, stack as layers in one image. Usually I keep the darkest at the top because it is the sky but it depends on your way of working as much as anything.
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Note Remember to check at each and every stage that you are not overdoing any adjustments and introducing excessive noise. At the completion of each stage these notes I would suggest that you flatten the image. This keeps the file size down and simplifies the number of layers you are working with which many beginners find confusing. As you become more experienced, you may find you prefer to have more flexibility, which you can achieve by keeping layers open as you progress. I sometimes find it helpful, after a major stage has been completed, to create a new empty layer at the top of the stack (hold down Cmd and shift while pressing N) and then merge all lower layers into the new layer by holding down Cmd and alt while selecting with the mouse “layer/merge visible”. b) Next add a mask to the top layer (if you press Alt on your keyboard and keep it depressed while you click the add layer mask icon, it will be pre-filled black. The following notes assume that you are starting with a white/empty layer mask). Select a large soft brush and, with foreground colour set to black and opacity 100%, paint the mask out in order to reveal the area you want from the next layer down. As you progress, you can reduce the brush opacity and reduce the size to do “twiddly bits”. But make sure that you regularly zoom out in order to check the full image and review carefully to ensure you have no obvious lines at the joins! If you overdo it with the black brush change your foreground colour to white and keep adjusting until you are satisfied when you can flatten the image.
From here on remember to keep checking the histogram to ensure you are not creating blocked out or pure white areas. c) Create a new duplicate layer (press Cmd J to copy the entire layer) go to image/adjustments/ levels and move the middle slider left to lighten the land, or right to darken the sky. All the image will be affected but we are only concerned about the land region. Now add a layer mask and reduce the affected area to that which is needed. (alternatively lasso the desired area, with a feather setting of 150 pixels, before you adjust). Flatten the image. Save the image at this stage and after every other major change with a different version number so that you have a fall back position if you notice a mistake later or your computer crashes!
d) Convert to Monochrome Note These notes make the conversion to monochrome using channel mixer but many other methods are available. Generally, the desaturate and convert to greyscale tools in Photoshop are to be avoided. Remember as you progress you will have more control by keeping the layers open and then you can convert each channel separately to monochrome for even more control of the image! The settings below are average starting points. Do not be afraid to play with these. Make a copy layer and go to image/adjustments/Channel mixer check the mono box, the default setting should be Red 100; Green 0; Blue 0. Move the constant slider to -6 which will darken the sky.Layer mask the image and use the brush tool so you’re left with a mono sky and coloured land (flatten the image), bring up channel mixer again but this time set Red 0; Green 100 to 150; Blue 0. Green is the main control here.
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At this point if you are left with a stray trace of colour on the image you can now flatten, or merge into a new layer, and use desaturate. e) Contrast The unsharp mask (USM) is not generally appreciated for its ability to improve contrast. Create a new layer copy of the image (essential at this stage) then filter/sharpen/unsharp mask; start with settings of 40:50:0 but feel free to experiment. Overdo it and you will generate noise / artefacts and blocked out shadows so check and recheck! At the boundaries between light and dark areas it is quite common for a halo to appear. Add a layer mask and “paint out” the halos revealing the softer under layer, the softness will not be apparent like the halo. Brush with care, ensuring you leave no blocked out blacks or paper white. Check the histogram! You may find only part of the image benefits, apply a layer mask if needed. Once you are satisfied with the effect you can duplicate the USM layer (more than once if the image needs it to make it “pop”). e) Dodge and burn (and related techniques) Four main tools exist for selective alteration of light and dark (or four I use). Selective colour I use this very little, finding it hard to control. If you do use it only adjust white, neutral or perhaps black in a mono image (unless you want to tone it as a final step). Levels Select layer/adjustment layer/levels and move the middle slider to darken or lighten as required. Either the whole can be done, and then refined by painting in the mask, or lasso the area to alter (using a feather of 100-150 pixels) and directly alter that area alone. As long as you don’t touch the end sliders, no detail will be lost in highlights or shadows. 50% overlay. Create a new layer, on top of the stack, fill with 50% grey (Shift F5) and set to overlay, if not set to that by default. This is a “clumsy” tool, by which I mean generally suited to working on larger areas rather than smaller but very, very useful. Get a large soft black brush (to darken) or white brush, to lighten, and paint away. For dodge and burn 20% opacity is a good start but in some applications I will use 100%. The Dodge and Burn tools in the tools palette These tools work in a different way to the above methods. I use these normally at the end of an edit in order to increase the tonal range and contrast. If heavy D&B is required I would prefer to use the above methods. When using the Dodge tool, stick to Highlights, and for the Burn tool, shadows. Very rarely do I mess with mid-tones or reverse the settings since it’s contrast I’m trying to achieve here and not gradual change. Don’t try to achieve too much at once, maximum setting should be about 13%.
