Colours into tones 2

This exercise makes use of channel adjustment to achieve a special effect.

I started with a portrait in which I lightened the complexion without significantly altering the tones of the rest of the image.

Colour version – starting point

Black and white default conversion 

Converted into black and white using the following process:
> crop
> clone spots
> new adjustment layer black and white
> adjust new layer channel mixer set to 100% (makes eyes dark, lips undefined, spots more subdued. Noticed green hue still present)
> adjust new layer channel mixer 2 set to blue 100% (makes eyes brighter, lips undefined, spots still subdued) erase all blue mix apart from eyes
> adjust new layer channel mixer 3 set to red 28% green 80% (erase all apart from eyes)
Turn on all channel layers and flatten image.

 Different books had different ways of doing this. I decided to follow the method in Freeman (2008) Mastering digital photography p550-1 as the page was laid out fairly clearly and was easy to follow.

On screen there is a subtle difference in the skin tone. The altered one does appear slightly lighter. I was unable to notice any difference with the eyes. Highlights appeared brighter but I think this is because the skin tone is lighter. The default image has a green hue.

When the two images are printed out, there is a marked difference. The default black and white has sepia like tones to it. The altered one is very orange red and the skin tone is too pale. The eyes have taken on an orange glow. If I hadn’t have just changed the cartridges over in the printer, I would have thought it was the printer cartridges running out, rather than the image which was the issue.

Colours into tones 1

Original

Grayscale

Using a photo of a creation my son made containing a range of different colours, I worked with altering green and red as being opposing colours. The image also contained colours such as orange, pink, purple and brown.

I worked in RAW, set the black and white point, increased the brightness slightly and  converted the image to grayscale. I saved a copy of this for comparison later.

Red becomes darker / green becomes lighter



Red darker/green lighter

Starting with the grayscale version, I decreased the red slider from –8 to –14. I noticed that shadow detail was lost if the slider value was reduced further. I increased the green value from –27 to +100.

As well as red becoming darker and green becoming lighter, I noticed that orange and brown also became darker. Shadow detail in the left hand corner increased and the shadow definition of the image became more distinct. Pink and white remained the same.

Green becomes darker / red becomes lighter


green darker/red lighter

Using the same grayscale version, I increased the red slider from –8 to +63 and decreased the green slider from –27 to –40. Lower than this value, the green became too dark.

Oranges, pinks and browns became lighter and the shadows were less defined. The chocolate splashed onto the pink marshmallow became less noticeable.

I prefer the darker red / lighter green version because the shadow detail is maintained and the image feels more balanced.  I know what the subject is about, so I think I am drawn to this one because the chocolate is darker. This opens up the debate about colours having emotional ties in photographs and by removing the colours we see things differently.

Strength of interpretation

A strong increase in contrast to include clipping in the shadow detail
I took an image I had previously taken with a range of tones which I thought would take an increase in contrast.

Original

I originally converted the image into black and white using the greyscale method. However, reading further around black and white photography, I learnt that some methods of conversion do not keep the original pixel values and so are inflexible when it comes to creativity. Beardsworth (2012) takes methods of conversion into black and white and explains why it is destructive, but also why photographers like some methods. I decided to revisit this exercise after reading his chapter to embed better practice into my processing    and creative skills.

Opened in Photoshop CS3.
>cloned dust spot
New adjustment layer > black and white
Preset – none > green filter                                yellow filter
Red –       40% > 50%                                             120%
Yellow –   60% > 120%                                           110%
Green –    40% > 90%                                             40%
Cyan –      60% > 50%                                             -30%
Blue –       20% > 0%                                               0%
Magenta – 80% > 0%                                               70%
Adjustment layer > curves
> set black and white points
> change histogram to “S” curve to make the image appear as if a storm is coming
> Flatten image



s curve alteration green filter



s curve alteration yellow filter

 

I found the benefit of using  Beardsworth’s (2012) method was that I could go back to any layer and tweak if necessary.

