Half Dome Light and Yosemite High Country – Revisiting the Black and White Process

 Black and White, California, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Mountains, National Parks, Photography Technique, Photoshop Technique, Photoshop Workflow, Sony α900, sunset, Yosemite, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Jan 082011
 

Image 1: Half Dome Light and Yosemite High Country, Yosemite National Park. Final image after reprocessing to add contrast and punch.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today I am going to revisit the black and white version of Half Dome Light and the Yosemite High Country. Before I get into this I would like to thank all of you who visited the blog and commented and voted on your preference for color versus black and white. I started this blog ostensibly to get some visibility to my website and make connections to other photographers and folks who love landscape photography. To that end, a year down the road, more people are visiting my website and I have made some great connections. But something more powerful is happening. Recently I have been getting more critical commentary and dialogue about my photos as well as discussions on techniques and places to visit. A sense of community is beginning to develop which transcends everything that I thought would happen. When you put your work out in the public forum you open a door that invites the viewer into your world. It can be scary. The  ”what if”s begin to surface. What if someone does not like my work? What if I receive negative comments? What if I am wrong about a technique? What if, what if, what if. We should not buy into this fear based position. Though I have been shooting for almost 35 years I think of myself as both a teacher and a student. It seems every day I learn something new. As a student I find the “what if’s” powerful and exciting. What if’s are teaching moments that help you along the journey of photography.

Today’s post comes under the heading of “what if”. I process a lot of images and there are instances when I am unsure about the photographs direction. I call this “getting stuck in the curves”. I never really think an image is finished. In fact I revisit them often in an effort to tweak out more detail, better sharpening, better color, etc. But sometimes I just won’t go far enough. When I converted the color version of today’s “revisit image” I stayed with the same curve sets and only applied a PS Black and White Layer. I did a few other minor manipulations but after staring at the image for several hours my eyes became accustomed to the result. When I posted the image I thought it looked pretty good. But as it turns out I did not go as a far as I could.

In a comment about the post, photographer Michael Trupiano, recommended some constructive suggestions on how he thought the image could be better. So here are Michael’s “What if’s”: What if the mid-tone contrast was increased. He thought the image looked a little muddy. What if the sunlight striking Half Dome and the snow on the far peaks was brighter. And what if the sky could pop a little more. Now the main problem here is that what looks good on my monitor may look different on others. I take care to calibrate my monitor and ensure that I am preparing good jpg files for display. Additionally I still believe the print is the final word. If it looks good in print then that is the final word. But still, after thinking about Michael’s comments and looking closely at the file, I think he had some good points. In order to achieve a better result I had to add several new adjustment layers and tweak a few others. So lets take a look again at the original image, (Image 2, below) I posted at: http://roberthclarkphotographyblog.com/2011/01/02/half-dome-light-and-yosemite-high-country-yosemite-national-park/

Image 2: Half Dome Light and Yosemite High Country. Original Black and White Conversion in Photoshop.

Now let’s take a look at the areas that I worked on in the image, (Image 3, below). Area 1: Increase contrast and drama in the sky with two new curve adjustments to increase darkness in the 3/4 tones and punch the 1/4 tones and highlights. Area 2: Darken this area to provide better separation. This was done through a Dodge and Burn Layer. Area 3: This was the real critical zone Michael commented about. This needed a real contrast boast that required a new curve layer to darken the 3/4 tones and lighten the 1/4 tones and highlights. In addition some additional dodging and burning was performed. And finally Area 4: Here just a little dodging and burning to lighten Half Dome. In addition to these adjustmentss a small amount of manipulation to the 3/4 tones on the “Darks” Luminosity Mask helped the contrast in the area below and behind Half Dome.

Image 3: Areas reworked to increase image contrast and punch.

So here is the final image with adjustments, (Image 4, below). I think you will agree that the overall increase in contrast in the mid tones and 3/4 tones and punching the highlights has made a dramatic improvement to the image.

Image 4: Half Dome Light and Yosemite High Country, Yosemite National Park, Final Image.

