Relief !!!!!

Tutor feedback most positive. 


I am really happy with my report as I truly struggled with the assignment. It forced me to experiment in an attempt achieve what I , not the camera , envisaged.      I approached the assignment thinking no post-processing should be done but looking at a few of my fellow students blogs I notice that a few have done some moderate post-shoot processing.

Backlit images

Moody Blue.

I need to study the difference between printed images  and those that will be viewed on a monitor. I love printing my images but am sometimes disappointed when comparing to the screen version, they lack the lustre and illumination. Russell commented on the difference between the screen and printed version , the former much brighter. He commented that I had probably attempted a layers adjustment prior to printing but in actual fact I had not. I  re-printed this image after a levels adjustment to compare with the original but was unable to achieve a better print than I already had produced. Something for me to consider in more detail in the future. 



Pinhole

Even with the clipped hair Russell found this image “really interesting

A good point to bear in mind is it is so often easy to become  over absorbed in the technical aspect of photography and getting everything technically correct that any creativity can be lost. I think that is why I found this assignment so challenging .

Mum in reflection

“A nice shot” but Russell felt the composition could have been improved by leaving less space between Mum and her reflection. It was difficult to set this shot up and this was the best of the afternoon session. Having an octogenarian model makes it difficult to expect her to pose and change position frequently!

Single light source

The way we were

Russell felt this shot was well composed forming a narrative. He wondered what would happen if I altered the focus to my face not the image. Time allowing I will attempt this but as I am progressing through the course much slower than I anticipated might have to leave this until the end.

Self portrait by Lamplight

Russell felt I captured “a nice mood here” . He felt that by moving the card I used to reflect light next to the camera at an angle would have improved the catch lights in my eye. I have a lot to learn about indoor lighting, preferring to use available light, but it is a skill worth honing.

Bill

I laughed when Russell compared the image of my other half to portraits of Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi. Although Russell commented the portrait “is a good example of the power of lighting to create mood” he also notes that fill can be used to prevent noise and lift shadow detail.  I set my camera to record black and white but was surprised when looking at another DPP Blog that the student had converted to mono post shoot. I would usually do this myself but felt that within the confines of the assignment brief it would be good practice to change my settings pre-shoot, hence I  am happy with the outcome .

Dappled light

Russell commented “I certainly think you achieved what you set out to do here”.   However I tried to create a narrative without revealing my subjects face which Russell felt“ doesn’t quite work for me” . However he also commented he liked the atmosphere in the shots and suggested “a longer set of images would bring a better sense of place and purpose”. I think this is a perfectly valid point but within the confines of 3 shots this proved rather  restrictive.

Mounts Bay

Firstly I must point out all of these images were shot in jpeg so I was a bit confused when reading that ‘the final six images in Raw work very well’ I think the confusion arouse by my comment that I shot in Raw and jpeg combined and would be using the Raw files at a later date for my personal use. That grumble aside I was thrilled with the feedback for the six images submitted .   

 

Exercise: Colours into tones 2    

For this exercise I need use the chanel adjustment to create a specific effect: a portrait making the skin lighter but without altering the rest of the tones. I used Lightroom to make my adjustments.

Using the basic conversion the skin is very dull and mid- grey toned.



I  increased the red and orange sliders to change the tone of the skin and additionally used a tone curve adjustment to darken the blacks.


Basic conversion                                                                        Skin lightened 

Exercise : Colours into tones 1 

For this exercise I need to choose a colourful image with contrasting hues with the aim of creating two different Black and White versions. For one image I need to lighten the grayscale tone of one colour whilst darkening the contrasting tone of the other , and then do the reverse.

 My mum has a rather bizarre collection of hats and I took this image of her wearing one of them , which has bright orange and blue tones , additionally her blue top contrasts well with her lipstick. 

This is the default Black and White conversion using Lightroom.
The skin tones look mid grey -not a really good conversion, the hat is not too bad though.  

Version 1                                                              Version 2

My first conversion shows the effect of using the Black and White mix slider in Lightroom increasing the saturation of the  red, yellow , and orange tones , whilst decreasing blue, purple and magenta. The blue top Mum was wearing has become markedly much darker , black in fact , as have the blue areas of the hat. The orange and yellow colours have become much paler varied tones of grey to almost white—some of the pattern seems to have vanished. This conversion has had a detrimental on the skin tones creating loss of depth and textural detail , her lips have become paler (she was wearing a red/ orange toned lipstick) , creating a rather strange facial appearance.


