Another Photography Thread

[alvarez57]

tuintu, very nice.

[kathleen]

 

Where is this one at? It's beautiful

 

This was taken in Grasmere in England's Lake District

[alvarez57]

For some reason my posts are not holding the pictures I'm posting. Maybe they have a limited amount of bytes and I'm abusing them. :embarrassed_smile:

 

Ok, the ones that did not come out (some may have been posted at Kathleen's Natural Thread)

 

French Market entrance. For some reason they had the lights on -which they barely do. This worked for my advantage. During day time, this is a colorful flea market full of activity.

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6070/6064011497_25be60a4df_z.jpg

 

Part of the original old Vieux Carré (the old square/quarter) which is the French Quarter. These are by the French Market.

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6070/6063938139_ffb268404d_z.jpg">

This is the equestrian statue of St. Joan D'Arc, which greets anyone who visits the French Q.

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/6065913209_c7d8d94979_z.jpg

 

 

The Mad Hatter.

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6068/6066458292_1b238872e0_z.jpg

 

 

Edited August 21, 2011 by alvarez57

[sunnerd]

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6082/6065217526_c529f59d4c_z.jpg

Russell Place Underground Substation by 2careless, on Flickr

[jon]

Revisiting pictures I had culled from the group of my summer travels, and ran across some salvageable ones. This one's not the best quality, as it was taken through the window of a moving bus, but I like it anyway.

 

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6191/6066409369_79e00be00d_b.jpg

under the bridge by jon5cents, on Flickr

[wimg]

Got inspired by the castles and old buildings here .

 

I don't think I posted those here yet:

 

http://www.lumifer.com/fs/castle01bw.jpg

 

http://www.lumifer.com/fs/castle09bw.jpg

.

Parts of this castle are from the 8th century (most of the tower), and the latest additions are from the 1970s if I am not entirely mistaken (but those aren't visible in these photographs).

 

Warm regards, Wim

[kathleen]

Wm, I really like your black and white castle pictures.

 

Sonia, also amazing black and white images. I've got to try shooting some in black and white, never have. The absence of color really seems to heighten the visual impact of many subjects, great effect.

 

Here are two more of my pics taken on the grounds of Blarney Castle

 

 

[sunnerd]

http://www.lumifer.com/fs/castle09bw.jpg

.

Parts of this castle are from the 8th century (most of the tower), and the latest additions are from the 1970s if I am not entirely mistaken (but those aren't visible in these photographs).

 

Warm regards, Wim

 

Wim, wonderful B&W with the clouds moving.

Did you use a big stop filter to extend the exposure in the shots?

[alvarez57]

Whoa! We're getting pro here! Love all the above pictures. Yes Kathleen, B&W is very special and visually dramatic. Now, a taste of the opposite: this sunset was taken in the Wetlands in Louisiana, La Fourche Parish by Fourshon port.

 

 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/6068253587_551bc0c2c9_b.jpg

 

I included this photo here for it has a bridge, which is man-made.

Edited August 22, 2011 by alvarez57

[wimg]

http://www.lumifer.com/fs/castle09bw.jpg

.

Parts of this castle are from the 8th century (most of the tower), and the latest additions are from the 1970s if I am not entirely mistaken (but those aren't visible in these photographs).

 

Warm regards, Wim

 

Wim, wonderful B&W with the clouds moving.

Did you use a big stop filter to extend the exposure in the shots?

Thank you!

 

And no, I didn't use a filter - the lens used (TS-E 17) doesn't take filters . However, I did use similar techniques to the ones I used when shooting B&W film, where I adopted a modified Zone System approach, i.e., adapted for 35 mm slr film.

 

The day of the shoot was ideal for B&W, and as I had some Porta Nigra (Trier) shots in mind I saw a few years ago, that is exactly what I aimed for, first in exposure, and then of course in "development". Contrast was average in the original shots, so I increased that to make use of the entire dynamic range and adjusted brightness accordingly. This brought out the detail in the cloud masses and the stones, and next I dodged a path from the entrance to the tower just a little bit, to emphasize the line leading towards the tower. And the underside of the corridor roof I dodged as well, to show the weathering pattern, which was almost identical in shape and form as the clouds were overall in shape and form . I also decreased sharpness, because simple downsizing caused sharpening artefacts in this particular picture .

 

A lovely day for a B&W shoot for sure .

 

Warm regards, Wim

[foxtail1]

Here are a couple of pictures from the Istanbul Spice Market. The colors were amazing.

 

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz261/foxtail1/spice.jpg

 

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz261/foxtail1/spice2.jpg

[alvarez57]

Trier! Wim, amazing city! Loved it very much. Those B&W are amazing. So you still have a darkroom... I haven't dealt with one in soooooo long!

[wimg]

Trier! Wim, amazing city! Loved it very much. Those B&W are amazing. So you still have a darkroom... I haven't dealt with one in soooooo long!

No, I don't actually, not a wet darkroom anyway . Although I still do have a lot of the gear, or rather access to it (including my 28 year old +/- 100 ft rolls of Panatomic-X, Tri-X and FP-4 :roflmho: ). These shots were digital, but processed using good old B&W film and darkroom techniques, adapted for use with digital, that's all .

