Category: Photography – Black & White

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Black and White Hawaii HDR Photography Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photomatix Pro Travel

Back to Hawaii in Monochrome with my Canon 5D Mark II

Tree in a Field on Mahukona-Niuli Road - Hawaii - 2009 by Scott Loftesness

One of my favorite things about Flickr is how I get to see some of my older images – just because someone else found them by searching on Flickr or Google! Each day, I enjoy looking at a report that Flickr provides of activity on all of my photos.

A couple of days ago, an earlier color HDR image of this photo turned up. It brought back memories of that place – on the Big Island of Hawaii on the road heading east of of Hawi. I shot this as a 3-image handheld bracketed shot with my Canon 5D Mark II. The original image I posted on Flickr was processed in Photomatix Pro.

Tonight, I opted to process the HDR using Photoshop’s Merge to HDR Pro. I then brought it into Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2, added some control points for tweaking before finishing it back in Photoshop with some dodging and burning using some new techniques we’ve been learning.

I find this composition very pleasing to the eye – with that gradual slope on the hillside, the beautiful angle of the tree and the foggy skies above. Ah, Hawaii indeed!

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Black and White Filoli Monochrome Photography Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 Photoshop

Monochrome Bones at Filoli

Camperdown Elm #2 - Filoli - 2013

Here’s an initial monochrome version of the Camperdown Elm photo from my walk at Filoli a couple of weeks ago. Handheld shot with my Nikon D600.

For this version, I used Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 do to a black and white conversion, darkening the lawn area up front and adding a bit of color to the highlights.

The “bones” of this tree are so beautiful – and the morning light that morning at Filoli was just right to light it up.

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Black and White Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White

How Do You Appreciate Photographs?

Bookends - New York City - 2010

Does a viewer’s context matter to photo appreciation? Seems that it does.

I had a discussion today with a friend about looking at photographs and how they’re appreciated. Seems that there’s a difference between appreciating great photographs for what they capture vs. those photographs you might want to have printed and hanging on a wall in your home or office.

A few years ago, I took the shot above across the subway platform in the Brooklyn Bridge subway station in New York City. I titled it “Bookends” because of how the folks on the bench remind me of books on an overstuffed shelf where the books on each end are tilting outward.

Everyone who has seen “Bookends” tells me what a great image it is. But it seems that it’s not an image they’d want to have hanging on a wall in their home (although it does hang on the wall in my home office!).

People in an image seem to be part of the issue here. “Do I really want to be looking these folks?”

Images without people in them – at least not as major features – seem to be more suitable for prints hanging on walls. These images naturally have a bit more mystery and a much less personal interaction with the people in images like “Bookends” – and seem somehow more appropriate as fine art prints for wall display.

It’s an interesting distinction – one that I’m learning more about. I love the “Bookends” image – but I’m beginning to understand why some folks might say “Wow, that’s a great shot – but I don’t think I want it hanging on a wall in my home.”

How about you? Do you feel that difference between “wow, that’s a great shot” and “wow, I’d like a print of that hanging in my home”? What’s your filter between the two?

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Black and White Cuba iPad iPhone 5 Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Portraiture Travel

Sketching in Havana

In the Market (Sketch) - Havana - 2013
In the Market (Sketch) – Havana – 2013

Over breakfast this morning, I stumbled across a recommendation for the iOS application (both iPad and iPhone) My Sketch – which costs $1.99. I installed it and tried it out on one of my recent photos – which took all of about 30 seconds for me to complete and save! I liked the look of the pencil sketch lines coming into the image very much like the rays of light behind him actually did at the time I shot the image.

See more of my shots from Havana and Cuba here.

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Black and White Cuba Monochrome Photography Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 Travel

Magic Man at the Tropicana in Havana

Magic Man - Tropicana Club Havana - 2013

Here’s another image from our evening out in Havana at the Tropicana Club. This was near the end of the floor show – shot with my Nikon D600 and the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 prime lens, ISO 3200, 1/250 at f/4. Post-processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 and a number of other tweaks in Photoshop CS6.

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Black and White Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 San Francisco/California Street Photography

Appreciating the Magical Reflections in San Francisco

Reflections - San Francisco - 2013

One of the best times to go out shooting pictures is right after it’s rained.

Rain adds saturation to colors – and the rain also leaves behind these magical looking glasses called puddles.

For me, photography is all about this kind of magic – those special elements that come together at a venue and surprise us with a new point of view. Puddles bring reflections – and reflections bring magical ways of seeing.

Being out on a morning after the rain is one of the best times for a photographer. You just have to be open to it – open to seeing it, right there, on the ground before you. Mostly, you need to get lower – to fill out the reflection, to combine the upper (real) and lower (reflection) portions of the image into the right balance.

