On this relatively cold gloomy gray day, sitting around playing with a photograph seemed like the next best thing to do.
The photo at the top is from sunset Friday. It’s not retouched and straight out of the camera.
The next one shows how I usually manipulate virtually every photo that makes it on this blog and Facebook. Takes less than a minute. If the shot is halfway decent, the end result to me is halfway decent.
I decided to play around with an HDR image. Even though I’ve been using Photoshop since version 1, I’m all self taught. The things I have to do with it are pretty basic and I know virtually nothing about layers and masks and filters and all the other bells and whistles.
So, I took the original image, I shoot DNG files now so there’s a lot more color info, which I like, made two other files and changed the exposure up and down for each of those. Then merged them to HDR. Things came up I know nothing about that I had to make choices for, they seemed like logical photography choices, and after two tries I wound up with a psd image that I didn’t like.
So, I opened that as Camera Raw, which gets me to the place where I manipulate photos anyway, made some adjustments and wound up with the image you see next.
It’s not bad, but it shows me what I don’t like about HDR images.
They’re flat. For all the color and brightness and bringing out the subtle colors in the foreground and brightening them in the background, it flattens out the whole thing.
At least to me.
That’s not how I see things. I see things bright and colorful, which is why I have to beef up the photo’s to begin with to get what I saw, but there’s a certain point where HDR seems to eliminate all the subtle shadows.
That’s what gives an image it’s depth, the subtle shadows and color shifts.
So, I’m going to stick with what little I know when it comes to playing with a photograph.
It gives me what I want and how I see.
Bright colors, deeper shadows and lots of depth.
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One of the other things I’ve been trying to do when playing with a photograph is converting them to black and white.
Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?
But I’ve done a lot of black and white photography in the past, so when I convert photo’s to black and white in Photoshop I play with the sliders to make the black and white come as close as possible to the color tones in the color photo. The end result below is from the second photo above.
There are times I like the black and white photo better than the color version.
Mike Sepelak
20 Mar 2016Good stuff! And a fine image/composition to start with.
Ken G
20 Mar 2016Thanks Mike. It’s hard to go wrong with this old barn. I swear they put it in this spot on purpose. The playing was fun, but I keep coming back to how I always do things. Not sure if that’s good, but it works.
Rick
20 Mar 2016I was thinking the first picture would make a fine black & white. I can see why you like photography, Ken, very interesting discourse on how you handle a photo.
Ken G
20 Mar 2016Thanks Rick.
I normally don’t do that with photo’s because I’ve been doing the basic processing for so long that I don’t really pay attention to what I’m doing. And half the time I try something different just to see what happens.
I’ve always found black and white appealing. Must have something to do with being 60. Back in the “Good ‘Ol Days” color was a novelty it seemed. Everything in the newspapers and most magazines was in black and white. Plus, when I got my first SLR when I was 18, black and white film and it’s processing was a hell of a lot cheaper.
Howard Levett
20 Mar 2016Back in the day I had my own darkroom. Yeah, I know, what’s a darkroom? I did a lot of experimenting as you are doing now. Seems like a lost art now. You picked the correct picture to change to black and white. It’s stunning and changes the atmosphere of the original. I can see the smile on your face now.
Ken G
20 Mar 2016I had a black and white darkroom at one time too Howard.
Part of me misses that, but digital is so much cleaner and it won’t blow up on you if you choose to smoke while processing film.
Not that I ever did that.
Funny part now, first I have to get the color shot the way I want it before turning it to black and white, otherwise the results are completely different. I need to retire. I like playing more than working.
Dan Roloff
20 Mar 2016It is sad to me how many people just take photos without thought to composition and never edit past a crappy filter from a cell phone app.
Ken G
20 Mar 2016I agree Dan. Considering how fast something better can be accomplished.
I think the main part is that you have to care. Most don’t.
Ben
23 Mar 2016Yeah, that last picture does have alot more depth than the others.
Nick Pezdek
24 Mar 2016Nice looking pics Ken. How ya been? Long time no talk. Shoot me an email when you get a chance, if you can grab it from my post.
Andrew Mason
26 Mar 2016I’ve been thinking about this all week and I agree that HDR used indiscriminately can be pretty bad. Here’s an example where I think it adds a lot to the shot.
First one is a picture I took in Moab a number of years ago
http://www.viewbug.com/photo/59149685
and then a version processed through an HDR filter from Google’s (now freee) Nik tools
http://www.viewbug.com/photo/64982741
I think in this instance it actually adds depth because you get the detail from the background from that bracketed exposure that you don’t see in the original.
Ken G
26 Mar 2016I actually like the first shot better Andrew. It’s the depth issue again and the colors look a lot more natural.
I’m probably going to play around a little bit more. I’m sure I have some shots that could benefit from HDR, but for the most part I think I’m going to just keep doing things the way I already do.
On my list of things to do is go out to a place like Moab to see the Milky Way. I catch glimpses of it here now and then, but I want to see it just like in the photo’s I’ve seen.
Mike Metzger
29 Mar 2016I am certainly not a experienced photographer, heck I don’t even know what an HDR is other than some letters on an iphone. However, you should definitely get to southern Utah and see how much closer to the actual colors the second photo is. Just got back from my second week in three years to those beautiful national parks of ours – its a WONDERLAND.
And to your point about the Milky Way, it still elicits chills in my spine each night in the middle of the high desert.
take care,
Mike
Ken G
29 Mar 2016Drove through some of the western states 40 years ago Mike, but the goal was to get to California and back, so I never stopped. I do need to go explore out that way and hopefully the sky will cooperate at night. I really want to see that.
I don’t know what half the crap on my camera means. As long as I get the end result I want, I’m happy.