Jul 7, 2010 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
We headed down to the airport to pick up Stephanie so like always, I grabbed the camera as we left the house. Looking out the window told me what lens I should have attached.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP4863.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
It’s the summer and the pattern has turned so we get our very dramatic afternoons. The thunderheads started to form early all around Mammoth but not over Mammoth. I knew heading to the flats, they would be off in the distance and not overhead which is why I selected the one lens I took along.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP4864.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
The clicks were easy, I parked in the middle of the road, shot out the window what you see at around 80mm, -1 exp comp with AWB. Pretty easy stuff. I knew with the drama in the sky these would be B&W photos. That was done in a SNAP in ACR 6.1 and then a simple click into Photoshop and another click on the Poster Action and it’s back out shooting. It’s all pretty easy stuff for anyone to do. The hardest thing for most folks though is that first step, always having your camera with you.
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 29, 2010 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
A challenge for so many when they put the camera to their eye is, “Do I shoot vertically or horizontally?” Moving forward from that question for me for my landscape work is the question, “Color or B&W?”
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3738_bw.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
So we just looked at the subtle change just turning the camera can have to a landscape image. In that process of doing the dance, what does the option of B&W bring to the dance? First, many have a hard time just seeing their world in B&W. Try just squinting your eyes, this will take those highlights that will blow out become gone to your vision and those areas that will be lost in the shadows, black to your vision.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3739_bw.swf, 403, 600 [/swf]
With that, you should start seeing those areas in your photo that are the highlights. In this particular example (every photograph is different) the subject is the highlight and when you turn the camera vertically and your go to B&W, damn if the subject doesn’t smack you right between the eyes. And when you do that with your subject, the viewer of your photograph can’t help but see the subject and that’s when you win! And you’d be surprised when you do that correctly, those little things you missed that shouldn’t be in the photo, magically disappear! I’m looking forward to sharing this with the folks next week when they come to our Eastern Sierra Adv and play with our puffies in their viewfinders! And yes, this is what I saw when I clicked, a vertical, B&W photo.
Photos captured by D3s, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 17, 2010 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP1106.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
It’s in the middle of a lawn, so it’s either for a possible forest fire in the middle of Central Park, or the builder was a dog lover. The photo might have been stronger if I used the power of CS5 to remove some features but decided to not go that route. The B&W conversion was done in CS5 using Scott Kelby’s Gradiant Map technique and then adding a Brightness/Contrast Curve.
Photo captured by D3s, 28AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 11, 2010 | B&W Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8902.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
At least, that’s what I asked when I saw this old truck parked at Cisco looking off to the south.
May 10, 2010 | B&W Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP04271.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
And to me, this wall is just a whole lot of trivia from our past. Because off that simple fact, it’s a black and white even though Hires was fire ball orange.
May 6, 2010 | B&W Photography
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but winter just doesn’t seem to want to give way to spring. Last week was just weird, coming home from the sunny southwest to pulling out the snow blower to clear the drive way. This week, we had one gorgeous day and then….
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8433.swf,585, 453 [/swf]
Today the wind turned cold, the clouds came over the crest and for a while it seemed like it wanted to snow. The skies were black, solid and threatening with the sun not to be found. Come on, I like snow but really, it’s time!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8425.swf,396, 600 [/swf]
Well finally late in the afternoon the clouds started to break. That’s when whether it winter, spring or summer, I love to be out and look up. The clouds were just flying by, it’s memorizing! Well, being tired of working on the computer, I grabbed the camera and headed out to the deck. I just chased around the clouds within the confines of our deck for a half an hour, making clicks thinking the whole time I would experiment more with my B&W technique to finish the images. While the clicks aren’t anything earth shattering, it felt good to get out, hopefully say good-bye to winter and know the B&W technique still works.
Photos captured by D3x, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
