Sean Esopenko

Weather Warning Weariness

July 18, 2010

We’ve had thunderstorm after thunderstorm here in Calgary. The cloud formations have been mostly aesthetic, despite the clear blue sky yesterday. Today I took advantage of the clouds to see the effect of a red #25 filter on black and white photography. This is a digital image taken with the filter.

I was mostly concerned with how to read the meter with the filter on. I have to meter for a fairly dark exposure or else all the cloud detail is completely lost. The green foliage in the lower region is darkened dramatically. I used a graduated ND filter in combination because the lower half was just too dark for a good photograph.

I tweaked this image in photoshop a lot more than I usually work my images. I’ve figured out that using multiple layers is a form of “lossless” editing. I will select a region, copy it, and paste it into an overlaying layer. If I don’t like my manipulations on this region of the photograph, I delete the layer. The same can also be done with darkening/lightening layers for dodging/burning. I’ve favored this method because then I get pressure sensitivity with my old Wacom tablet. Adobe Lightroom doesn’t seem to give me pressure control when applying brush work. I like to be able to finely control my opacity mid stroke.

Finally I brought it back into lightroom where I applied an extremely subtle split tone. I used a cool blue for the hi-lights and a sepia tone for the darks. I set each to about 5% saturation so it’s barely noticeable. I applied a more “4x5ish” aspect ratio, in preparation for the “feal” for the ratio when I begin my foray into large format photography. I then pumped the lights and hilights up a bit to give the overall image a little more punch when viewed about a half a room back.

In the end I wish more sunbeams poked through the clouds and that the lawn mower tracks on the ground were a little more fresh. Overall I’m somewhat pleased with the image but I want to do better.

Comments (0) | Tags: alberta, b&w, black, black and white, calgary, clouds, delacour, photograph, Photography, rain, rockyview, rural, white | More: Photography, Rural Alberta