Tag Archives: sky

HDR – Variations on B&W Conversions – CM

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Many HDR images are being converted to Black & White to present typically tone mapped shots in a more “artistic” way.  I’ve seen some beautiful work and, since I originally started with black and white photography, darkroom and all, I am particularly drawn to it. It’s obvious that many photographers are doing very simple conversions using Adobe Photoshop without taking advantage of the great variations that are available as presets. An interesting thing about the software is that there are many ways to convert color photos to black and white. I am going to present a couple of different ways to do the conversions.

This post will deal with using the Channel Mixer presets. You will see what seem to be identical images at first glance. But, looking closely, the variations will be obvious.

I’ve started with this High Dynamic Range image that has quite a bit of tonal latitude; extreme light to very dark and everything in between. It was initially processed using 7 images loaded into Nik HDR Efex Pro for tone mapping and control point enhancements on certain areas. Final modifications were made in Photoshop.


I will now present and describe the Channel Mixer Preset variations for B&W conversion in Photoshop.

  • Channel Mixer – Startup

The Channel Mixer tool is accessed using Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer as shown below.


The initial display defaults to “Preset = None” with the Output Channel set to red at 100%. The variations that I’m presenting are the “out of the box” presets in Photoshop.

Not all of the presets do well without further modifications of the RGB color sliders.  But I’ll let you be the judge.

  • Channel Mixer – Presets at a Glance


The nice thing about the presets, as you can see in the comparisons above, is that they can satisfy just about any preference. Kind of like “clicking according to taste.”  But, some of the presets do more harm than good to the overall tonality of the image as I’ll describe below.

Infrared

As expected with the Infrared preset, certain areas are lightened beyond reality. Notice the plants along the wall on the lower left. If this shot had been taken in summer, the trees would show more of a whitish cast and any reds would be black. Notice that the light orange mulch area in the lower left is very dark and much of the contrast for that area is lost.

 Blue Filter 

This filter causes much higher contrast but in the wrong places. The lower left area is similar to the Infrared effect but the lighter green plants lining the wall are now too dark to be noticed. The shadow and sunlight areas on the lawn at right are now merged into darkness with very little contrast to show that the sun is shining through. If you like more surreal effects for black and white, this filter and the Infrared preset are what you will want to work with.

Green Filter

The green filter seems to get pretty close to “real life” for this image.  A bit of depth is lost in the lower left but the contrast with the wall, plants, shrubs and mulch is enough to keep things separated. The green lawn areas have a natural look as do the sky, clouds and Washington Monument in the distance.

Orange Filter

More contrast in all areas. The shrubs at lower left stand out much better and the shadows and highlights on the lawn and sidewalk are more distinct. But, notice that the plants along the wall get swallowed up in the tone of the mulch.  And the top of the Washington Monument gets lost in a darker sky. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed in further post-processing though.

Red Filter

This filter gives even more contrast but sacrifices some of the lighter areas. And the red stripes in the flag (look closely) are almost too light to be seen. But, I must admit that this is a more dramatic representation of the scene.

Yellow Filter

This is another almost “real life” filter. The results are very close to the Green Filter but with less contrast in some areas and more in others. The image gains more contrast by sacrificing some of the natural tonality of the original Color image.

  • Channel Mixer – What’s your pleasure?

All of these presets have strengths and weaknesses. And personal preference, what I would also call “subjective perspective”, makes each a good selection. It depends on what you want. I find that I’m most drawn to the “real life” examples with the Green Filter being my favorite. Here it is in Living Black and White.

 

HDR – Sun Comes Shining Through

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Living so close to the Atlantic Coast, there’s never a dull (sky) moment. Perfect for HDR imaging. This is a typical example of certain seasons of the year in Eastern North Carolina. The awesomely heavy clouds seem to always be breaking to reveal the radiance of the glowing sunlight. Poetic huh! :-)

This image, with that incredible sky was a must for monochrome. I actually added a bit more depth to the clouds and darker water areas which allowed the sail boat to stand out. As is normal with shots like this, a straight conversion is rarely adequate for portraying the drama of a scene.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 50mm f/1.8 Nikkor lens. f/13, ISO 800.

HDR – Art at Broad and Middle

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Strolling north on Middle Street in New Bern NC, I came across this section of the block that seems to be devoted to modern art sculptures. Well, being an arteeest myself, I couldn’t resist a few HDR brackets.

I found that the sky/clouds and abstracts along with the graffiti wall, church steeple and of course lawn and shadows made for a perfectly tangled composition.  With all of that background noise, you just gotta go with the flow. After all, it’s been said that, “The artistic activity of viewing artistic expression is an artistic experience unto itself.” (I made that up. ;] But it seems appropriate.)