I want to thank Michael for his insightful critique. I really appreciate him taking time to visit the blog, being part of the community, and providing his comments. The result is truly a better image.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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El Capitan – Yosemite National Park

 Black and White, California, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Sony α900, Yosemite, Yosemite National Park  2 Responses »
Aug 262010
 

El Cap and Light, Yosemite National Park. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Sony 70-300 G lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1 second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am a little behind these days and this will be my last post for the next tens days as I am heading off to Hawaii for work. I know what you are thinking. How nice. Well, yes it is but it is still work and it is a long, long flight. I will be quite busy but will try to get in some personal camera time. In any event today’s post is from the west coast and is a shot of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The shot is from Inspiration Point and was made as an incredible band of storms and clouds rolled over the valley. I watched for a while and began to notice some subtle breaks occur in the clouds. I shifted the camera over and put on my 70-300mm lens and framed El Cap just as a wave of light broke through the clouds and hit the side. Within minutes it was gone and the clouds thickened up. Just a bit of luck.

Thanks for stopping by today. We will see you in a few weeks.

Bob

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Yosemite National Park – Olmsted Point Glacial Erratics

 Black and White, California, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Sony α900, Yosemite, Yosemite National Park, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
May 062010
 

Glacial Erratics, Olmsted Point. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 35mm. Image exposed at ISo 100 at f14 at 1 second.

Hi everyone. Todays post is from Yosemite National Park. This is a shot taken at Olmsted Point of glacial scaring and erratics deposited by receding glaciers. Olmsted Point is located on the Tioga Road and affords magnificent views west towards the backside of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley. This image was shot in the early afternoon when the light was a little more contrasty. But it is at times like this you can consider coverting the image to a black and white. The contrasty nature of the light affords some nice separations of tones once the image is converted. Use of the sliders in Photoshops Black and White Conversion layer allows you to darken skys and bring out other subtle tones such as reds and yellows to accentuate the texture or color separation.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Yosemite-Olmsted Point

 Black and White, California, Heliopan Filters, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Yosemite, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Mar 032010
 

Glacial scars at Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 200 at f16 for 1/250 of a second.

This post is an image shot at Olmsted Point in Yosemite National Park. Olmsted Point is located along the Tioga Road and is one of the most inspiring viewpoints in the park. Looking east from this vantage point you can see the back of Half Dome. The view west is towards Tenaya Lake and Mt. Conness. The glacial erratic boulders and deep scars cut in the granite were left by receding glaciers. My first visit to this point was in the early 80′s and I always try to make a stop on my visits to the valley.

On this day the clouds were really rolling across the high country. I used a Heliopan Warming Circular Polarizer to bring out details in the clouds and a Singh-Ray, 3-stop soft, split-neutral density filter to handle the strong contrast in the sky. The RAW file was processed in Adobe Lightroom and the black and white conversion handled in Photoshop with the B+W Adjustment Layer.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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The Salk Institute-Classic View

 Architecture, Black and White, Photography Technique, Photoshop Technique, Salk institute, Sony α900  2 Responses »
Jan 222010
 

The classic architectural shot of the plaza at the Salk Institute in San Diego. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 200 at f10 for 1/320 of a second.

Todays post is from the Salk Institute outside San Diego, California. Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, established the Salk Institute for Biological Studies more than 40 years ago. His goal was to create an institute that would serve as a “crucible for creativity” to pursue questions about the basic principles of life. He wanted biologists and others to work together to explore the wider implications of their discoveries for the future of humanity. Salk engaged architect Louis Kahn to design the facility. Their vision and partnership resulted in one the most iconic and engaging works of modern architecture.

The plaza shot is one of the iconic views of the Institute. On the day I visited there was an overcast sky tht engaged the horizon just above the Pacific Ocean. The light was relatively flat and uninspiring. I did not have a tripod or my 20mm lens. Luckily I was able to get on a bench to get a little elevation over the water feature. I carefully centered myself and used the grids in my viewfinder to maintain perspective. Even so I had to do a little correction in Photoshop.

In order to capture the loneliness and stark duality between architecture, sea, and sky I used a neat blending technique in Photoshop. After RAW development I brought the image into Photoshop. From there I duplicated the background and set the blending mode to multiply. This introduced more contrast into the shot. I added a Black and White adjustment layer and used the sliders to to further accentuate some of the details. Final touches were achieved with a curves layer and a Mid Tone Contrast Layer set to Soft Light. This is a powerful work of architecture and to stand and look out into the infinity of ocean and sky was a special treat.

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