I am not, unfortunately, a National Geographic photographer. And so the images I had in mind when I set out on Thursday night to do the homework failed to materialise onto my camera's sensor.
But with Sarah gone for August I decided to take on the advice from last month and play around with the RAW files. And to make up for recent poor posts, I've gone for quantity today.
But first, one from the back catalogue which I kind of like:
Sally (she'd kill me if she knew I posted this) 20mm, 1/15, f2.8, ISO400
This was the best photo from a party where I hardly framed a single shot. I'd just gotten the lens for this exact thing. It brings out the subject really well, much better, I think, than a zoom lens, as you can get really close. No post processing, in-camera B+W.
Moving on, and staying in B+W land:
Jaywalking 20mm, 1/400, f14, ISO400OK, here I was going for a verité look (I think that's the right word). The sky is intentionally washed out and the contrast bumped up a bit by playing around with some kind of curve in Ufraw. The angle is due to my trying to be surreptitious.
Smoko. Or The bleak existence of Ramadan 20mm, 1/500, f2.8, ISO400
Barrow boy20mm, 1/200, f7.1, ISO400
To prove I still know what colour is, and to try my hand at those crazy settings in photo-editing software, I present Barrow Boy. I know, the framing is terrible but it's the best I could do without looking either before, during or after the shot. Anyway, I kind of liked the contrast between 21st century car and 16th century barrow (with pneumatic tyres). And with the camera tilt it looks like he's trying to stop that thing rolling down the hill and crushing him. To try to improve it I played around with the saturation and the curves, but I have to confess, I have no idea how to use them.
Two more.
Boy 20mm, 1/50, f22, ISO400
By this time is was getting dark, so as I passed this kid and shot him from behind my arse I managed to get the blighter slightly out of focus and everything was quite dark. But it perhaps best shows the hip shot as you'll see it's taken at his head level. Anyway, I used the manual settings on the colour balance here in Ufraw to bring out the sky, and the noise makes everything quite grainy. It takes me back to my darkroom days but without the smells.
Finally, a bit of a weird composition:
Cats20mm, 1/50, f22, ISO400
OK, can someone please explain to me what the curves mean and do in photo-editing software, because I'm really just playing around with no clue. Here I managed to wash things out a bit while increasing a bit of contrast in the stones. I was trying to keep/enhance the evening light, but as I say, I don't really get it just yet.
Posts
Nick
ReplyDeleteI have to say it, and I know it is against the rules of Shutterbugs, "Nice Shots". I really like these, as you say the surreptitious nature of the angles and the shots captures actual live nicely. Almost brings out the voyeur in me. Liked the shots enough that they made me get out of bed so I could come and write comments ;0)
Smoko - I don' think the potted plant is such a problem, adds to the "viewed from a hiding place" feel. I also like the tone balance in this one.
Barrow Boy very nicely demonstrates how black and white wrks better for this sort of shot. The Colour makes it look like a holiday snap, B&W makes it look more arty and interesting. Also like the old cart with the modern Patrol in the back ground and the position of the barrow boy off to the left leaving the frame. Out with the old, in with the new and all that. Would love to see this one in B&W as well to see how it comes out.
Boy - This one is great, reminds me of the shot of James Dean that is referenced a lot in Vanilla sky. Love the lines and angles, the lack of any other people other than the boy, the granniness of the shot. To be honst I'd happily have this shot on my wall just as it stands.
Cats - fun shot, but the bit of a manhole annoys. Could make a great caption competition though.
The Curves - You shouldn't have asked as you are SURE to get a very detailed explanation from Mr Bailey as he loves them. A quick basic explanation is this: You have the histogram which has brightness along the x axis and the number of pixels hitting that brightness on the Y axis. The Curve is basically a transposition nomograph. Imagine now that the Y axis is the same brightness range as the X. With the line sitting at 45degrees if you tran up from any given point on the x axis to teh 'curve' and across to the Y you get the same value (say 25% of brightest). Now, if you change the shape of the curve then trancing up from the X and across to the Y will give you a different broghtness for the give starting X value. What the curve does is take all the pixels of a given brightness and chances their value depending upon where tracing up to the Curve puts you on the Y axis.
That's the engineer/techy spod explanation. Does that make any sense?
If you want an explanation from a non-engineer/mathematics brain logic try David Nightingales explanation which is very good:
http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/curves/
WOW, some nice reportage stuff here.
ReplyDeleteSALLY.
Hmm know why she'd kill you.
Light has worked nicely into the B&W.
To much empty space above her head for my taste, looks like there should be a big speech bubble.
JAYWALKING and SMOKO
Love the angle on both of these, really helps the effect. Looks like "old" Dubai.
I know these were sneaky shots but to my mind would be a lot stronger if closer to the subjects, particularly the smoker.
BARROW BOY.
Prefer the B&W one I'm afraid,
I think you struggled with curves as you probably needed to work on more select areas. I'd have been tempted to selectively work on the barrow to add some contrast into it and avoid the black hole. But you are getting to grips with GIMP, welcome to the dark side ;-)
BOY
Nice composition. Traditional rule is that things / people etc should be coming into the frame, even though he is leaving with still works.
B&W conversion has worked nicely and even got some gradient in the sky.
Like the effect of the noise / grain as well, there are some easy / better ways to apply fake noise in PS which can be very effective.
CATS
Not bad, but a bit odd colour balance. Looks like it should have a pop band playing in the window and the could be an album cover.
Best place for explanation on curves is the tone mapping tutorial on David Nightingales CromeAsia site that Steven mentioned.
Cheers,
Richard B.