Thoughts on Photography

Thinking in B&W to Improve My Photography

 
   

I've long suspected that my move from film to digital has come at a price.  Very simply, digital photography, with its full color in-camera previews makes it easy to get in the habit of ''point, shoot, check the histogram then re-shoot if necessary."  This method has created a lazy approach to the fundamental components of photography. 

Back in my film days, 90% of my photographs were shot in b&w.  Over time, I came to think in b&w.  Only now do I realize what a powerful mindset that was.  When you remove the color information, your mind changes.  Think about how your previsualization works when you know that the color you are seeing will not be part of the final image.  You immediately begin to focus on things like texture, contrast, tonal range, shape, and form.  All of the subtle things can turn a good image into a great image.  Heck, I used to actually use the "zone system" to place the shadows or highlights right where I wanted them.  Just thinking about the zone system before pressing the shutter is an exercise in good photography.  It causes you to consider the elements in the photographs as elements and how they should work as part of the whole. 

Digital photography's convenience and free do-overs has made me lazy.  "I can always fix it later in Photoshop," I would think.   Well, as any good photographer will tell you...getting it right in camera is the beginning of a great image. 

An additional benefit of removing color information from a photograph is that it allows the image to be viewed in a new way...one that emphasizes things that can get lost or muted otherwise.  An example is above.

The color image was created five years ago; the b&w version was created yesterday after I came across the image while backing up files. The potential of this image escaped me when I first processed the color version five years ago.  Look at how the contrast, tonal range, and texture really show up in the b&w version.  I finally saw the power of these elements by converting the image to b&w.   

Its time for me to get back to thinking in black and white. 

Fun with HDR

It's not photography...its HDR.  For me, high dynamic range images have yet to reach a point of not looking fake; but that doesn't mean they aren't interesting.  It is when HDR tries to pass itself off as a regular image that it begins to feel like putting on a cheap suit...it is an attempt to look nice that just doesn't pull it off. 

So with this in mind, I signed up for Tony Sweet's HDR class over at Betterphoto.com.  For the first week's assignment, I tried to make an HDR image look as though it wasn't.  Here is the result:

Based on the number of questions asked by other photographers about whether or not this was HDR, I figured that I had almost succeeded in my effort to disguise the processing.  Almost.  If you look closely, the flaws begin to surface.  Check out the over-saturated/weirdly-saturated"EXIT" sign. 

In the second week of class, we learned to create an "illustrated look" with our images by applying the HDR process twice to an image.  This is where HDR began to get interesting.  For me, it became the only real way to use HDR (until the technology improves).  This technique doesn't try to hide what it is, but rather creates a new type of artistic interpretation of a photograph.  Here are a handful of my favorites from the class. 

 

 

 

Click links for more information about the software used to create these images or Tony Sweet's class.

 

 

Evolution of a Photograph

I earned a day off of work today, so I decided to reconnect with my love of photography and photo processing.  I spent the morning browsing through unprocessed images from a trip I took to South Africa last November.  One of them caught my eye as having potential to be a nice image.  But as with most RAW images, it's kind of hard to really see the whole potential of an image until the post processing begins. 

The image below shows the evolution of the post processing.  On the left is the RAW capture.  The middle image is what I first envisioned.  The image on the right is what evolved as I will discuss below. 

I decided I wanted to make this image a simple, colorful landscape. But when I was finished, I had the image in the middle and was pretty unsatisfied with the result.  I mean, who needs another colorful landscape shot.  How predictable and uninteresting.  It doesn't have a mood, it doesn't feel like art.  It feels like a nice vacation snapshot.

My thought process then turned to what I disliked most about the image...the predictable color.  It's just too pretty.  I liked the tonal range of the image and the composition, but the color was just too much.  Plus it was just to crisp and clean.  I decided it would be more interesting if it had the appearance of being an old photograph.  More importantly, I wanted it to look like an old photograph from a cheap camera.  This means manipulating the color to appear faded, and the sharpness to appear made from a cheap lens.  Finally, I found it irresistible to add some other elements of aging.  What I ended up with is something I feel is a complete blending of art and photography.  This is really where I want to be with my work. 