This image is from a recent photo walk with Doug Kaye at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center – one of our favorite venues. It was shot with my Nikon D600 and tweaked in Photoshop CS6 using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 (Detail Enhanced and Pro Contrast), Topaz Simply 4 (Black and White II present – mostly in the reflection half of the image) and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 where the final tweaking was done – adding midtone structure and the color.

I thought about taking out that patch of fog in the upper right – but, somehow, it works for me just to leave it alone as a point of interest. Actually, for me that patch of fog is part of the magic!

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Black and White Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 San Francisco/California

Back to the Bay – Vaillancourt Fountain – Québec libre! – San Francisco

Vaillancourt Fountain - San Francisco - 2013

Last Friday, Doug Kaye and I met up at one of our favorite photo venues in San Francisco – Embarcadero Center and environs. Turns out it’s easy for Doug to catch the ferry in and it’s similarly easy for me to take I-280 into town and swing around the Embarcadero to park.

On Friday, the famous (infamous?) Vaillancourt Fountain – Québec libre! – in Justin Herman Plaza was empty of water – and Doug had fun walking into what would have been the pool of water at the base of the fountain and taking some photos.

This is image I shot is a much moodier version of the fountain – quickly post-processed in monochrome – which, to me, brings out its essential randomness!

After a couple of hours of photography in the morning, we headed to one of our favorite spots for lunch at the Ferry Building – Slanted Door. Wow, we had an amazing lunch – it doesn’t get much better than that!

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Black and White Cuba Monochrome Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 Travel

Printmakers at Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana

Printmaker - Havana - 2013

On Friday, January 25, 2013, we visited the Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana and watched several graphic artists working on their projects. This printmaker was just getting ready to pull a print as we arrived – and I was able to snap a sequence of shots that culminated in this one of him pulling the print off the press and holding it up for us to see. I decided to post-process it as a monochrome image – to focus the viewer’s eye on him and the print.

Here’s another image – of another print maker adjusting one of his images before pulling another print. The texture of this image is powerful – his look, the tattoos, the hair on his arms and the needle in his hand. It’s one of my favorite images from this particular day in Havana!

Adjustments - Havana - 2013

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Black and White Cuba Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Nikon D600 Travel

Shooting Havana with Raúl Cañibano

Raúl Cañibano Ercilla - Havana - 2013

What a week it was. Seven days in the heart of Havana. Old Havana. Central Havana.

The best part of the experience was watching and working with several great Cuban photographers – including Raúl Cañibano. We learned by watching them work, taking us through the neighborhoods – and seeing things we might otherwise overlook.

I especially enjoyed watching Raúl work. He led us – slowly – on a very special Sunday morning photo walk in Central Havana. We’ll never forget that morning – in the drizzle and rain – walking with Raúl.

On our last afternoon in Havana, we went to an Afro-Cuban dance/drum rehearsal – and I happened to get lucky and catch this shot of Raúl at work. So many great memories – especially watching masters like Raúl at work.

Raúl’s portfolio is about to be published in a new book – available now for pre-order on Amazon.com. He shared the book with us while we were with him in Havana – it’s a master work by a great photographer. Here’s another link to Raúl’s work on the Lens blog of the New York Times.

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Black and White Monochrome Photography Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S100 Photoshop

Walk My Way at China Camp

Walk My Way - China Camp - 2013

Last Sunday I headed up to China Camp State Park in Marin County. I had never been to China Camp before this visit.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, China Camp is a beautiful spot on th western shores of San Francisco Bay. China Camp Village has some very interesting old buildings – and this wonderful, quirky, old pier that juts out into the bay.

I shot a number of different images of this pier – from the left, from the right, and down the middle. I used two big DSLRs – my new Nikon D600, my old faithful Canon 5D Mark II, my iPhone 5, and the camera I used for this particular shot – my tiny Canon PowerShot S100. I continue to be delighted how many great “spur of the moment” shots I capture with this camera (and its earlier versions, the PowerShot S90 and PowerShot S95 – both of which I bought new and subsequently sold as I upgraded along the way).

This was a RAW image shot with the S100, minimally adjusted in Lightroom 4.3 and then brought into Photoshop CS6. I went through my full sequence of steps to enhance the image in the Lab colorspace – before deciding that I thought I’d prefer the final result in monochrome. I used Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 to do the black and white conversion before bringing it back into Lightroom for a couple of final tweaks.

This was a very satisfying image for me. Watching it evolve through the Lab color enhancement process was fun – and then the move into monochrome with Silver Efex was especially exciting. Hope you like it too!