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General The first of these tools is difficult to control and can result in “damage” if used injudiciously (as indeed can levels if pushed too far). I find the overlay method extremely useful and use it regularly in colour work as well as mono. Traditional dodge and burn will give the final pizzazz to a monochrome image. Now all that remains is to forth and create! Bill Allsopp has been recently chosen as photographer of the year by Leicestershire and Rutland Life. To see more of Bills work visit his site http://www.billallsopp.co.uk/
© Bill Allsopp
I know what its like, you go into channel mixer and you end up all night sliding the RGB sliders to try and get some sort of result, you have not got a clue where to start and end up clicking the grayscale button, shame on you, so here to help are some pretty good settings to get you started courtesy of www.digital-monochrome.com And these basic ones: Normal Contrast: High Contrast:
43,33,30 40,34,60
First Number Second number Third Number
Red Green Blue
Ilford FP4: Ilford HP5: Ilford Pan F: Ilford SFX: Ilford XP2 Super: Kodak Tmax 100: Kodak Tmax 400: Kodak Tri-X: Agfa 200X: Agfapan 25: Agfapan 100: Agfapan 400: lford Delta 100: Ilford Delta 400: Ilford Delta 400 Pro:
28,41,31 23,37,40 33,36,31 36,31,33 21,42,37 24,37,39 27,36,37 25,35,40 18,41,41 25,39,36 21,40,39 20,41,39 21,42,37 22,42,36 31,36,33
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Tales of Woe We all have our own tales of mishap regarding our photographic equipment. Here’s one of mine that has finally taught me a lesson. If you would like to add your Tale of Woe in the next issue, contact me here: http://martinimages.photium.com/contact.html
Here I am at a cycling race, in the blink of an eye the last rider has passed by and another event is covered and in the bag! Back to the digi room, edit and get the files uploaded to the site, time to pack up and go. When I shoot races, I always use flash as a fill in light. My system consists of a battery pack which has a coiled lead. That connects to the 580EX11 gun, which is fixed to the camera hot shoe, making man and machine fully connected............. and that's when the tale of woe began! Packing away gear has to be done in a calm and collected way, making sure all your precious glass etc. is back in the bag where it lives. I decide to wind down and have a cig. The ciggies are in the car and so, in what I now know to be a demented moment of madness, I place the camera on a wall and start a casual stroll to the car. Remember, dear reader, that the battery pack is attached to me........... and the coiled lead from the batt pack is attached to the flashgun........... which is attached to the camera. Two paces forward to the car and CRASH,I had pulled my 3000 quid camera, 1600 quid Lens and 350 quid flash smashing to the ground because the stupid bloody battery lead is attached to me! A hot trembling nervous reaction sets in as I look down at jumble of parts on the pavement. But wait, all parts are still connected, even the lead that caused this [got to blame summat!!!!!] is still connected. I pick the camera up, point it at anything and wow, it still works, focus spot on and IS functioning. A careful inspection showed the 70~200 L zoom lens hood took the initial impact, followed by one of the corners on the MK3. It left a slight mark on the body but these 1D cams are built like tanks. I know this because I was knocking nails in with it the week before ;_0. That night, after uploading the race files, I thought that I better test the camera and lens out. It was a great evening and so I had a trip up to Silsden moor. After a while, I found a great