Colour version
I took the same image and manipulated it in a similar way.
Cloned dust spot
New adjustment layer > filter > green (70%)
New adjustment layer > curves > used a curve as similar to the first image as possible by drawing the black and white version
Flatten image

The green filter has changed the image by adding a colour cast. The sky and water look much more striking on the black and white version. The highlights have been accentuated to show the last bit of sunshine that happens before the storm comes. Without using the green filter, the effect is more striking and shows a bright sunny day.

Whilst researching the next part of this exercise, I came across a chapter on use of coloured filters in black and white image processing. Freeman(2008) suggests using a yellow filter to darken the sky. I re-did the black and white conversion, (above - labelled yellow filter) and I agree that the sky is darker.

High key treatment in which the entire brightness range is shifted up the scale

This image of a tree in the mist provided me with what I thought would work as high key. I decided I wanted to keep the feathery grass as light as possible to add a contrast in texture against the grass, keep the misty sky light and increase the contrast of the tree.

> crop
> new adjustment layer > black and white
> new adjustment level > levels > set black and white points > move midtones towards right (value from 1 to 0.82)

The tree required enough contrast to stand out against the background and become the dominant feature. The colour version did not differ much from the original colour version. However, I did look at adding a high contrast red filter (more detail in background , lightened foreground, made the feathery grass stand out) and increased the contrast of the tree, but the image contained too much detail to be effective. 

Bibliography
Beardsworth, J (2012) Advanced black and white photography, Ilex Press, UK
Freeman, M (2008) Mastering digital photography, Ilex Press, UK

Black and White

Having thought about what may make good black and white photography subjects, I walked around my local nature reserve looking at the structure of objects such as telegraph poles and wires, texture of plants such as bulrushes (following an internet search I discovered they are also known as reed mace and cat tails) and contrast of objects such as berries / seed heads against a background.

I have previously converted photos into black and white from colour in Photoshop, so decided to see what happened if I set the camera to monochrome. It was good to review the image in the view finder in black and white because I could see instantly what had potential and what didn’t work or would require more work.

1/350 F4.4 ISO200 40mm

This pipe drains water from the nature reserve into a small pond. Normally I would not give it much time, but thought it could look different in black and white.

When I uploaded the image to Photoshop, the JPEG looked as taken in monochrome, but the RAW image was distorted in colour. The greens were not as I remembered them to be and the pipe looked a blue/grey colour. I had not expected this to happen. Having converted the RAW to grayscale, I was unable to alter the colour temperature, although the sliders did affect the look of the image.  I could not change much of the image using the colour sliders, so I used the JPEG version and applied the Silver Efex plug in software to it. Choosing the “architecture” increased the contrast and brought out more detail in the structure and surrounding concrete. I have since noted that I can apply the Silver Efex software and change the sliders.

I studied the zone system of exposure for the last assignment and can see that it works when applied to black and white photography. Underexposure worked better in some images. Framing is important because in some images I experimented with, the subject was lost in the clutter of grass and weeds. Simplicity was needed to reveal the structure or plant / seed head to be viewed.  Good contrast was necessary to make certain subjects stand out; e.g. black berries against pale leaves stood out, whereas some autumnal leaves against a blue sky actually looked better in colour than black and white as there was little contrast.

Researching my local library around the subject of black and white photography, I found a useful chapter on Silver efex pro which worked through processing with this add on to Photoshop in more detail.

Having read Beardsworth's chapter on Silver efex pro, I experimented using his method of applying silver efex as a smart filter which I had not used previously, which allows one to open the layer and return to any changes which have already been made without starting from scratch. I worked my way through the described workflow to see what effects could be made as I have only applied filters in the past. By using the selective adjustments control points, I was able to darken the stone in the left hand bottom corner which took the focal point away from this and into the pipe. 

Bibliography

Advanced digital black and white photography, Beardsworth.J, 2012, Ilex press, Lewes, UK p82-89

The complete guide to black and white digital photography, Freeman.M, 2009, Ilex press, Lewes, UK