Jun 14, 2019 | B&W Photography
I got up at 01:00, drove to the airport and headed off to Spokane to spend the weekend with the kids. I had planned on doing a couple of more pilot portraits for my long term project while in Spokane so brought my studio lights, the Profoto B10 kit (now three heads). When I touched down, Brent informed me that if I wanted to get one of the pilots, I needed to shoot it that night as he was heading out to fly and then off to a conference for a week. I reached out to the pilot, made the plans for 18:30 and I soon found myself at the airport again, a different one and for a lot more fun. Little did I know, I’d be running into “competition” (in a fun way)!
We arrived at the hangar only to find Brent’s flight instructor Ben, having his engagement photo being taken (Congrats again Ben & Mary Kate!) by the bride’s to be mom. While the kids looked nice and they had Ben’s Cessna 150 out there, it was a rather simple photo shoot affair (simple P&S camera). So while they did their thing, I went about setting up for my pilot portrait at sunset. All was fine, they do their thing and I doing mine until Ben pulled out of the hangar the plane I WAS GOING TO USE for my portrait! Well, now the clock was ticking and I figured if I politely jumped in and shot the portrait, they might be done faster, so I did.
Not really a fair comparison, but the single Profoto B10 with its 2′ Octa was no competition to mom’s pop-up flash. I threw the kids in front of Wendy May, took one test shot to confirm my ratio and then shot off some frames. Now me being me, I set the Z7 / Z24-70f2.8 to B&W as I knew they would look really dramatic on camera’s LCD. It really grabbed the kids imagination with the first one I showed them. I then possed them to look like there are truly in love and shot some more. They didn’t know the B&W would also be a color photo as well, they just knew I was really making them look good (and mom said the pressure was off her photography). The best part, I got the plane back so could do my pilot portrait which really turned out nice. So while truly blurry eyed, it was another great night on the field with a plane … and people … and gorgeous light!
Mar 4, 2019 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
I posted this photo on my IG account on the 1st. It’s a real simple click taken jumping out of the truck shooting the Z6 / 180-400VR hand-held and then hopping back in the truck out of the -16 temps. The photo is right out of the Z6 which was set to Monochrome (here are my in camera B&W settings). The only “Post” was done in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) using the Split Grad to make the clouds look angier. Below are those settings. And that’s it, easy peezy!
click on photo to see ACR Grad Settings
Oct 18, 2018 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
B&W is such a romantic, complicated and magical way to tell our visual story no matter the subject. The colors of black, white and all the shades of gray in between intice our imagination to explore and ponder. The drama light can bring to our photography is heightened, intensified and brought to life by all of this. That’s if-if we have all of those colors in our B&W photo. So along with everything else we have to do as photographers, B&W complicates it all by requiring that clean black, that clean white and everything in between. Going back through the blog here, you’ll find a minimum of nine methods of turning our color images to B&W in post. I’ve constantly been in search of the fastest, cleanest and best method to bring B&W to my digital world. At the same time, have fun doing it!
With every new camera body, one of the first things I do is shot the Monochrome or B&W Picture Control. I then take the color file into post, do my current B&W conversion and print. And so it was with the Z7 and that’s when it all changed. I set the Monochrome Picture Control settings (as seen below) and shot. The B&W photo appeared as B&W in PhotoMechanic as usual. I hit Cmd E and the Nef launches in ACR in B&W! Not only that, my settings are there from the camera. But the best part, the image appears as I shot it, no conversion required. And other than perhaps a tweak, the image is done, as in, no more B&W conversion in post, done! I can only speak for myself and my own photography, but the Z7 has made my B&W not only easy, fast and simple, but fun!
Oct 11, 2018 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
The story of the Grand Tetons to me is often best told in B&W. Their size, majesty, and sheer beauty fly off the page in those tones. And when you add fresh snow, well I just gotta express that all in B&W. And if there is one thing the Z7 does extremely well, it’s B&W! It’s then no surprise that I’ve spent my week in the Grand Tetons with the Z7 shooting B&W, and I’m loving my results!
Playing dodge with the snow front, the Tetons pop in and out. And when they do that at the same time with the sun, I’ve got the 180-400VR trained on those spots. Since I want to use the Z7, I’m connecting the two with the FTZ and the combo as you can see works out beautifully! The best part as far as I’m concerned is the post-processing, that because there is none! If you’ve followed my blog for years, it seems about every six months I find a better way to post process my B&W. Now, I just take them out of the camera and go! And since the snow just stopped, it’s time to do just that, go! mtc
Sep 27, 2018 | B&W Photography
The sandstone formations the make Roosevelt Nat’l Park have me in their grasp! They are so unique, every shape and size amongst the most unique settings. You have no idea if this is a mountain or a mole hill which is why I shot it with the D850 / 8-15Fish. Just a facinating place!
Sep 25, 2018 | B&W Photography
Up until this last weekend, my B&W was done in post, not in the camera. That has all changed! Shootin the Z7 / Z24-70 at the Vintage Flying Museum, there was moody light leaking into the hangar highlighting this and that. The light and subject matter screamed B&W and I took it as the perfect opportunity to try the Monochrome, better thought of as B&W feature of the Z7. What you are seeing here are the B&W straight out of the Z7 (Nef – Capture NX-D – Tiff). There is no digital darkroom work on these files!
In the Monochrome Picture Control setting, I have taken Contrast to +5, Clarity to +5 and Filter to R (Red) and then I underexposed the whole scene -1 stops. Other than that, I didn’t do a thing other than play the light on the subject to bring out the drama and mood that is B&W. If you follow my blog, you know I have adopted many different methods to get to B&W over the decades. This is the first that for me, right out of the camera just performed beautifully. How do they print? Luscious! And the one thing I really appreciated is the Z7 displays all this B&W beauty on the LCD pretty darn accurately and richly as the final image on the computer. So now my favorite way of creating B&W will be in camera, in the Z7!