place to take a shot, so out with the cam and 70~200. I lifted the viewfinder to my eye and started to compose the picture when all of a sudden the image started to bounce all over the place in the viewfinder. Was I having a stroke or was it the glass of wine after dinner? NEITHER! The crappy IS isn’t working. I try to take a shot but the camera won’t fire. The top LCD is flashing me an error code.......oh dear that trembling sweat again. Looking at the lens and body, it becomes apparent that I can pull the lens at one side only away from the lens flange on the body. I take the lens off and realize the problem. The impact from the fall had broken one of the lens flanges completely off, leaving only two to hold it to the cam body. But where the hell is that piece of stainless steel, about inch long. I have a good poke inside the mirror box but nothing. Oh well, perhaps it’s fallen off somewhere else! So I resign myself to the fact an expensive lens repair is due. As I move on, the light is starting to burst through the clouds into the valleys. Out with the 17~40L which is set at 40mm. I try to zoom out but it’s STUCK at 40mm. I really try to force it back to 17mm, as the cloud burst is slowly disappearing, but it will not shift. Bugger! Cloud burst gone! Time for inspection....... a good look but guess what? That one inch of lens flange is jammed in the zoom mec locking it at 40mm. I remove it and all is well....or at least for that day.
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Next day another rather important sportive to photograph and everything is going well. I can manage without the 70~200 for long shots and use the 100~400L instead. It’s a wonderful hot day. There’s a lull in the cyclists coming by and so decide time for a quick cig. I put the camera on the van seat, which is pretty high in a VW. The flash is attached cam..... and the coiled lead is attached to the battery pack...... and that's attached to me. I really don’t have to spell it out but I take two steps forward and yep, you guessed it, CRASH!! This time the flash takes the full impact. It’s on the floor with bits of wire hanging out like a vine. The bottom has completely broken off, leaving the other part attached to the hotshoe. In the far distance, I can see riders approaching fast. A quick look at the broken gun shows that, if I reconnect the wires in the right place, it might work, with luck! So with all the skill and concentration of a bomb disposal expert, I carefully reattach the wires. The problem I’m faced with now is how to join the two parts of the flash together? Tape is the answer! I look in the van and find some masking tape. I wrap it around the two parts, switch the gun on and, HEY PRESTO, it works! I’m back in action, but not for long. The tape keeps coming loose. Remembering that I have a tube of super glue in the van, I rummage around and find it, glue the two parts together again and its fixed. And I mean fixed! In fact, so fixed that, when I find that the batteries in the flash are now exhausted and it’s time for a change, I cannot open the battery compartment door! I HAD SUPER GLUED THAT AS WELL. The rest of the race was carried out without a flash gun. It’s a weekend I will never forget. The moral of this story is look after that expensive equipment..... think before you walk and smoking is not only bad for your health its also very costly (£270 to repair the lens, £120 flash repair). Or, put more simply, you don’t have to be stupid to smoke but it helps! The camera is still knocking the odd nail in but performs flawlessly. Now did I ever tell the tale about a camera bag and horse????? We’ll leave that till another issue. Let’s hear your Tales of Woe.
