Color or Black and White

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Choosing when to convert to black and white is not always easy, fortunately its as just a few clicks away in Lightroom. The above shots I took with black and white in mind, images with snow and rock always make for good conversions due to the high contrast.

 

Selecting the B & W tab will give you a quick preview of what your image will look like and then its a matter of processing how you like, the color slider increase or decrease the luminance of their corresponding color in the color image. Try making a virtual copy of the image and then use the compare tool to see which you like better.
 

Ross

Images In Light

Blue/Red Woman

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Marco Cochrane's sculpture "Bliss Dance" was moved from the Black Rock desert where it was erected for Burning Man in 2010 to Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Bliss Dance brings a lot of tourists to Treasure Island to view it and the views of the city.

A really well choreographed light show goes on every night, arrays of LED lights surrounding the sculpture and from within, light it up with a multitude of colors and reflections from its mesh surface.

Black Rock Arts

Ross

Images In Light

Lee Big/Little stopper Filter

5D Mk III, EF24-70 f/2.8, Lee Big Stopper. F/5.6 at 5 sec.

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5D Mk III, EF24-70 f/2.8 L, Lee 0.9 GND. F/13 at 0.4 sec.

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5D Mk III, EF24-70 f/2.8, Lee Big Stopper. F/11 at 21 sec.

Neutral density and polarizing filters are about the only filters really needed any more for landscape photography, there are a few exceptions, but currently these filters dont really have an option that can be done in camera or in post.

ND filters allow you to control the amount of light hitting your sensor, along with aperture control, you can allow the right amount of light to do exactly what you want in most lighting conditions.

This allows us to shoot in bright light and get the feeling of motion in our images, there are many uses for this; smoothing of water, motion of a running animal or person, motion in vehicle traffic, abstract images and more. I arrive at a shoot long before the golden hour, its nice to be able to start my process before the light dims enough for normal shooting and allows for far more abstract images than with out an ND filter.

Frequently I cant shoot slow enough when at an ocean front shoot, with ND filters I can shoot at 30 seconds on a bright day, allowing me to get in more shooting time as the evening progresses, I can maintain long shutter speeds or change to a different filter to speed up my shutter. Varying the aperture and the filter density allows me to select the exact speed for the effect I'm looking for.

These are the ND filters I use regularly.

Lee Big Stopper

Lee Litttle Stopper 

Lee 0.9 GND Filter

Lee 0.6 GND Filter

Lee foundation kit

Shutter speeds with Big Stopper

 

 



Ross

Images In Light

Long Exposure in bright light

5D Mk III, EF 24-70 f/2.8 L II, 35mm, 8 sec at f/16, Lee Big Stopper

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Shot mid day with the Lee Big Stopper, 10 stop neutral density filter. I was hoping for faster moving clouds to achieve the look I wanted, but this was a decent start. I will try some more in San Francisco in the next few weeks.

Its pretty cool to be able to shoot so slow on such a bright afternoon, it opens new doors and gives one a chance to try some new technique's.

The Big Stopper requires the Foundation kit to use.

Ross

Images In Light