Category: Photography – Black & White

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Black and White France Photography Photography - Black & White

France 2006: An Example of Layers in a Photo

Shoes - Saint-Paul-de-Vence France - 2006

I had a great time this afternoon catching up with my good friend Doug Kaye. Doug’s recently had a pretty serious illness – and we were all worried about him during that time. But, based on my visit today, he’s almost back to his usual self – and about 20 pounds lighter. I hope we’ll be out shooting together again soon.

While we were getting caught up, Doug talked about this reaction to this particular photo of mine that I posted on Google+ last week. It’s kind of a strange shot – taken in a village in Provence, France in 2006 using one of my early Canon Powershot cameras – an S500. I was casually flipping through my portfolio of images in Lightroom when I stumbled across the original and something about it caught my eye. I brought the original image into Photoshop, tweaked it a bit (Tonal Contrast primarily) in Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 before taking it to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2. A bit of vignetting, some subtle toning, and it was complete.

Doug’s reaction was what stimulated our conversation this afternoon – his comment on this photo was:

Love this one! The foreground bars give such a twist to the story. Lighting/vignetting really place the emphasis well. Great composition & crop.

— Doug Kaye

This fall, I’ve been taking a photography course at Stanford and one of the themes the instructor has educated us to is the notion of layers in a photo. I think that’s what Doug saw in this photo – and, perhaps, what I saw when I originally spotted in among a mass of older photos in my library. There are several layers at work here – the outer bars, the wall and ledge with the shoes, the windows, and the reflections in the windows – or both the bars and a more distant wall. Almost seems hard to imagine squeezing more layers into an image like this!

Another area of interest which caught my eye as I was scanning was the two window panes above the shoes with the whiter borders – as if the glass in them had recently been replaced. I like the checkerboard pattern those two panes add to the visual interest of this image.

I suspect I had no clue about any of this when I originally took this shot! But, it’s great fun to look at it now – and to appreciate a bit of what it teaches us about the power of layers and the treats those layers provide to our eyes!

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Black and White Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California Selective Color

Stars and Stripes – San Francisco – 2011

Stars and Stripes - San Francisco - 2011

I was out on San Francisco Bay yesterday for the Fleet Week Air Show with the Marin Photography Club. Here’s a shot I took in between the air show flights – this lovely old sailing vessel with a huge American flag flying off the fantail.

This image was shot with my Canon 5D Mark II using the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L lens. It was post-processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 with a bit of selective color on the American flag – and a touch of blue toning overall.

If you ever have the opportunity to get out on the Bay for the Fleet Week events, do so! It was an incredible experience for me – and not just for the airplane pictures!

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Black and White Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Selective Color Stanford

Undercover in the Stanford Quad – 2011

Undercover - Stanford - 2011

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Earlier this summer, there was a lot of work going on in Memorial Court at Stanford. On one of my visits, I came across the Burghers of Calais all wrapped up. This image was processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 with a bit of selective cover over the one Burgher.

Hold me tight!

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Black and White Filoli Gardens Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95

Hole in Wall – Filoli – 2010

Hole in the Wall - Filoli - 2010

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My Touch the Sky post earlier today of the Pulgas Water Temple drew me back into the other shots I took last September at Filioli.

This is another Canon PowerShot S95 image – single shot this time – post-processed in Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

Filoli is such an amazing place for photographers. Such texture, beautiful flowers and foliage. It doesn’t get much better than this! Be sure to go when you can!

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Black and White Nik Software Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95

Touch the Sky – Crystal Springs – 2010

Just over a year ago, one of the first outings I took with my then-new Canon PowerShot S95 was to Filoli and the Pulgas Water Temple at Crystal Springs. This image, looking up at the sky through the Water Temple, is a hand-held three shot HDR image. I braced myself against one of the columns for the shoot.

This version of the image was post-processed using Nik’s HDR Efex Pro then converted to monochrome using Silver Efex Pro 2. I really like the perspective, those sturdy columns, and the range of greyscale in the sky in this image.

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Black and White Photography Photography - Black & White Stanford

Inside Community Court – Stanford Graduate School of Business – 2011

Community Court - Stanford Graduate School of Business

Earlier this year, Stanford opened the new Knight Management Center campus for its Graduate School of Business. This new campus is quite large – much larger than the old GSB building – with some very interesting design features. Here’s a set of my initial walk thru photos from June 2011.

This image, a black and white conversion from the original, caught my eye – the shapes, the repeating shades of grey – almost like the old green bar paper! It might be cleaned up a bit further by cropping out the “noise” at the top edge – what do you think?

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Black and White Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 San Francisco/California

Water Jugs – San Francisco – 2011

Water Jugs - San Francisco - 2011

These water jugs were shot at one of the restaurants at the Ferry Building in San Francisco while I was waiting for a friend to arrive. I took the image with my tiny Canon PowerShot S95 using macro and post-processed it using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2. I love how they have that glow!

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Alcatraz Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon 5D Mark II San Francisco/California

On Guard – Alcatraz – 2011

On Guard - Alcatraz - 2011

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Here’s another Alcatraz shot – taken with my Canon 5D Mark II in mid-day. With a bit of post-processing, this image looks like it was shot on a moonlit evening!

This image was processed in Adobe Photoshop CS5 using Nik’s Viveza 2 – to restructure the waves in the water – and then in Silver Efex Pro 2. A bit of blue toning adding to the moody, nighttime feel.

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Alcatraz Black and White Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Textures

Another Look at The Rock – Alcatraz – 2011

The Rock - Alcatraz - 2011

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This image is a composite of two images taken on my recent photo walk to Alcatraz with my good friend Doug Kaye.

Here are the two images used to create this one:

Guard Tower - Alcatraz - 2011The Rock Texture - Alcatraz - 2011

The guard tower was shot on a beautifully clear (and boring sky!) day – and a bit of The Rock itself captured up close – both images were taken using my tiny Canon PowerShot S95.

These two images were blended in Photoshop using a combination of Luminosity and Soft Light blend modes along with Nik’s Viveza 2, Color Efex Pro 3 and Silver Efex Pro 2 filters. I first converted the guard tower image to black and white – the blue sky was just too overwhelming and taking it to black and white neutralized it. Similarly with the the rock texture. At the very end, I dropped a little bit of light into the spot light on the tower using Viveza 2 – trying to create a small point of interest. Finally imported the resulting JPEG back into Lightroom 3 and applied a vignette.

If you’re ready to make a movie about Alcatraz, this just might be the movie poster shot!

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Compact HDR Mare Island Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95

A Different Kind of Tunnel View – Mare Island – 2011

Tunnel View - Building 680 - Mare Island - 2011

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We all know about the famous tunnel view shot of Yosemite. As I was editing this image last night, I realized this was a different kind of tunnel view – peeking inside the door windows of Building 680 at Mare Island. Taken on a Sunday afternoon photo walk with Doug Kaye, I shot this as a 3 image HDR sequence using my tiny Canon PowerShot S95 with the lens flush against the window to minimize glare from the glass.

I post-processed the image using Nik’s Color Efex Pro 3 and Silver Efex Pro 2 – adding a bit of blue toning and a selective color treatment to pick up the beautiful light coming through those windows up high.

Here’s another view with a different treatment of Building 680 – zoomed in on the far end of the building.