Since I mentioned my Canon 580EX11 flashgun here is what my user review of it It’s a very well put together gun as long as you don’t drop it! (above Tale of Woe refers!) It locks firmly on the newer hotshoe design of the 1D series of cameras. As with most flashguns, you need to know how to use them, especially outdoors for fill in flash. I can hear some of you groaning now but, believe me, but there is a select group of people who feel that the flashgun has a built in brain and can think for itself. It can’t ! Setting the custom functions is a bit of a pain and could have been better designed, but, in all fairness, once you have set them you rarely go back to them again. On the 1DMK3, you can set them from the camera menu......... great idea Canon! It’s a powerful gun with a guide No of 190 Feet / 58m at ISO 100. One of the great features is the weather proofing which enables you to carry on working in all but the very worst conditions. I have used mine in really wet conditions with no problems at all, The gun features a wide diffuse panel and a little white plastic card that adds catch light in bounce flash. Both push neatly away into the gun when not needed. It has an auto zoom function that moves according to focal length. When using the 1DMK3 and 1DsMK3, you can adjust the flash controls on camera which is very useful at times and especially in remote operation from a computer. It has all the usual features such as second curtain sync, high speed sync and can be used as a slave trigger for multiple flash setups, and more besides. My gun has never let me down! It gives perfect filling shots, as long as you set it up right and learn how to balance flash and daylight. I use high speed sync a lot and have learned how much compensation to add for various lighting situations using A/P, program or manual modes. Program mode is a doddle to use and gives some great lighting effects. On the minus side, there are two things that I don’t like. First, there’s no indication of when the batteries are nearly exhausted and, second, removing it from the cam hotshoe feels like you are going to break it. At the moment its Canons flagship gun and I rate it very highly after two years of hard work. Buy it you won’t be disappointed! 9/10
Getting to understand Contrast Grading Many people have purchased my Contrast Grading CD tutorial. Some people seem to get it right in no time while others can struggle. The reason for this, I feel, is because its more the concept than the actual editing process that needs to be understood and put into practice. In this issue, let’s look at basic principles. Those that are well documented and proven from the wet darkroom days.
Grade 3
Grade 0 Paper grades are marked from Grade 0 to Grade 5 in full grades.
Grade 1
Grade 4
Grade 2
Grade 5
The image was converted in imagingfactory B&W PRO using Green filtration for all images. All other settings were set to default and the only adjustment was in paper grade setting as shown
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Obviously we are not dealing with real paper but digital alternatives of the grades that are used in wet darkroom environment. In a chemical darkroom you would have boxes of paper at set grades or Multi grade paper that has its contrast altered by enlarger filtration on the same sheet. The manipulation to get different contrast grades to particular areas within an image in a digital way is now much easier than doing the same thing under an enlarger light. So much so that lots of images produced digitally would be virtually impossible in the wet room. The principles of both techniques are worlds apart but at the same time very similar. In fact most of the knowledge of editing in a wet darkroom and designs of BW plugins have been passed down to the digital era. I must confess that working in an electronic environment is much cleaner, not as smelly and you don’t have to have cat’s eyes to see what you’re doing ! Back to the image samples, we must always start with a good “master” colour image and preserve the RGB channels. Simply clicking to grayscale would lose all the colour info and render filtration impossible. Top left image has been opened into B&W PRO and a paper Grade of 0 set. It’s flat in tone but has retained highlight and shadow detail. Grade 1 has a slight push in contrast, Grade 2 more so. As you go up the paper grades the contrast increases but tonal range decreases. The decrease in tonal range can be offset by reducing pager exposure. The way to do this is shown in my Contrast Grading CD tutorial - http://martinimages.photium.com/otheritems.html . If you can imaging all the paper grades and the contrast that they achieve arranged into one image, we would have detail in shadows, highlights and midtones with a contrast to match each tonal area Obviously this is a simple explanation but it is, nevertheless, the fundamental part of Grading a BW image. More can be done to further enhance an image to give that “WOW” factor and that can be learned from the CG tutorial at the link above. I have mentioned B&W PRO as the mono converter but, to make this perfectly clear, any type of adjustment in your own editing software that can control contrast will work in CG. The best one I would recommend is CURVES. Copy the graded images on the previous page, plus the master colour file, and save them as per grade Open them all into your software Convert the colour file in Channel Mixer - just tick the mono box and no other adjustment.
Adjust that image in Curves to roughly represent the same tone of each Grade and save each one as a Curves preset that you can load at another time. It will be trial and error but Curves will get that tonal range needed for a given grade by adjusting the Curve line. When you adjust with all plugins you cannot see what is happening behind the scenes. It just does it for you. Plugin adjustments often use curves to do that automated manipulation, so it makes sense to create your own as outlined above. The next page shows a conversion of the colour file using selected paper grades, There is more to it than just digital paper grading to push contrast. The increase in contrast can be offset by a decrease in paper exposure and vice versa, plus selective sharpening, all play a part in contrast. It’s all on the CD folks!
