What’s Your Preference?

kim-i · #1 (**permalink**) 01-03-2010, 08:26 AM

Hi there,

I have been working on a couple of shots recently which I have decided to convert to black & white. The main problem that I had with the originals is that there was quite a bit of haze and not very much contrast so I tried to spice them up a little.

There were of course two stages to this image, capturing it in camera and then the post processing.

Taking the shot:

Rule of thirds - I went against this here and stuck the horizon in the middle as there was enough going in the rest of the image for it to feel balanced overall.

Camera settings - I zoomed in to 55mm to compress the image a little and make the mountains appear larger in the frame. ISO100 and F9 are my standard daytime landscape settings to keep the image crisp and with a large depth of field.

Positioning - I was crouched down in the middle of the road to get the perspective I wanted here, my boyfriend was watching for any cars coming up behind me!

Time of day - I usually like to shoot landscapes around late afternoon but the sun was still pretty high in the sky so that was another factor in deciding to try some post processing as the light wasn't as I would have preferred it.

Post Processing:

So this is the main bit that I wanted to share really. The technique that makes this image what it is. Here are the steps I took:

Process the image in lightroom with basic adjustments like white balance and exposure
Bring the image into photoshop
Copy the background layer onto a new layer
Open the layer in Topaz Adjust and perform some exposure balancing and sharpening
Create a black and white layer from the Red channel
Duplicate the new black and white layer
Add a curves adjustment layer, giving it a U shape to darken the image quite a bit
Highlight the curves layer and the duplicate black and white layer, then merge them together.
Create a layer mask on the top (darker) layer and then paint into it to bring the lighter layer into the foreground.
Add some basic shapes to create the borders.

This seems like quite a long explanation - in short what I did was to create a light b&w layer and a dark b&w layer, then mask over them so that the lighter layer is in the foreground and the darker layer is in the background.

I wasnt too neat with the brush when masking the layers which I think helps make it look more natural, creating an illusion of light appearing on the landscape where it might not actually have been.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my image and I would love to see your application of this technique.

Below is the shot I was working with:

I also have a second image that I processed in the same way - this one was even more hazy and creating this dual b&w version of it has breathed new life into it:

Banks Peninsula, New Zealand on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Canonball · #2 (**permalink**) 01-04-2010, 09:15 AM

Hi Kim

i've been here 30 odd years and still not been to mount cook,always go past it heaps of times but not down the Hillary turn off, will do very soon though.

P.S. Nice shots by the way.

Glayva · #3 (**permalink**) 01-04-2010, 11:23 AM

A beautiful conversion to BW. This is a lovely picture with very good sharpness and great composition. Yes, it does pay to break the rules from time to time. Thanks very much for sharing with the tutorial.