My second conversion was the reverse making the orange tones darker and the blues lighter. I increased the blue , magenta and purple saturation and decreased the red .  Her top is now practically white , her lips and have skin are darker creating a greater range of tonal and textural detail. The hat now has more varied shades of grey from darkish black to light almost white  , the pattern completely different.


It is fascinating to see just how much  the colour channels can be used to alter the appearance of a Black and White image—that almost sounds like an oxymoron. 

Exercise : Strength of interpretation

This exercise looks at the effect aggressive processing has on an image and how it is possible to use it to greater advantage when converting to black and white . I used Lightroom to process each of my chosen images , one portrait and one landscape.

Simply by quite drastically altering the contrast and Curves using the LR tools there is more leeway when processing a black and white image than colour. I attempted an S curve to create greater contrast  and as can be seen the hues have become quite garish in both colour versions. In comparison the mono versions (although I find the skin in the portrait perhaps a bit too darkly toned ) are both acceptable. When reversing the process to create a much lighter version once again the black and white images suffer least from the post-processing.

Picture
Original Raw file .


 The processing caused clipping in the shadows when I applied an S Curve tone adjustment but this is much less of a problem for the mono version , it creates a dramatic scene. Whilst I prefer the greater contrast of the low key mono version the  high key treatment is still perfectly acceptable , how the final image is interpreted is very much a personal choice. 

Exercise : Black- and –white

Why is Black and White photography so popular and what makes it so unique? One of my favourite photographers , Jane Bown, works exclusively in black and white, her portraiture is inspirational. She comments “Black and white is quiet , where colour is noisy and distracting, and I feel that it allows the personality of the sitter to come through” Pg. x Introduction Observer Books Exposures Jane Bown” , Guardian Books , London 2009. She succinctly describes the great beauty and attraction of black and white photography , stripped of colour black and white imagery relies on tone , texture , shape , and key tones. I frequently convert my portrait shots to mono as I find them visually and aesthetically pleasing. I don’t have a particular method of working but sit and “tweak” the various slider controls--- hue/saturation , tone curves , contrast , clarity etc. until I am happy with the result. Its probably a really haphazard way of working but it suits me .

For this exercise I need to think in mono—not something I consciously do when taking photographs. This is an interesting concept as I usually take my shots and decide after shooting which will work better in black and white. I decided to use my long-suffering Mum as a model yet again , but the difference this time was to try and visualize how the tones and textures would look before converting to mono. Having photographed mum lots of times I know that her hair and skin can create great textural detail so important for successful mono conversions. For this exercise I chose to shoot her hands. Old hands , such as mum’s , translate well to black and white. 


It was relatively easy to imagine how the image I was going to take would look in mono as she was wearing a black skirt and I asked her to rest her hands on her lap to form a triangular shape. Shape and texture were easy to pre-visualize , the actual skin tones I found a bit more difficult to think about in black and white terms. However I knew her paler skin would provide a good contrast against the dark background. She will not thank me for saying this but I think old hands are so fascinating to photograph , the raised veins and wrinkles seem to become more pronounced when converted to black and white.


Original Raw file below prior to optimising and processing.

Converted to Black & White initially using the Basic conversion button in LR.

As I have said I do not have a particular method of working and assess each image individually as I process it. I used quite a strong tone curve adjustment , I wanted quite a strong contrast between the dark and light tones. I also experimented with the WB , Camera Calibration and HSL  settings tweaking until I was happy with the resulting tones. I also increased the Clarity by + 50.  I really feel the final Black and White image has greater visual impact than the original colour version. 

 

Exercise: Interpretative processing.

I need to create three different versions of the same image and decided it would be fun to use one of my pinhole images for this exercise shot in Raw. Using an adapted pinhole lens cap on a digital body is quite a challenge! Unable to look through the viewfinder, the outcome is very hit and miss , but I love the way colour of light is captured and also I feel this type of image is open to various interpretations.


All three images adjusted using Lightroom

The original Raw image is rather flat and dull in appearance hence for the first version I wanted to create a more a colourful image to really enhance the different colours of light that become visible using the pinhole lens cap.