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Image opposite is a combination of paper grades, using B&W PRO. A definite improvement to all areas resulting in better tonal range, controlled highlights and shadow detail much improved.
Although the shadows have been opened and the highlights toned down, no dodge or burn is necessary, the grading will do that if used correctly.
The image left is a one click conversion using channel mixer in the green channel, the image retains an overall tonal range that is to flat. Shadow and highlight detail is not as good as the CG method. Martin View images @ www.digital-monochrome.com
Another place to visit in Yorkshire I love my county of Yorkshire, so vast and changing in landscape. I also like “fish un chips” but not for every meal! So I have ventured outside the county a number of times. But I don’t tend to move to far from my own area of West Yorkshire because I could spend all my life trying to capture it in print. You see it’s that weather thing again! Visit the same place day in and out and it will look different each time. That’s how I got to know each Sheep by name........ going to the same location one tends to become part of their landscape. Apart from sheep, there are some wondrous scenes. But you have to be there at the right time of day to get THAT special look. One such area that’s a “must Visit” is Ribblehead and its famous Viaduct. The first thing that strikes you when arriving at the Viaduct is the sheer beauty and majesty of this place, surrounded by the Highest peaks in Yorkshire. Pen-y-ghent, Ingleborough and the mighty Whernside. Although, as a viewer, the latter peak is a bit boring and more like a hump than a peak, but it is the highest at Elevation: 736 M (2416 FT), the other two are a bit lower. There are people that walk the bloody things in a single day. Yes, all three! I have a job walking from the pub to the end of the viaduct. Hats off to them that can, and have, walked the 3 peaks. The viaduct must have been photographed a trillion times and so any attempt must be that bit different and feature a train.......a REAL train (STEAM!!) and not one of those oil burner thingies!
This picture features the Oliver Cromwell powering its way over the viaduct. It was not the best of days to take the shot, relentless rain, wind and mist, but mono always adds that drama that colour can’t compete. Oh yeah, better mention that, as well as cam equipment, you will need a water proof and wellies to survive the day. View images @ www.digital-monochrome.com
If you move down the road a little towards Horton-in Ribblesdale, you get a good view of Whernside. It’s behind that house if you’re asking.
Look behind you and, to the left, you will see Pen-y Ghent towering into the sky. A magnificent sight which has the effect of drawing you to it, camera and all.
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Winter time is ruddy cold up in them hills but the change in scenery, when it snows, is well worth braving the elements. The scene below is a little ramshackle house called Gayle Beck Lodge. You can go to this link and learn a bit about it - http://martinimages.photium.com/news6545.html - such a shame for it to be lost forever. The far Peak is Inglebrough.
Another view of Inglebrough with the ancient rocks of early settlement in the foreground.
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If you venture into this part of the world, give yourself plenty of time as there are lots of subjects to photograph. Even if the weather is not on form and the current bun is a distant memory, you will, with patience, get the shots you’re after......moody, atmospheric ones. It’s difficult to fail here, whatever the weather, to get some captures, the people are friendly and the sheep are so obliging :-)
Below, Limestone pavements as they’re called, feature all round this area, Pen-y-Ghent in distance.
So that's it folks, another featured area to visit in UK, Next issue will feature a place a little nearer to me, just “upt road” as we say. This one’s on the Moors and well worth visiting.
Martin
All images © Martin Henson
View images @ www.digital-monochrome.com
Printing better B&W images In this article, I will not cover specific printers or papers. Suffice to say, they do have a bearing on quality. A pigment ink printer is preferred to dye based inks and rag paper (fine art) is more suited to the medium than a manufacturer’s standard forms.
