Stanwell Park - Monochrome

[gcowan]

This is Stanwell Park beach. I was photographing beaches for a composite idea I had but haven't completed yet. My camera does a good B&W jpeg but I converted this JPEG in Silver Efex Pro 2. For old time's sake it is how I would have shot it years ago - Red filter, Tri-X film. I have to say that the "grain" is very realistic.



Leica M9 + 28mm Elmarit f2.8. f8 at 1/1000 sec ISO 160.

[Donald]

I haven't done much with the film effects in SEP2, but they do seem to make a good job of taking you back to film days.

[gcowan]

Donald,

I just converted this one on a whim. It has so much of the feel of Tri-X that I decided to post it.

I did a series of portraits recently using the conversion directly from the camera. It was set up to look exactly like the old Agfa paper called Portriga Rapid, which has a cult following now. The problem is that relying on the JPEG from the camera makes any PP a problem. Like film get it right in the camera and you don't have a problem, but adjust it and the colours slightly change and of course every time it is saved you lose quality.

Graham

[Ken Curtis]

Graham. If you are using Photoshop, save the file as a PSD file so you can come back numerous times and edit the PSD file, not re-edit a JPEG. PSD files use lossless compression unlike JPEGs. Furthermore, I highly recommend using smart filters so you can go back and make small tweaks to an existing image without having to adjust an already adjusted image. If you are not using Photoshop, then save file in TIF format. It too can use lossless compression.

[gcowan]

Thanks Ken,

I just did this one from a JPEG from the camera. However when I use the B&W conversion straight from the camera I usually open the JPEG in Lightroom rather than Photoshop and that keeps the initial image unchanged. I rarely use the JPEG files though.

Graham