It wasn't immediately apparent to me as I began processing this image what I would end up with.  Experimentation yielded something I am very happy with.  Let me not forget, that most of my favorite images came from fairly uninspiring RAW files like this one.  It just takes a little vision and a little time, and most of all, a disgust for the predictable. 

Evolution of a Photograph

Tonight's PAD was a quick snapshot of my new bride.  She graciously posed for me (impatiently actually) before heading out for dinner with the girls.  To say that my original raw capture was bad, is to be kind.  Impatient models don't have time for you to figure out white balance and spot metering...and so I was left with this to work with:

Way too dark at ISO 1600 means horrible noise as a result of increasing exposure in my RAW converter (Capture One).  Well after a while in PS doing some touch-up work, I was left with this as my intended post for the day:

So that is pretty ordinary.   Since I had some extra time, I decided to play around and try to ruin the image.  I did an OK job of it using the Nik Color Efex "Old Photo" filter and a couple of scratch brushes.  I don't particularly love the result, but at least it's a little less predictable. 

After about 20 minutes, I decided I didn't like this ruined version and decided to go with a sepia version....

After another 20 minutes I decided that the photo looked too digital, so I redid it in B&W and added some grain.  At this point, I decided it was time for bed.

Slade Zumhofe's lesson on Tonal Balance

Recently I featured the galleries of Slade Zumhofe in a "Diamond in the Rough" post.  Since that time, I've had a couple of short online discussions with him that are well worth sharing.   The first of which concerns the concept of "tonal balance". 

When I first saw Slade's work, I immediately knew I was seeing the work of a very skilled photographer.  I remarked on his work as having a mastery of the concept of compositional balance.  As abstract a concept as this can be, his work seems to bring some concrete examples of beautifully balanced compositions. 

Slade's Manito Fog image above for example, has such a perfect visual weight to it.  The huge tree in the foreground with it's converging trunks and root structure is repeated, and balanced with the smaller tree in the background.  Notice how the background tree converges right at the horizon line, giving itself the same grounded feeling as the foreground tree.   This composition didn't happen by accident, and I doubt if it would have the same feel if the camera was moved even a couple of inches in any direction.  This is beautiful compositional balance.

Here I would like to share Slade's comment to my original post about his work:

"I was very impressed what you pulled out of my images....balance.  This is something that I have strived to express each time I create an image.  I get the opportunity twice a year to teach a one day seminar at the local college about "tonal" balance vs. "compositional" balance.  Many photographers work so hard at the compositional balance they forget about tonal balance."

What did he say?  "Tonal Balance?"  What's that?  I asked him to explain more about the concept.  Somehow I knew his answer would explain the very subtle difference between good B&W photography and outstanding B&W photography. 

Here is Slade's reply to my question about tonal balance:

"Well....from my experience, tonal balance is the most difficult thing to teach because there really aren't any rules.  The only method I have found helpful is a "before and after" comparison of images.  When I began photography I was drawn to several photographers work but wasn't sure why.  My images were just as sharp and I felt I had a few that compositionally were just as strong....but mine still lacked something.  The best way to learn and understand tonal balance is by continually looking at others work and seeing exactly what it was they did to create that image/print.  "Examples" by Ansel Adams is a great book for this as well as several books by John Sexton--he gives before and after examples in the back of his books....Bruce Barnbaum also has a book that shows how he interprets his images scalled 'The Art of Photography--An Approach to Personal Expression'.

Tonal balance has more to do with the print than anything else.  It is the pushing and pulling of tones (burning and dodging)--massaging of the tones that are already there.  I'm not talking about drastic changes to an image but it is VERY rare for an image to have that sparkle if printed straight."

Ah Ha!  Now I get it.  Now I can see it.  All of a sudden this light bulb goes on over my head and I am seeing in a entirely new way.  I'm seeing what I saw before, but with more mature eyes.  Tonal balance is the difference between "average looks" and "supermodel looks" (sorry, that's just a poor analogy that came to mind).  It's hard for me to explain, but once you see it, you know.  It's what makes the photographers' work that Slade mentioned stand out.  It's also what makes Slade's work such that I can look at it for long periods of time and see something new each time.

