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The best editing choices for Monochrome long exposures


patrickhughes

Member
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Hey guys, I've been playing with long exposure photography and I'd like to make some black and white, I can easily change the photos into black and white and change the brightness/contrast. I was just wondering if there where any other aspects I could change to make the photo look the best it can?
I've attached the ant of editing I've done so far.
 

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  • Advice please edited.jpg
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Crotale

Power User
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When invoking the Black & White function, you have the option of using the default preset or several optional presets. You can also opt to adjust each color individually, to include Reds, Yellows, Greens, Cyans, Blues and Magentas.
 
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An easy way for Newbies is to choose the best chanel with the most contrast.
1: Choose the RED chanel, then choose grayscale.
1 choose Red chanel.jpg

2: Level the horizon
2 level the horizon.jpg

3: Make a quick selection of the mountain, add a soft edge of 3 pixel. Select the curve tool and darken the mountain.
3  Curves, darken Mouintain.jpg

This is the result.
Advice pleaseChris.jpg
 

Tom Mann

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"... the best it can..." is always subjective, and in the eye of the beholder. What pleases me might look horrible to you.

So, why don't you post some links to photographs using longtime exposures that you like. Then we can try to offer more concrete suggestions instead of guessing which direction u would like to take this image.

T
 

MikeMc

McGuru
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Great minds think alike....I have no idea why Tom and I are thinking the same thoughts though
 

Tom Mann

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Mike, I think it's because we've been active in this field for long enough to realize that there are a staggering number of quite distinct ways to transform any image, and unless one has at least a bit of a plan in mind at the start, just playing with the image or taking the recommendations of others is not likely to get you where you want to go.

For example, I have seen long exposure daytime images that prominently feature wind-swept streaky clouds, with one of the many possible HDR looks, with an IR film look (eg, white trees, black skies), bizarre gradient color mappings, with night efx added, solarized, composited with other images, etc. etc.

If the OP had instead asked, "If this was your shot, what would you do with it?", I could answer that with much more certainty.

T
 

Tom Mann

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For example, guys who think guitar amps should always be cranked to "11" might like the attached version, LOL.

Other folks might like a B&W with less structure, ie, somewhere in-between a plane-Jane simple conversion and the one shown below.

HTH,
T

PS - Pls. ignore the weird flat areas around the stick in the water in the foreground. I didn't feel like spending time fixing something like that for a little demo like this that I doubt would ever be seriously used.

PPS - 80% of this was done in ACR, with some final touches in PS (using Topaz Detail & some other plugins)
 

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Tom Mann

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PS #3 - @OP: If you like some of the efx you see in my version, let me know and I'll write up what I did, otherwise, there is no point in me spending any time doing this.

One hint, tho ... if you ever made conventional prints in a darkroom, you probably have heard the old admonishments that unless you have something else definitely in mind for the image, you usually can't go too far wrong if you:

(a) use the entire tonal range available to you - deep blacks all the way to almost paper whites;

(b) have detail showing in the shadows, mid-tones and the highlights; and,

(c) try to print the image in such a way as to give the viewer's eye interesting and different things to rest on in various areas of the image, eg, dark and brooding mountains, rippling water with lots of fine texture as well as lighter and darker areas, clouds with very different texture from the previous two areas as well as different from each other.

These suggestions are still just as valid in the digital age, but now we have vastly finer control available to us beyond classic tools such as dodging and burning, diffusion screens made out of your wife's stockings, variable contrast paper, etc.

HTH,

T
 

Tom Mann

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I don't feel that one needs special techniques specifically for long daytime exposures. IMHO, a good B&W print is a good print whether it came from a 1/2000th of a second exposure or a 10 minute exposure. Of course, the content will likely be different in the two cases, but the same general principles of printing work for both.

Here are some links describing these general principles that I think are very good (particularly, the interview with John Paul Caponigro):

http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/lib/articles/black-and-white-printing.php

http://www.pictureline.com/blog/timeless-principles-of-black-and-white-photography/

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/tutorial_pages/black_and_white_print.html


HTH,

T
 

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