Dodge and burning is a necessary way to adjust the final appearance of a print because the digital file at first conversion does not produce satisfactory images for output. As mentioned previously in this issue, Contrast Grading will give you a better option to Dodge and Burn, rather than using the D&B tools in Photoshop. It is none destructive and a more controlled way of editing. There are no rules for how much you darken or lighten an image. This all depends on how dark or light your master colour image is. A general rule, which I follow, is to keep detail where it would fall naturally in both highlight and shadow areas. But always allow some areas to be pure black and pure white. Let the whites go to paper base in places. This will give your image more punch and widens the tonal scale. Most Black and White prints you see in galleries are either high key or low key. This is where mono is at its best. It forces the viewer to concentrate on a particular part of the picture, be it a cloudy sky or just one area within the print. Darkening the image (Vignette) at the corners also helps to “force” you into the image. Sharpening images that have been made from Raw files has to be done with care. Over sharpen a file and it will lose that smooth transition from tone to tone. Use selective methods, under layer masks and paint back the sharpened areas. Too much sharpening on a plain sky will result in digital artifacts. Better to sharpen that area at a lower brush opacity. Creative sharpening can give better detail to specific areas. By creative meaning, sharpening the same area twice but at a lesser level on the second time. Output sharpen is always advisable, what you see on screen might look just right, a slight loss in definition of screen sharpness is lost when the file info is sent to the printer, often when an image is output sharpened it will look over done on screen, but when printed looks right and represents what was on screen. If you do not have a fully calibrated system, often expensive to achieve professionally, screen calibration at least is absolutely essential, no need to spend thousands of pounds on calibration tools, any sensor that reads colours from the monitor will do the job effectively.
This image of Studley Pike in Calderdale shows how pure blacks and whites give the picture far more oomph than allowing all the tones to fall correctly in the histogram. Pushing the whites to paper base 255 and the blacks to 0 will give that intensity needed. View images @ www.digital-monochrome.com
Clubs and Societies It’s sometimes a great advantage in the learning process of photography to join a photo club or society. You can learn from more experienced shooters or even pass on your own knowledge to less advanced ones. Leeds has one such place – the Leeds Photographic Society. Tim Munsey, a society member, has kindly sent me some info on, including a few pictures from the members. Earlier this year I gave a talk on B&W and a demonstration on Contrast Grading to the Society. I found them to be a friendly bunch and was given a warm welcome. Leeds Photographic Society. Founded in 1852, the Leeds Photographic Society is the oldest photographic society in the World. Over the years, the Society have encouraged the development of photography, from it's very earliest pioneering days of glass and paper negatives, through the period of film and darkroom processing, right up to the present time and the digital era. The Society membership covers all age groups and photographic abilities, from casual snappers to semi professionals, and those who are happy just to see other peoples pictures and spend a social evening with likeminded people. The Society meets at St. Edmund's Church Hall, Roundhay, on Tuesday evenings, once a week throughout the winter, and alternate weeks during the summer months. The Syllabus covers a wide range of topics, from visiting speakers giving talks and practical demonstrations of photographic techniques, tutorials, competitions, outings and members evenings. Further details of the Society can be found on our Web Site www.lps1852.co.uk 1
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2 Society members photos Image 1 © David Pratt Image 2 © Ted Clements Image 3 © Tim Munsey Want your club featured in the monoworker then contact me here
http://martinimages.photium.com/contact.html View images @ www.digital-monochrome.com
Did you realize for maximum quality and printout you can buy this magazine in PDF format here http://martinimages.photium.com/items196.html its cheap and helps me cover costs of running this show. And finally for this month’s issue, a few words on the best B&W forum on the net Activity in the forum has been great this month, lots of posts and a few more members joined us from the UK and USA. It is apparent to me that monochrome photography is on a revival. For younger people who are venturing into digital B&W, it can seem daunting and a mystery at times. But what is surprising is the number of older people wanting to get back into doing it. Now that sounds bad but I think you know what I mean........ you go from film, B&W, colour then to digital, more colour but the mono bug from the past draws you into trying it again. It’s a struggle at first but help is at hand in the form of this link. http://www.runboard.com/ bthedigitalmonochromeforum Honestly, if you have not found us on the web you have no excuse now! At this present time there are 4307 topics and 24194 posts.......... now that is a lot of info on one subject I think you would agree!! I will probably get sued for breach of © but life's about risk, so here goes with a small selection of members images posted in the last few weeks in montage form. All images below are copyright to the respective owners, no copying is allowed except for me!
View images @ www.digital-monochrome.com