Toning the Vision

When looking at potential scenes I have a vision or at least an idea of how I am going to finish the print. It is important to think about how you want your final vision to come to life. In this case, I have captured a shot of a field of tulips which in theory would be stunning in colour. Since I am aiming for monochrome I have to isolate the print to have the viewer follow the light and shadows.

The original monochrome conversion is very light and using a dodge and burn layer in Photoshop I was able to create the toning vignette to pull the audience to the three tulips instead of the entire photograph.

Before Photoshop Toning

The Dodge and Burn Layer

After Photoshop Dodge and Burn Layer

This is how you will achieve a well balanced toned print.

1. Open a colour corrected photograph
2. New/Layer/Gradient Map (Your colour pallette should be black in foreground and white in background)
3. New/Layer/Overlay (Make sure to check 50% Gray and you should see a grey layer open, it won’t affect your image)
4. Use the dodge and burn tools in the tools pallette at 9% to 11%

Thinking in Monochrome

THE HISTORY

I have had numerous debates over the last few years about my opinions on shooting monochrome captures. With exception to event ( journalism ) and wedding photography I firmly believe that black and white photography needs to be a well planned shot. Taking images with digital photography usually leaves us with the option of shooting in colour only, giving us endless possibilities of going colour or monochrome.

If we go back not less than 10 years ago and beyond when film still had a healthy share of the marketplace we had the option of either black and white film, colour negative film and chrome slide film. If you shot with a black and white roll there would never be an opportunity to create a colour shot unless you were handpainting, tinting or finishing with colour additives. You could shoot chrome slides and colour negatives and go backwards and create a monochrome shot. Which is how the digital realm has continued that option which is wonderful.

Once upon a time black and white shooters were concerned with, contrast, exposure, texture and ASA numbers for the shooting conditions. I still carry that tradition on in my digital shooting with one major exception. While all of the new camera’s feature the monochrome option and I would deter and wholeheartedly recommend that you shoot in colour at all times. A quality produced colour shot will still give you the opportunity to go either way if you choose.

TODAY’S MONOCHROME

Producing a strong digital colour photograph will lead you to a better monochrome capture if you understand what variables help you in determining your subjects, how you control the camera’s options and most importantly White Balance.

Back to my original statement of executing technically for monochrome requires firm understanding of colour reactions to conversion in RAW Converters & Photoshop, white balance and its effects on conversions and what subjects to look for, lighting conditions and exposing correctly for those scenes. If anyone has created a print , dodged and burned, enlarged within a darkroom understand the importance of creating a strong base image from the negative, without it post processing will not produce miracles.

A couple of years ago I had to make conscious decision to walk away from producing colour images because I no longer wanted to be daunted by going either way again. I don’t recommend that everyone do this, it was a personal decision and something that I don’t regret. However I still see thousands of colour images in my RAW catalogue but each of them were created with the intention of going monochrome, no matter how breathtaking the colours were. Because of this decision when I walk into a scene I know what I am looking at and how it will process in monochrome and adjust camera accordingly based on the vision I see while standing there with the camera in hand.

Here are some of my tips to ensure that you think in monochrome in field and give you something to think about. I welcome anyone with either tips or rebuttals to jump in. I will be going into more in depth tutorials covering some of my many work flows and photoshop editing. For now I am concentrating starting the foundations.

The Landscape and Scene

1. Look for gritty textures. e.g. Brick Walls, Urban Street Scapes, Beach Fronts, Sidewalks, Stones and Rocks
2. Try to use gradual ND Filters to balance the sky versus ground, otherwise use HDR methods to keep the sky and ground balanced.
3. Use polarizers to enhance and darken skies and pop contrast in the sky. Try using it on a cloudy day and watch those clouds really gain contrast.
4. Look for strong shadow casts from the evening or morning sun. This leads to awesome and striking monochrome conversions.
5. From yesterdays post practice using ND filters from 2 Stop all the way up to 10 stops.
6. Sounds silly… but carry an old red filter from the film days and hold it up to your eyes looking at the scene and it will help you look at it as highlight and shadows as opposed to all of the pretty colours.

The Camera

1. Turn off the camera’s monochrome only option and shoot in colour only.
2. Shoot in RAW 100 Percent of the time.
3. Always custom white balance using various white balance tools. While although you are shooting in RAW this eliminates one less thing in post processing.
4. Shoot images 1/3 to 1 full stop underexposed to ensure your highlights don’t blow out.
5. Always use histogram to ensure that you shadows and highlights are not leaning heavy on either side.
6. Bracket, Bracket, Bracket (Think about when you may get to see where you are again! What two or more shots to ensure you have it right. )

Anatomy of a Photograph

• This shot was captured due to the grit and texture of the wall and ground and the clean opposing lines of the glass bottle.
• It was captured at 1/2 stop underexposed due to the white wall.
• I masked and edited in six sections using layer quick masks and levels in Photoshop and a final curves adjustment for contrast.
• I burned in the corner edges of the shot to lead the eyes back to the center of the frame.

Edit Info Time in a Bottle : Derek Shanks Photography 2006

1. Top left hand corner above pipe [Isolated using Quick Layer Masks and Levels Adjustment Tool]
2. Top right hand cornder above pipe [Isolated using Quick Layer Masks and Levels Adjustment Tool]
3. Pipe in center [Isolated using Quick Layer Masks and Levels Adjustment Tool]
4. Bottom left hand corner wall below pipe [Isolated using Quick Layer Masks and Levels Adjustment Tool]
5. Bottom right hand corner wall below pipe [Isolated using Quick Layer Masks and Levels Adjustment Tool]
6. Ground in whole below Pipe [Isolated using Quick Layer Masks and Levels Adjustment Tool]
7. Overall S Curves adjustment using Curve adjustment tool.

