Friday Night Photography Quote:
“To convey in the print the feeling you experienced when you exposed your film – to walk out of the darkroom and say:
‘This is it, the equivalent of what I saw and felt!’. That’s what it’s all about.”— John Sexton
That quote is the why! It’s the thrill of seeing your final image that captures the idea or mood of what you felt when you first clicked the shutter.
Ansel Adams sometimes spent weeks or even months working on a single image till he felt he got it right. Today’s technology is no different. People forget that when you click the shutter that is only the start of the process of what makes an image in photography. The Digital Darkroom is no different. Photography always had a mystique to it. An unexplained magic that had the level of skill to be able to capture the moods and emotions in our image.
There is an initial problem with this. The camera lens whether being any kind of instrument behind it. Does not and can not “See” the same way our human
eyes can. I won’t go into the specifics of color or range of lightness to darkness. That comparison is all over the net for you to research if you so desire.
So we now take this image into the Digital Darkroom to play with this Magic. Our human frailties come into play. What is our current mood/feelings?
What was our mood when we shot this image? What do we want to say with this image? This all changes of course depending on the emotions running
throughout our heads.
Lately because of the craziest moments I do not have time to shoot. Too many things getting in the way. So I go back into my Archives. The Archives are actually what this discussion is all about. Those images that were overlooked previously. There there! That’s one of the reasons we or I do keep them. When we learn a new technique. When we learn how to do something in a different way. We can then go back and look around till something just jumps out at us and say “Hey Pick Me”!!
The image I’m about to show you was shot back in 2011. We had traveled to the Midwest for a Vacation/Tour. While walking around just taking in the
surrounding beauty of the location. This family was walking to the building. Between the harsh hot sun. The heat in the parking lot with the mountains
in the background. I thought the contrasts of the way they were dressed fit in perfectly. In Salt Lake City the extremes of mentality is always present.
But it works.
Now looking back I have no idea what was kicking around inside my head. I had made a fast decision to shoot this. Probably from my hip so as to not startle or offend. The first color image is absolutely SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera). That is I did Nothing to this image except convert it to a JPG. You see I don’t shoot in JPG.
I shoot at least as often as I can in what’s called “Raw”. Even in my older technology camera. The differences are enough to give me the tools to be able to play with respect of trying to create an image that at least resembles more of what my “Eye” saw at the moment of capture. More details. More range between the lightest part of the image to the darkest parts. For reference we call that “Latitude“. Now when I say more details. A JPG image is 8 bits of information per pixel.
For my camera when shooting in “Raw”. I’m getting 14 Bits of Information per pixel. Also the algorithm that the JPG image goes through before being Saved to the Memory Card takes out a lot of repetitive information and discards it. Excuse Me? That number is 83% of the details of “My Image” was “just thrown out without my permission”!
Some person sitting in a Clean Perfect Lab somewhere made that decision to discard my information. Sorry! As an Artist I want and need every single bit of information I have available. That’s MY Decision! What I want to Keep or Not!
So I can decide what to enhance. I can decide and make this image more presentable than some Person sitting in a white Lab Coat who has no idea of what my intentions
are.
Now at first glance this looks like an ordinary shot from some family trip. Is it really? You see I do not know them. Have never met them or have spoken to them.
I just thought at this moment in time. They looked worthy of being captured for all Eternity for Art Sake. To me they looked perfect. A normal family leaving
their vehicle and walking through a hot parking lot to a building. The way they were dressed made a great contrast to the cars in the background. Everyone seems to be carrying their own bottled water. The father is opening a bottle for the son.
At the time of capture I didn’t notice the other family in the distance. Wearing more of a contemporary modern style. With the looming mountains in the distance.
It felt like I was witness to a place that at that moment became a center of all Time. Time Travel grasped the old and new all at the same time.
So I cropped out some of the distractions. I felt that the shadows were just as important here. I wanted to create depth of the shadows from the mountains in the
background. It looked only OK in Color. I wanted to see what doing a conversion to B&W will do. In my first attempt I lost the tones and details of the slight grey of the cobble stones in the foreground. But the shadows added depth for the mountains. Hmmm OK I deleted that attempt. See that’s another reason why we also use “Layers” in Photoshop. So in case we don’t like something we just get rid of that “Layer”. So it doesn’t affect any other work in different areas we’ve already done and think is acceptable.
See we don’t shoot in B&W either. Either a Cell Phone or a “Real Camera” can’t capture the tones that the old B&W film did when I was a kid.
There is a way to have a camera altered by a company to shoot in B&W. Or even Infra Red but that’s kind of strange. First I don’t happen to have an extra Camera lying around that I can do this to. The one camera I have I still want to shoot in color. Besides that is expensive. For converting a Camera I will also have to purchase another Camera? I don’t think so. They are extremely expensive to begin with.
Getting back to B&W. Shooting in Raw also gives us the option of playing with the color channels for B&W. In JPG that and a few other choices are not available.
In B&W the color channels act like Filters. These filters effect that part of the light spectrum from what is actually in the image.
Making only that part of the light darker or lighter to give separation contrast and depth to the image.
I was now able to keep those tones in the cobble stones in the foreground. After making several adjustments I then took this image back to the program
for the B&W conversion to play and see if I can make the tones smooth and give more range of the lightest and brightest areas compared to the darkest
areas.
I am including two images.
Straight Out of Camera. My first working color edit. Then the B&W end result.
It’s a nice image. Nothing to go crazy about to have matted and framed for someone’s wall. It’s an exercise in B&W editing for me. Using a Two Step process is Not Normally what I do for B&W. I’ve heard about but have never attempted it.
Now this places another Tool at my disposal when and If I need it.
SOOC Nothing done. No Editing except to convert it to JPG so you can see it.
BW Conversion
All Comments and Criticisms are accepted. You Like? You Don’t?
You have any questions I would be happy to make an attempt to answer them.
Have a Great Weekend.
Mark
MarkG-Photography 