Processing:  I loaded nine images shot from -2 to +2 ev at .5 ev intervals into Nik HDR Efex Pro for tone mapping. I also added a little more Structure for detail in the big silver thing and the lawn. In Adobe Photoshop, I worked with Hue/Saturation to get more realistic color and used High Pass filter for sharpening.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 lens at 26mm, f/16, ISO 400.

Until Next Time

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As they say, all good things must come to an end. I’ll be back to Fort Macon. But for now, it’s time to go on to other HDR opportunities. But that’s tomorrow. This is the entrance/exit to the fort with a modern walkway leading to the interior.

I decided to eliminate most of the sky in this seven exposure image since it was just a big blue expanse on that day. And, as you can see, this shot was taken in the mid-day sun. So, this is all about tone and texture, lines and curves.

Processing: This shot was processed as the others in this series. Multiple Control Points were used in Nik HDR Efex Pro to add structure to specific areas and bring out more of the old, faded paint texture.  I used Adobe Photoshop for Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlights to balance the tones. I also made color adjustments using Hue/Saturation. This image had quite a bit of distortion which seemed to distract from the realism a bit too much. So, I used Filter > Distort > Lens Correction with Transform/Vertical Correction to straighten the vertical lines.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 28-70 f/2.8 lens set to f/13, ISO 800.Manfrotto 190XPROB with 486RC2 ball head.

HDR – Out in the Yard at Fort Macon

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As mentioned in an earlier post, my day at Fort Macon while “Poppin a few with the Nifty Fifty” was extremely clear. . .not a cloud in the vibrant blue sky. This situation can sometimes be difficult for High Dynamic Range photography but with a wide exposure range and lots of post processing, some interesting images can be produced.

This image ended up being one of my favorite kinda abstract shots of the day. With the angles, texture and colors I tried to piece it together to make it a little different than the normal wide angle shots that are usually done at this place.

Processing: With so much contrast, I had to really work the specific shadow and highlight areas to get them in balance. Control points in Nik HDR Efex Pro are great for this type of challenge.

In Photoshop, I used Hue/Saturation to add some punch and balance to the colors and then High Pass filter to add a hint of sharpening.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with AF 50mm f/1.8 D lens set to f/19.0, ISO 800. Manfrotto 190XPROB with 486RC2 ball head.

HDR – Welcome to Fort Macon

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As I’ve mentioned earlier, it seems that a lot of the doors and windows at Fort Macon are arched. This is the main entrance to the courtyard area. And, as you can see, the day was extremely sunny . . . not a cloud in sight and a bit of a challenge for HDR.

I managed to get a smoother transition between light and shadow areas by using five images from -2 to +2 ev. But even with that range it was hard to keep the highs under control. So, I decided to let the brighter area take on a slightly surreal appearance.

Processing: Using Nik HDR Efex Pro, I did mostly global adjustments for tone mapping since the bright and dark areas were at an extreme contrast. I allowed the background areas to blow out just a little to accentuate the intense sunlight.  I used Adobe Photoshop for Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlights to balance the tones. I also made color adjustments using Hue/Saturation.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with AF 50mm f/1.8 D lens set to f/22, ISO 800.Manfrotto 190XPROB with 486RC2 ball head.

HDR – A Changing Point of View

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It’s nice to occasionally stumble upon one of these old abandoned buildings. And, as you may have noticed, lots of HDR photographers seem to thrive on this stuff. Since I usually try to stay as close to reality as possible, I wanted to use this post to demonstrate not only my multiple exposure approach but also how different viewing angles can produce lots of interesting variations of the same subject. Each of these images was produced from five shots spaced from -2 to +2 ev, taken as part of my “Poppin a few with the Nifty Fifty” series.

This first shot was my initial view. Not really sure how old this building is but do know that it’s seen better days. I guess you could describe this as an environmental portrait since the setting displays the details surrounding the shed.The foreground grasses seemed to form a nice “lead in”. When working without a tripod, I always wonder what these grassy shots will look like. Even a breath of a breeze can pretty much ruin an HDR image or require lots of fixing in Photoshop. This one came through Nik HDR Efex Pro with flying colors, so to speak. Even though this shot is slightly off balance to the right, The layers of detail, grass, building, trees and sky, create a nice visual flow.By moving forward and to the right a bit, I was able to add more visual depth to the scene. The old shed is now balanced by the foreground elements and the large tree in the upper right area of the image. And the branches on the left add more balance as well.

A few shots later, I came up with this next image from the other side of the shed. For this shot, I chose a slightly diagonal leading line from the lower left. The shed is not quite as “picturesque” from this angle but the trees and sky make up for it. I think!

The main point of an exercise like this is to explore a subject until you’re just tired of it or know that you’ve covered every possibility. With this shed, I did seven sets of brackets and only stopped because my card was too full for any more. So I will be going back for more up close stuff in the future.

