Photowalk 67: Clouds And Blue Skies = Black And White

"I see a red door and I want to paint it black..." Well, not quite, but today there were blue skies, nice white clouds, a Cokin Polarizer on my Fujfilm S5700 S700, and a spring in my step!

Come with me as we take a walk around the Explosion! Museum end of Priddys Hard, with an eye for finding shapes and shadows...

Flats Near Forton Lake.

The way I convert to b&w is with the Photoshop (or Elements) Black and White Adjustment Layer, experimenting with the different colours until I get a nice starting point, my favourites being red or green. Then I add a colour balance layer, shifting the highlights and shadows to the colder, bluer end of the spectrum (-3,0,3) for both (thanks to Victor W for that one), then I add a curves, and finally a levels adjustment layer, adjusting the contrast with both, remembering to apply them in Luminescence Blend Mode so they don't affect the colour.

If it's necessary I'll use layer masks with the curves and levels adjustment layers to change specific areas.

Artillery Piece At Explosion! Museum

I took this one as I was headed back from the bridge, through the car park of the (soon to close) Explosion! Museum of Naval Firepower. The shape of the mortar caught my eye, so I backed off, dropped to one knee and tried to get everything straight. A touch of zoom to minimise lens distortion, but if you look closely at the low wall, then the top bricks you'll see that it isn't quite right.

Abandoned Buildings, Priddys Hard

This one was photographed through a security fence - so I had to get my lens in-between the rails and line up the shot.

View Of Navy Fuel Depot From Forton Lake Bridge

A mundane shot made a little more interesting by the bridge strut.

Thanks for looking, Cheers, Rob.

Comments

[Victor]

Hi Rob,

I'm really loving your B&W.
Contrast is fantastic and as for the highlights(!), brilliant whites and no clipping in sight.
I like the way that I can take a closer look and almost 'squint' and see subtle detail in the shadows too. It's like looking at a well executed traditional print!

Lines, curves, detail, highlights, shadows, makes me stare at the image rather than simply dismiss the subject and it just 'stands' out so well.

I'm glad sharing my techniques has helped with your conversions, but you're definately putting your own mark to it and 'tweaking' your images to the full.

Very nice mate, looking forward to more of the same.

All the best,

Victor

[Rob_Nunn]

Hi Victor!

Thanks for the comments - the biggest difference with these type of photo's is that it was such a lovely Sunny day - the light was brilliant - but still coming at a nice low angle for great shadows and blue skies. I probably used a bit of exposure compensation on some of them to avoid blown highlights, but to be honest our little Fuji's are fantastic at this sort of shot anyway.

Biggest lesson? It's all about the light! (And using you B&W / colour conversion technique!)

Cheers, Rob.