I went back to one of my favorite photographic haunts this weekend, the Mourne mountain range in Northern Ireland! I have been there many times in the past but it has actually been a year since my last visit. I've had several ideas for pictures in the past but on every visit the weather just hasn't played ball! (does ever in the UK?)
The weather forecast looked like it could be promising with the chance of some of that type of weather that produces excellent conditions for 'god rays'. But unfortunately it wasn't to be. It stayed overcast so I put my B&W head on for the evening!
It's true that most good color pictures make good B&W ones, but overcast conditions make excellent B&W one's and poor color ones!
B&W Conversions
How do you do your B&W conversions? As we all know B&W is all about contrast so after you have added your B&W adjustment layer how do you adjust contrast locally?
There are no right or wrong ways here but some methods are 'cleaner' than others. I used to always have a separate layer for dodge and burn, but I found this time consuming and can sometimes produce a 'patchy' result.
I don't use these tools at all now, not since I realized that these tools are just contrast adjustments in the same way that the curves tool is. Dodging and burning with curves is far easier, quicker and cleaner than the said dedicated tools. The best method I have found is to break your photo into sections such as sky, foreground, background etc, then apply different curves adjustment layers to each. To dodge, simply boost the highlights at the top end of the curve until you get the effect your after, then do the same for the shadows by attenuating the curve at the bottom end.
A variety of black and white / monochrome conversions can be seen in the Mournes in monochrome gallery and the Monochrome landscape and macro gallery.
Bye for now!
Tuesday 17 March 2009
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