Rehabilitation

[ionian]

Playing with Nik Silver FX, so a new approach to PP for me. I like the colour filter, but I may have overdone the contrast.

[Sergio M.]

Contrast can be a matter of personal taste, but it looks alright to me and I like the conversion. An interesting looking place. Do you get a lot of bikers?

Sergio

[Shadowman]

Playing with Nik Silver FX, so a new approach to PP for me. I like the colour filter, but I may have overdone the contrast.

Hi Simon,

Is this the default setting or did you tweak it a bit? Also, prior to converting how much tonal adjustment did you do? Nicely captured and converted.

[William W]

Playing with Nik Silver FX, so a new approach to PP for me. I like the colour filter, but I may have overdone the contrast.

I assume the colour filter was used during conversion to B&W, to add contrast to various areas of the scene.

Whether or not there is too much contrast is very much a matter or artistic taste, and I choose not to comment on that subject. What I want to comment upon are some of the technical aspects of the image's conversion: the aim being to (if you didn't already know these things) to better equip you to make your choices.

In the image that you posted I see three main points apropos technical critique of a B&W photograph:

> a few small areas of blown highlights in the man's jacket - they could be that way in the file (small specular reflections) or they could have been introduced in the Post Production process.

> not any black

> not abroad range of mid-tones (sometimes incorrectly mentioned as 'lack of mid-tone contrast' and often tried to be corrected by increasing the overall contrast)

***

Here is a comparison image which has a black in the image and the mid tones range has been expanded: your original is on the top:



***

Here are the histograms of the two images, firstly the original:





And now the redo:





Notice the "histogram mountain" on the right hand side - in the original it has a more narrow base and is more scrunched up at the RH side, but in the redo the base is spread out more and there is more in the mid range area.

Also the “little mountain” at the left hand side has moved more towards the black and has an higher peak.

In summary, in then redo both “mountains” have been spread out.

Whether or not you (and others) prefer the redo or the original is not the point of this commentary – the point is to show that the original image lacked tonal range (i.e. had fewer noticeable/perceptible shades of grey that it could have had) and it certainly no black.

These factors of (a 'gutsy') TONAL RANGE often are the composites of what the Photographer seeks to achieve in a Black and White (or Monochrome) image - especially if the image was made on a sunny day.

It often not so much about the “contrast” per se, but about exploiting all the MANY shades of grey (and having a Black-Black and a White-White) to represent the hues, colours and LIGHT of the original colour scene.

WW

[ionian]

Sergio - this was taken on a day trip to the coast yesterday with my family. This was along the promenade, there were plenty of cyclists and walkers.

John - I made very basic adjustments in LR (increased blacks and shadows, and added a small amount of dehaze) before moving over to Nix. I then found a filter I liked and played around from there. Taking it back to LR, I made sure I adjusted the levels to ensure the image has a true white and true black (more on that in a minute!).

Bill - A massive thanks for your detailed comments. This has been enormously helpful to me. On first reading I was frustrated because I thought I had made sure that I had used the full tonal range, and wondered if there was a problem with my histogram, but then I re-read it and understood the point you were making about spreading out the tonal range generally. I am still learning as I go, and specific responses like this are incredibly useful for the future.

Here is a screenshot of my image as published in LR. You can see that there are tiny areas of pure black and white (the red and blue areas in the 100% crop) but the broad range of tones as seen in the histogram are between 5% and 90%.

[William W]

. . . On first reading I was frustrated because I thought I had made sure that I had used the full tonal range, and wondered if there was a problem with my histogram, but then I re-read it and understood the point you were making about spreading out the tonal range generally. . .

YES! That's it! Very glad that you got it.

On Post Production:

Try and look for it in the image, rather than deferring to the Histogram. Don't make the error of going into the Digital Darkroom to make a "Perfect Histogram" rather than creating an image that is meaningful. The histogram is useful as a tool to refer and to guide - but one must use one's eyes to craft the image.

Look at the differences of the NUMBER OF nuances of greys in the grass at camera right background and also the clouds and look at the differences the NUMBER of shades of black in the shadow areas.

If I had had a larger file (and a bit more time) I would have liked to spread out the whites too.

*

On Making the image:

When you are out making Photographs, try to see the scene in Black and White: it's not easy, but neither was learning to ride a bike when you couldn't - just keep practicing and I promise there will be a light globe moment if you do not give up.

*

Critique - Artistic:

As an artistic comment - I interpret your photograph as this bloke riding toward me and he has some grit and determination: he is not a young fellow: he has one eye . . . the point is, if it were my image I would want the image to be gutsy and strong with lots of complexity and strength of character.

With a monochrome image, from our palette, we only have pure negative (that is Black-Black) and pure positive (White-White) and then we must work with the RANGE of GREY (or whatever monochrome tone we are using). In colour we have all the colours, AND hues in addition to the range of TONES within each colour and hue.

So when working with Black and White (or other Monochrome) each tone is very precious and the (technical) absence of several of those tones, can often be limiting to making a better expression of the work.

***

. . .Here is a screenshot of my image as published in LR. You can see that there are tiny areas of pure black and white (the red and blue areas in the 100% crop) but the broad range of tones as seen in the histogram are between 5% and 90%.

Ta. Understood.

Easier to see this at an higher resolution. There are limitations viewing (and critiquing) "in line" low res images.

WW