B&W Architecture - pointers needed

[teokf]

I am inspired by Julia Anna Gospodarou images.

These images are no where near her's. But, I would like to learn. If anyone could help by giving some pointers along the way. I would be grateful. Thanks.

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[dubaiphil]

Well firstly, what are you using for your black and white conversions?

You'll notice, especially on your first shot, a halo effect. Applying the same processing to the sky as your buildings can result in a less smooth sky. If you're bringing out texture and contrast on the buildings then it's probably best to do that locally rather than globally.

Also, a lot of her shots use a long exposure. Getting a 10 stop ND filter, or combinations of filters, will help blur those clouds and give you beautifully smooth tones.

Sure, a 10 stop may be overkill, but I'd prefer to be shooting with a 10 stop at f5.6 to a combination of less dark filters at f22 so as to avoid diffraction and keep those building details.

[dubaiphil]

Try visiting her 500px page (http://500px.com/photo/17102611) if you haven't already. That will show you her EXIF data. She'll also give a walk through to her though process and processing technique...

For example, in the page link I gave you above, she's shooting at f11 and 285 seconds - this suggests stacked 10 and 3 or maybe 5 stop filters to me.

And she's using a Tamron 18-270mm lens too. Great work!

[Andrew76]

Phil, I remember you mentioned to me a while back about not applying the same processing to the sky, as to the subject. Just to clarify, do you find it helps to separate the building/forest, whatever from the sky more, or is it just because the sharpening procedures make the sky look 'wrong'?

Thanks - and Steven, I think you're images look fantastic!! I can see though that what Phil is suggesting about the skies, may help you out.

[dubaiphil]

I've just tried to create a couple of examples of processing a single image with clouds. Unfortunately the clouds were backlit so it doesn't become so apparent.

If I'm boosting micro contrast or structure in my black and whites, it can really help whatever is in focus. Out of focus elements of the image can become grainy, appear over sharpened, or in extreme cases the bokeh can become more distracting than before.

I've had a few shots when I started converting to black and white where I've been using a good portrait lens pretty much wide open and the background becomes a distraction as a result. And this from a lens given the nickname "the cream machine"!

Applying layers will help considerably. Shot one is difficult, and it looks as it the processing has been pushed a little too far, creating halos around the edges of the building. As a starter for ten, that's quite a difficult building to mask!

Another good thing to try to bring out the contrast is to apply a red filter in pp. This darkens the sky without having to push things too much in pp, which can induce noise and grain.

Another good thing. Take two exposures and blend. A tripod's obviously beneficial for this, but an under exposed sky will be more saturated and darker, you'll have less blown clouds to then bring out in pp, and a second shot correctly exposed for the building will help too.

[dubaiphil]

Or there's always dodging and burning

[teokf]

Oops, just realised that this thread is posted on the wrong sub-Forum. If any of the moderators are viewing this, please move it to the rigth sub-Forum. Sorry for the trouble.

Firstly, thanks for the comments.

Phil, appreciate the time taken to explain and some of the fundamentals of what JA Gospodarou did.

Firstly, all the above were 3 bracketed images (+2; 0; -2). Then blended them with HDR Efex Pro and finally layered them to get the desired image I wanted. Once that was done. I converted it with Silver Efex Pro 2.0

I used the Minolta 24-105mm lens. The 1st image is shot with the Tokina 11-16mm lens

[Donald]

Oops, just realised that this thread is posted on the wrong sub-Forum.

Don't worry about it. Probably no-one else noticed. We don't get too fussed about things like that around here.

[teokf]

thanks, Donald

[rpcrowe]

Don't worry about it. Probably no-one else noticed. We don't get too fussed about things like that around here.

This is one of the things that I appreciate about CiC! There seem to be many anally retentive folks inhabiting some other forums who are more concerned with the "rules of the road" than in helping fellow photographers...

[teokf]

Richard, I fully agree with you on that.