Is the World Black and White?

I've always loved black and white photography, but I can't count how many people have expressed a preference for color photos to me--especially for things like portraits and wedding photography. Certainly there are photos in which color is arguably the subject of the photo, and something would be missing from the photo if it were presented in greyscale. Still, I love what tossing out the color can do to a photo, especially with portraits, where I think a monochromatic treatment can really even out skin tone, or in photos on very grey days, where the colors have been a bit washed out.

Below are sets of some of my photos with the color version and at least one monochromatic treatment. There are a few I think work better or at least as well in the color and monochrome versions, but most of them are photos which I think were improved by throwing out the color. What do you think? You can see larger versions of the photos in the photo viewer by clicking on any of the photos in the post.

Heidelberg, Germany

 

Northwestern Glacier, Alaska

 

 Pine Cone in Paris, France

Wedding, Anchorage, Alaska

 

Paris, France

Portraits

 

 

Florence, Italy

Long Time Gone

For those of you still out there who have been wondering, I haven't become Amish or signed on for a one-way ticket to Mars. I'm afraid I have a far less interesting explanation for my hiatus from the wonderful world of blogging. I simply haven't had much time to devote to photography lately. At any rate, thanks to those who are still following! I'm just settling in from my big move from Alaska to England, so hopefully my posts will be a little less sporadic.

I'm afraid my time for editing has been minimal, but I did manage to get a few submissions into the Guardian newspaper's monthly Been There travel photo competition, and placed among the finalists for the month of March with a photo of Northwestern Glacier in Alaska. Beyond that, I'm still just trying to make it through the mountain of photos from my trips this last year! Below are a few photos from Berlin, but stay tuned for more from Heidelberg, Dresden, Bruges, Paris, Cologne, Vienna, Istanbul, Florence, Venice, Seward, and Anchorage...

One fun Lightroom tool I've been fiddling with lately is the sliding Clarity bar, which is under Presence on the Develop tab. Cranking it all the way to 100 creates a stark contrast which sharply defines the lines in the photo, while pushing it down to the opposite extreme (-100) creates a soft, fuzzy glow, much like a close-up filter. I don't usually use the extreme setting for most tools, but every once in awhile, approaching the extreme setting can create interesting results. I have a few examples below--do you have a preference? The first photo in the High and Low Clarity groups is the same--just with a different treatment.



High Clarity (+85 to +100)

Berliner Dom

Anchorage, Alaska

Exit Glacier, Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska

Low Clarity (-85 to -100)

Berliner Dom

Berliner Dom

Seward, Alaska

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Berliner Dom

My Latest Gig

I am finally back from my whirlwind adventure (more on that soon), and one of my first tasks upon my return was to shoot some portraits for a friend. She was particularly interested in resume photos, but we also had some fun doing more relaxed photos outdoors. The idea of a resume photo was a new concept to me--as I've applied primarily for jobs in the U.S., I've never been expected to submit a photo with a job application. Obviously the idea is to select a photo which is professional, but hopefully also conveys a bit of your personality. In order to make sure that I shot at least a few that would serve the purpose, I shot a wide variety of photos, ranging from extremely serious to happy.

In addition to shooting several hundred photos in different settings, with different clothing and hairstyles, and featuring different expressions, I also applied a variety of editing techniques (black and white, sepia tone, vignetting) to add variety and really make the photos stand out from the pack. I did the majority of my editing in Adobe Lightroom 4--I'm using the free 30 day trial, and trying to get a feel for how the program differs from (and is similar to) Lightroom 3. Rather than having a simple fill flash slider, as was the case in LR 3, LR4 allows you to adjust highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks all independently. As a big fan of the highlight recovery feature in LR3, I'm pleased to see these additional features in LR4. However, the added control does also mean that adjusting the light in the photo takes a bit more tweaking than in the previous version of the program. I also found that adjusting the luminance--both the overall luminance and color-specific luminance as necessary--really helped to even skin tone.

At any rate, below are a few of my favorite photos from the shoot. As always, I'm grateful for constructive feedback!

Creating a Collage

As you know if you read my previous post, I've been invited to contribute a photo collage to a 2013 calendar focused on the subject of peace. Obviously this will be occupying most of my creative time for the next few weeks, especially since I've never used GIMP to create a photo collage. So, if you're wondering how it's done, here goes:

1. In GIMP, select File-->New to create a new file

2. Select Image-->Scale Image and set the dimensions for your collage. You can set the dimensions in pixels, inches, etc in the first drop down menu on the right (next to the boxes where you can enter the width/height. Note: the aspect ratio is locked by default. To change this so that it doesn't automatically adjust the width when you set the height (or vice versa), click on the box that looks like chain next to the boxes for entering the value for width and height. Click the "scale" button at the bottom when you are satisfied with the dimensions.

3. You're ready to add photos now! I'd recommend using photos that have already been adjusted for contrast, tone, etc as a starting point. So, how do you add photos? Well, you'll need to select File-->Open As Layers for each image you want to add.

4. If your photo isn't the size you want it to be (and most likely it's not), you'll need to adjust the size of the layer (NOT scale image, but scale layer). How? In the layers dockable dialog box. This is a little moveable toolbox that says "layers" at the top, and it should have one entry for each pictures you import, plus an entry for your background. The layers dialog box should open as a default in GIMP, but if it doesn't you can go to Windows-->Dockable Dialogs-->Layers.

5. In the layers dialog box, right click on the image you want to resize. From the menu that appears, select "scale layer". Now you can resize the image just as you normally would. You will need to do this for each photo that is not the right size.

6. Lastly, move everything around and fiddle with the background colors until you are happy with the appearance. That's it!


My photo collage is very much still a work in progress, but I figured I'd go ahead and share what I have so far. I'm still working on shooting/editing photos to add, and obviously I still have some work to do arranging the photos. I am the only photographer in the calendar, and since everyone else is painting or drawing, I've been using artistic filters to edit my photos to fit with the stylistic theme. I'd love some feedback if you have any initial reactions/suggestions :)