Derek Shanks Photography 2006

Daylight Long Exposures [Strong ND Filters]

I mix my work between standard urban street shooting and long exposure waterscapes and fast moving clouds. The quality of long exposures is better enhanced when you can shoot in straight daylight, early morning and evening. The B+W 1000x 10 Stop Filter and Hoya’s NDx400 Filter are two examples of strong filters to give you maximum shooting times for motion blur and to create stunning creative effects for your shots. This type of effect has been used with wonderful colour shots but more known to black and white imagery. The sky is the limit with how you can use these filters, try using them with waterfalls, streetscapes, train stations and during rush hour times in major urban centers.

Recommendations

1. Purchase the largest size with step down rings so that you may use it across all of your lenses.
2. Go beyond the boundaries of just the ND filters and add in a Polarizer and strongly encourage the use of Graduate ND Filters from the Cokin or Lee Filters ensure that you aquire the correct filter holders for the drop in filter types. This helps give that balance ground and sky exposure without having to use HDR software.
3. Invest in a strong tripod matched with a cable release or remote for your camera.

Shooting Tips

1. Focus your shot and turn off your Auto Focus, the place ND Filter onto lens and add appropriate Graduate Filters over top of the ND Filter.
2. Use remote releases as your exposure may go longer than 30 seconds up to several minutes depending on time of day.
3. Always check your histogram to ensure correct exposure for highlights and shadows.

Digital Black & White Workshops (Toronto)

I am planning on setting up a series of workshops over the summer and fall in the Toronto area. First to be released is 1 to 1 Private Consultation.

Private 1 to 1 Consultation – Half Day

I will cover theory, application, what details to look for, camera settings and one on one coaching in field. I will also teach you how to think in monochrome. Locations will be urban and waterfront within small walking distances. I will be using my own camera equipment, as well I am highly familiar with all camera models to ensure that I give you the best advice.

We will then move on to the computer applications to discuss the editing aspects of the captures that we created in field. I will end the sessions by ensuring that you have all your questions answered.-

This is an awesome opportunity to learn some tricks and tips without being interrupted and ensuring that all of your questions and shooting goals are addressed. Plus a fun day of shooting in black and white with a highly enthusiastic monochrome shooter.

Price: $300.00 Limited Time Offer (Register Soon)

To register, please contact me at dbshanks@rogers.blackberry.net or 416-561-0799

TO BE ANNOUNCED I will be planning group workshops. I will release the details once I have set up the format, locations, and seminar workshop to hold groups. Please keep checking the site for further details.

Method to My Madness

I have had a lot of people wonder what I start out with for an image and how I achieve the contrast results. I have included the before, the transition and the final image result. I use a selection breakdown and use levels to isolate tones and contrast from various parts. In this particular image masks were applied to three seperate areas as colour coded and then individually adjusted for contrast using levels. Hope this well help some. If you have questions let me know! This is more of method to my madness than a tutorial but will help some understand how I evaluate my work before toning each image.

Leave comments and thoughts

Making of Vision of Margaret’s Path

I have been asked by a lot of people how I achieve some of the effects of my black and white images, while I won’t go into total detail the following images will show the evolution from capture to conversion with a brief description as to what was done. This is a brief version of what I actually go through but it will give you a general idea.

Process One

This is the initial colour photo, corrected for colour balance and initial sharpening processed in photoshop. Contrast is corrected to compensate for the flat detail that usually comes out digital cams. You can see that the horizon is slightly off and that there is a lot of extra detail not needed. The sky is washed out as I was exposing for the stairs and rocks, I knew that I converting to BW so I was not worried.

Process Two

This is the first conversion to black and white, details are flat but I have the shades and tones that I want, I usually use Channel Mixer combo 26,36,37 Constant 0 Monochrome Set. This gives me an idea of where I want to concentrate on boosting contrast.

Process Three

Evaluating the photo I concentrated boosting contrast in the areas of the ground, rocks and stairs. Popping the whites from the black and increasing darkness. I have also cropped the photo to compensate for the horizion being off center and got rid of the coffee cup on the ground. I now have decided that I want to focus attention to the stairs and the side rocks and partial ground.

Process Four
Where I want to focus back on the stairs and ground and rocks at the side I now create a curves layer and drag the white down completely on the right to create an almost night time photograph. All adjustment layers have a mask layer attached to them I now start painting in low opacity to bring back some of the details.

Process Five
This is the final process where I have painted the details back in, I now add more contrast by using an aggressive ‘S’ curves layer, and apply final sharpening. The trees were too sharp so I applied a little blur to the top portion of the photo to create a little dreamy effect.

Process Six
Now that I have done the photo, approved of all the elements and ensured that the image is very high quality. I now add a frame and titie layer to accentate the photograph. Now this photo is slightly different from the one I posted earlier in the week. I recreated the process for the purpose of this blog to show what I do If you want to see the other image that I have decided to stay with click on the blog before this one.

Final Note
If you have any questions, or want something explained in more detail please feel free to message me. I hope that this will help some understand the thought process that I go through to decide on my editing style. I hope that fellow photographers will learn a thing or two from this as well. As mentioned earlier, people have been wondering how I achieve my styling so these photos were redone to illustrate the process that I go through

Derek