 

I've never been to Trier myself, actually. Passed by it a couple of times, but I did have the pleasure of viewing a few B&W photographs where one looks through the arch towards some modern day stuff, with a lot of detail in the dark stones. And when I looked out at teh weather on that day where I had a private excursion of this little castle, I knew this was the way I was going to handle it .

 

Warm regards, Wim

[alvarez57]

Trier! Wim, amazing city! Loved it very much. Those B&W are amazing. So you still have a darkroom... I haven't dealt with one in soooooo long!

No, I don't actually, not a wet darkroom anyway . Although I still do have a lot of the gear, or rather access to it (including my 28 year old +/- 100 ft rolls of Panatomic-X, Tri-X and FP-4 :roflmho: ). These shots were digital, but processed using good old B&W film and darkroom techniques, adapted for use with digital, that's all .

 

 

Warm regards, Wim

 

haha, that's the same thing I do! I use Nik's silver efxs pro

[wimg]

haha, that's the same thing I do! I use Nik's silver efxs pro

 

I use a mix of Silver Efex pro (well, all Nik tools actually), Topaz Labs, DxO Pro, and just some plain old PS . And I expose an image for the result I have in mind which is best with regard to dynamic range and what I want to achieve, for digital now rather than for film .

 

Warm regards, Wim

[jon]

Wim, those are fantastic! Love that second one, especially. The work you put into it really paid off. All these B & W shots really make me want to try more, while at the same time make me realize how far I have to go!

 

Kristi, the spice market shots are great, too. The colors are very nice!

[schadowrider]

I use a mix of Silver Efex pro (well, all Nik tools actually), Topaz Labs, DxO Pro, and just some plain old PS . And I expose an image for the result I have in mind which is best with regard to dynamic range and what I want to achieve, for digital now rather than for film .

 

Warm regards, Wim

Beautiful work, Wim.

 

I just recently upgraded to PS CS5 from CS2, and what a difference! Shut down my B&W film darkroom during the last move; sold my film equipment too -- miss the fun of taking a shot all the way through negative development to a matted print, but don't miss the chemicals... Anyway, I'm pretty intrigued by the PS "Black & White" filter (introduced somewhere between my CS2 and CS5 I gather...) -- do you still find Silver Efex Pro a whole lot better than the PS built-in adjustment/filters? Trying to decide if it's worth the investment...

[alvarez57]

I use a mix of Silver Efex pro (well, all Nik tools actually), Topaz Labs, DxO Pro, and just some plain old PS . And I expose an image for the result I have in mind which is best with regard to dynamic range and what I want to achieve, for digital now rather than for film .

 

Warm regards, Wim

Beautiful work, Wim.

 

I just recently upgraded to PS CS5 from CS2, and what a difference! Shut down my B&W film darkroom during the last move; sold my film equipment too -- miss the fun of taking a shot all the way through negative development to a matted print, but don't miss the chemicals... Anyway, I'm pretty intrigued by the PS "Black & White" filter (introduced somewhere between my CS2 and CS5 I gather...) -- do you still find Silver Efex Pro a whole lot better than the PS built-in adjustment/filters? Trying to decide if it's worth the investment...

 

I don't have CS5 but Nik's Silver Effx and I really, really like what I get. I was missing from Lightroom the film quality from the B&W, but with this plug-in from Nik, not anymore.

 

edited for typos...it's too late...

Edited August 24, 2011 by alvarez57

[wimg]

I use a mix of Silver Efex pro (well, all Nik tools actually), Topaz Labs, DxO Pro, and just some plain old PS . And I expose an image for the result I have in mind which is best with regard to dynamic range and what I want to achieve, for digital now rather than for film .

 

Warm regards, Wim

Beautiful work, Wim.

 

I just recently upgraded to PS CS5 from CS2, and what a difference! Shut down my B&W film darkroom during the last move; sold my film equipment too -- miss the fun of taking a shot all the way through negative development to a matted print, but don't miss the chemicals... Anyway, I'm pretty intrigued by the PS "Black & White" filter (introduced somewhere between my CS2 and CS5 I gather...) -- do you still find Silver Efex Pro a whole lot better than the PS built-in adjustment/filters? Trying to decide if it's worth the investment...

 

As Sonia said already, it is absolutely worth it. You can do all the things you can do with Silver Efex with PS all by itself, but what takes one days to do in PS you can do in minutes with Silver Efex. And the controls it has make working in digital a lot like working in the darkroom. And just add Topaz to that for effects, and you are all set. I created my own filter in Topaz, which provides me with an good overall starting point in B&W for the way I work when lighting conditions are quite lame (akin to using a certain developer, dilution and development time combination) - this again saves a lot of work even in Nik . All this to get my Zones right . In short, I used Topaz for overall contrast and brightness settings, specifically for the exposure I used, and Nik for finetuning, as well as for the burning and dodging. IOW, Topaz for development of the negative, if you like, and Nik for printing, if you want to use chemical darkroom analogies .

 

BTW, Nik Silver Efex does have a Zone type preview tool, which comes in very handy too.

 

I will probably upgrade to CS 5 soon, I am still using 4 at the moment .

 

And thank you for your kind words.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[schadowrider]

Great tips -- thanks!

 

Edit: BTW -- do you use mostly Topaz Adjust or the whole suite?

Edited August 24, 2011 by schadowrider