Speaking of up close, my last shot is an example of a point of view that not only emphasizes the depth of the scene but also the beautiful details of weathered wood, nails, weeds, grass and – ceramic light fixtures?Equipment used: Nikon D700 with AF 50mm f/1.8 D lens set to f/16, f/16, f/8, f/8, ISO 800.

HDR for Real – Chaotic Bramble from Here to There

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Sometimes it’s hard to find a good focal point in nature. This High Dynamic Range shot allowed me to explore all of the tonality in this totally congested section of woods near my house. This is my idea of an intimate landscape. The trees against the cloudy gray sky seemed to draw my attention first. But then the textures of the foreground, middle and background presented a greater challenge.  So, as you can see, I decided to simply let the scene just speak for itself.  After a little post processing, that is!

I used Nik HDR Efex Pro Control Points to balance the textures and add Structure in specific areas. Since this was a very cloudy day, I used three exposures spaced 1 ev apart. To maintain as much realism as possible, I pulled the image into Adobe Photoshop and brought the contrast up just enough to separate the different textures without getting into an HDR (tone mapping) extreme mode. I used a combination of Exposure where I used Gamma Correction and Curves to get the best balance for the light and shadow areas.

The lens that I used for this shot seems to be prone to Chromatic Aberration, mainly on the right side of the images. To correct this, I went to Filter > Distort > Lens Correction and set Fix Red/Cyan Fringe to about +20. When/if you encounter this problem in your images, always remember to correct the Chromatic Aberration before you do any sharpening. Actually, sharpening should be the final modification to your images.

Everything looked pretty good at that point. So, not wanting to stop yet, I added a layer for very slight vignetting to the corners for more depth.  Finally, I sharpened the image using Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask set to Amount = 200, Radius – 0.6 and Threshold = 0 which gave me a pretty gritty look. Then using Edit > Fade Unsharp Mask, I set Mode to Luminosity and dropped the Opacity to about 45%.

Oh, I forgot to mentioned that the wind was really kicking as you can see with the foreground grasses. But the movement actually adds a little bit of action to the shot.

HDR for Real – The Reflecting Pool Through the Fence

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Yes my friends, this is my HDR photo of the Reflecting Pool which is located between the Lincoln Memorial (Look close. You’ll see it way back there) and the WWII Memorial in Washington DC. Sure it’s not what you would expect but it will be nice when they’ve completed construction (or reconstruction?).

My real intention in this post is to kind of challenge the idea that truly realistic High Dynamic Range (HDR) photographs can be achieved with a single image. As you’ll see, raw images have enough data to get pretty close. I think I’ve read that there can be a latitude of up to 5 ev with raw images. But, even with that, I have to really increase my post-processing effort to even come close to the results that can easily be achieved by using five or more images that are shot at 1 ev intervals. I hope that makes sense to you.

  • Through the Fence – Singe Image HDR Balancing Act

I’ll now compare a single shot of this image (the middle of the brackets) showing my starting point on the left and what it looks like after tone mapping on the right. I had to do lots of adjustments in Photoshop Camera Raw to produce the starting image.
I’m thankful that Adobe Photoshop is such a powerful tool. The clouds needed burning in at the shadow areas and the dirt areas and trees were warmed up with Hue/Saturation. The sky was also darkened a little using Hue/Saturation.

The hardest thing to achieve when simulating HDR (pseudo-HDR) with a single image like this is to get a good balance with highlights and shadows. After doing the Shadows/Highlight balancing act, I had to work each area individually to get this result. This single image approach takes much more work to get the balance that comes automatically when multiple exposure images are combined.

  • Through the Fence – Let’s Take Five

So, why do multiple image, true HDR? I hope you’ll see why with the photos below. This before and after Tone Mapping was produced with five images that were exposed 1 stop apart from -2 to +2 ev. The first image is what came out of Nik HDR Efex Pro without any post processing; just the combined shots.

Right off the bat, you can see a smoother tonal blending between the light and shadow areas. There actually is more depth in the shot since it looks more realistic than the single image example. After all, the camera can’t record what our eyes naturally see, with only one exposure.

The tone mapped, messed with image on the right has even more depth since the highlight and shadow areas have retained much more detail. And I’m sure that those of you who have used the HDR tools can see where I’ve enhanced certain areas for a more dramatic effect. Like the foreground areas; more structure and color tones; warmer yellow and red. And since it’s rare that we actually see total black and total white in nature, I’ve left those out. (Well maybe the fence and a couple of really dark spots.)

True multiple image HDR is the best simulation of what we actually see. But, the best visual end result, either true HDR or pseudo-HDR, can only be determined by personal choice.