Steps: Clarity + 18.   Vibrance + 29 . Saturation + 5. Tone curve adjustment + 12 lights + 3 darks.

My second version is a black and white conversion starting with the Auto black and white conversion in LR.
The hues become tones ranging from dark to light. 

 Steps: Convert to mono. + 0.25 exposure . Clarity – 20 . Tone curve adjustment + 40 lights -26 darks. Grain slider + 25. 

The final version is my favourite, a split toned conversion with the aim of creating the old fashioned , almost antique ,  appearance of an original pinhole image.
 
Steps: Convert to Mono. Clarity -17. Tone curve adjustment + 47 lights -5 darks. Grain slider + 22. Post crop vignette -27. Split tone adjustment as below.


I have enjoyed this exercise , there is no limit to creative interpretation, only a personal choice on how far  to translate. 

 
This exercise looks at correcting colour casts.


 A major advantage of shooting Raw is the ease with which the WB setting can be adjusted post shoot -even  if carefully chosen it does not always produce the desired end result . I find this especially true for skin tones and much prefer being able to adjust and optimize  the colour on my computer than rely entirely on the camera settings. I felt  the portrait below would benefit from some adjustment to enhance the colour tones of the skin.  The skin tones look rather too pink and I wanted to adjust these to enhance the subject. For this image I used a custom WB adjustment , not too severe but just enough to improve the skin colour.  
Raw image using Daylight WB.



The landscape image below was shot early evening and I used a Daylight WB setting which has created a rather blue  cast over the entire image -including the grey concrete area.

Processing the Raw image in LR I was able to change the WB to Shade which removes the overall blue cast.

I reset the image again and also tried the  WB dropper tool to click on an area of neutral grey which altered the colour quite drastically. 
A major advantage of shooting Raw is the advantage of being able to manipulate the WB post -shoot. It is a simple step that can be taken to optimise colour --once shot in Jpeg the choice of WB is unchangeable. I like experimenting with the WB slider--it can produce some quite interesting effects. 
 
I use Lightroom to process and catalogue all my images and tend to use what I think are very basic adjustments to initially improve them. I have the highlight and shadow clipping warnings activated  and use the clarity slider , tone curves , and occasionally the vibrance slider.  Using Lightroom I can also adjust the camera calibration setting. There are seven choices but I tend to use either the Adobe or Camera standard setting , or more frequently the Camera neutral setting. I particularly dislike the Landscape setting –it creates an oversaturated image that looks very unnatural to my mind.

Exercise : Managing tone

The purpose of this exercise is to improve the tonal appearance.

The Raw image I have chosen was , I thought , correctly exposed at the time of shooting but is a little underexposed and the mid tones need some brightening. The image is rather dull and although there is some slight clipping in the shadows that is actually not really a problem it’s the mid range tones that need attention. 

My first step was to increase the exposure by half a stop. This step alone had improved the mid tone range and the image now looks much brighter , the histogram indicates the shift from darker to lighter tones spread across the tonal range. 

My next step was to use the Tone curve slider.  Only making a very minor adjustment I increased both the lights and darks by a small amount of +8.  

I also tried adjusting the brightness slider , having de-selected the tone curve adjustments made earlier, as a comparison . The slider was set to +96. Again this has improved the mid tone range and contrast. However from past experience one problem I find using the brightness slider is the change that can happen to the skin tones, which can become too pale , and generally prefer using the tone curve adjustment sliders. Although very slight I feel the resulting image using this adjustment has made  the T-shirt and skin which look a bit washed out . 

Next I tried a combination of these  adjustments. The clarity slider was set at + 25 , the brightness + 81 , vibrance +13 , a tone curve adjustment of -14 to the lights and + 20 to the darks. The T-shirt looks (slightly) better to me now but there is not a great deal of difference between the two histograms but perhaps indicates slightly fewer lighter tones which is what i wanted. 

Finally I reset the image back to its original as shot settings. This is the real advantage of Raw being able to try out different ways of optimizing and processing the final image. For this final version I increased the exposure by half a stop. Set the clarity slider to + 16 and the vibrance to + 14. I then used a tone curve adjustment of + 20 lights and – 9 darks. 

Before                                                      After 

Comparing before and after it is very obvious the image is greatly improved.