Our discussion continued:

"Compositional balance happens before exposure and tonal balance happens during printing.  I tend to put tonal balance into 3 categories and use them in this order (although I don't necessarily use all three on every image).

The first is correction--we all know film/paper sees tones much differently than the eye/brain does. The first thing I do is correct the overall tone with a contrast adjustment and then a few individual tones that either appear unatural or unappealing.

The second tonal adjustment I do is for "movement". Much the same as one would do compositionally, I try and create movement in the image by slightly altering tones--either darker or lighter--to move the viewers attention around the image. The simplest method of this that most printers do is an edge burn.  By darkening the edges of a print slightly it keeps the viewers attention towards the center of the image.

The last tonal adjust is the most difficult and I call it "visual appeal".  What do I want to say with the image?  What did I feel at the moment of exposure?  Or, what an awfully boring image so what can I do to bring it to life?  There are no rules to this one--I begin by looking at the image as a whole and try to accentuate certain tones and attempt to bring a 3 dimensionality to the image by setting darker tones against lighter tones.  You never know when you are done but you usually know when you have gone too far--the image becomes unrealistic."

Let's revisit the Manito Fog image.  I've asked Slade to comment on this image from the standpoint of tonal balance: 

"I've included the before and after image of Manito Fog for your reference."   

(ORIGINAL IMAGE seen below.  Roll mouse over the image to see the FINISHED IMAGE)

 

"It was a very gloomy day without much in the way of light or shadows.  I do enjoy photographing on overcast days but this was a bit much.  As you can see in the straight print, all the necessary tones are in place and there are some decent blacks and a good deal of light greys.  Normally this is what we are after, but the image really lacked brilliance.

You can see not only is there very little local area contrast, but overall the image is fairly boring-tonally.  The main tree trunk doesn't stand out as much as I remembered against the fog and the left side of the image really lacked anything at all.

I began by giving the image an overall contrast adjustment--equivalent to about a grade 3 paper.  This helped the local contrast but overall the image was still dull.  The main subject--front tree--was not jumping out at me as it had when I was standing in front of it with my camera.  I took the entire tree down about 1 zone and then began dodging all the areas of the trunk that had some form of light on them.  This began "forming" the trunk--giving it shape and visual appeal.  I also lightened the leaves at the very top of the hill to almost bring them together as to appear more of a carpet than individual leaves.  This is how I saw the image at the moment of exposure.

Now begins the third part of tonal balance -- I knew I wanted the background fog to keep its softness, but the left side was very bland.  Holding the image in front of me and squinting -- the whole left side of the image felt too light -- not in tones per say but in tonal weight.  I immediately knew I would need to darken the tree, which would not only help the balance, but give a more 3 dimensional effect as it produces another layer of detail as the viewer moves further into the fog.

As I stood there to take the image, that tree stood out beautifully and had wonderful form.  As you can see in the straight print it gets lost against the other grey forms.  I brought that tree down considerably -- even more so than it really was, but this is the freedom we have as printers.  The image needed that visual weight.

The last step was to move around the image and lightly dodge small sections to give the print some brilliance.  You may notice -- hopefully not before I mentioned it -- that certain leaves in the forground are lighter than they probably should be.  This keeps some interest in the foreground and keeps the viewers eyes moving in that circular pattern I intended."

Slade's thought process with this image reminds me how much more there is to think about beyond just subject choice and composition.  This truly beautiful image has been brought to life by the vision and talent of the photographer, with tonal balance being a key ingredient in the success of the final print.  After this lesson, it is worth another long visit to Slade's galleries to see just how this idea of tonal balance sets his images apart.

I want to personally thank Slade for taking the time to share his thoughts here.  He's a very busy bank executive along with being a terrific photographer.  In the middle of a very busy time, he made the effort to answer my inquiries in depth.  His generosity is much appreciated.