Weekly Photography Assignment
The Assignment
This weeks assignment is a simple seasonal one with a catch. Photograph either an outdoor flower or a plant. Now for the catch. The final image or images should be black and white. Note that sepia or any other toning is fine.
I don't want to say too much at this stage but would recommend thinking about tone and contrast and how it defines structure and form.
In your editing software use the saturation control to remove the color then experiment with increasing contrast.
These are only suggestions of course.
I will attempt this myself and post the results along with my thoughts.Thoughts
This is strictly for fun
How closely (or not) you stick to the brief is completely your call
Constructive criticism is only OK if specifically requested by the person who posts the photograph. Destructive criticism is never OK.
I am sure I've left loads of stuff out - I'll answer all questions as best I can
I am really looking forward to seeing everyone's photographs
Hat tip and thank you to SnappleBC for coming up with the idea.Where to post your images
Post them here along with any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions for future assignments.
Open Thread
These assignments are posted in conjunction with Friday Night Open Photography
This weeks Photography Open Thread
Have fun.
Comments
Very interesting shot...
I have no eye for framing or anything else. Best I can hope or is I don't shake when I snap.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
oops aargh reply further down n/t
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Interesting
Ironically the only thing I had to do with this picture is take out a touch of pink in the stamens. I am doing a Nature photo diary tomorrow and would appreciate any suggestions on how to improve my work.
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. Oscar Wilde
Looking forward to your
nature diary. I like this photo a lot -has a very light and airy feel to it.
Next Friday I am planning to do a longish post with tips and ideas about flower and plant photography with lots of examples. it will give me an excuse to get out of the house with the camera for the first time for months!
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Thanks dkmich
My wife used to say the same thing - now she takes more photos than me. It wasn't my influence either -I know her well enough not to push. She just got into the habit of posting stuff on Instagram from her cellphone. Her compositions are really good now.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Take out the color?
What is the best trick for removing color? Thanks for the advice.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Photoshop
If you have Photoshop go to Image - Mode - Grayscale. That is what I did.
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. Oscar Wilde
If you want a bit more control
and are using using a recentish version of Photoshop try this:
Get the image into photoshop
Top menu > Filter > Camera Raw Filter
Your image will open up in the RAW editor (it doesn't have to be a RAW image)
You will see a bunch of sliders
The bottom one is saturation move this all the way to the left and your image will be black and white
Now the fun starts - experiment with all the other sliders and see what happens.
If you are feeling brave:
The Raw filter does a lot more than this though- if you look at the top bar on the right with the symbols directly above White Balance you will see a graph, triangles, bars icons etc. Most useful for black and white editing is 4th one along - to the right of the triangles.
You don't have to save as you go just once when you are happy with the overall result - just click on OK bottom right and the changes are applied to the image in Photoshop.
Simple version
Filters > Camera Raw Filter . Move saturation slider at the bottom right
Have fun
Click OK bottom right
and you are back in photoshop
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Depends on the software you are using
The other alternative is to actually shoot in black and white. Most cameras can do this.
If you can tell me what camera you use if you don't use software or what software you do use I can give you a very specific answer.
The usual software method is to use the saturation control and slide it all the way to the left. There are more complicated ways of doing it that allow for a lot more control over the tones (shades of gray) but that depends on the software.
-hope that makes some sort of sense.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
I'll see what I can do
Don't have photoshop but will try with another program. More later.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
spring beauty
I think that is this plant. My first sepia digital photo. Thanks for the idea. I learned something for a change.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I learned something for a
Don't you hate it when that happens
The sepia works wreally well - nice soft light too
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
no it's better that way
Thanks for the impetus. Learning is like breathing...something to do everyday. I'll look at the google stuff too. Might learn something else!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
heh - I was just being facetious :)
Google stuff is definitely worth a look:
7 parts (all come in same download)
Most useful 2 imo:
silver effex (color to blacka and white conversions)
Analogue pro fx (I think) loads of fun to play with
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Lookout
Google is giving away their photo software away for free.
I have looked at what it does and it looks like a great program. Besides, you can't beat free.
I'm going to download it and see if I like it better than photoshop. But I'm not that good at using all of the tools and layers in Photoshop.
I have a Mac, but would love to be able to use a software program that lets me stack images.
I have seen photos where a person takes a picture of the solar eclipse as it moves through the sky and I even bought the shitter release cable that is set up to do that, but didn't realize I can't use the program on my Mac.
Silver Effex (Color to BW converter)
is the part of the free software collection that Google are giving away (Google Nik Collection -7 plugins in all) and it is excellent very fast and intuitive to use and powerful -highly recommended. On the Mac it can be used as a standalone program not so for Windows/PC unfortunately.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Kewl!
I almost never do any post processing on my pictures. Thanks for this suggestion, or I'd never have tried it. I like the results on this Fairy duster flower:
“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett
Wow -excellent
especially for a first attempt. Exposure is perfect.
What software are you using?
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
"Photogene for iPad, version 3.5"
Thanks!
(I have an old ipad.) Photogene has nice tools that I usually don't play with, other than cropping.
It has sliders as you described above. I played with them a while this morning. Eventually I got this by
I should play with these things more often
“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett
That worked really well
I've never used Photogene but have heard really good things about it. Mind you, you still have to have an eye to know when to stop pushing the sliders. That photo was spot on.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Thanks! n/t
“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett
That is beautiful, yellopig
This a B&W of Aspen leaves where I made the background more dark to highlight the leaves.
IMO, this picture looks better in color.
I don't do much macro photography. I wasn't any good at it. I'm more interested in landscapes, trails and sunsets.
But especially trails. I like thinking about what is around the corner.
Like the composition
I am a fan of more simple abstract landscapes and this one works for me.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
I think I took a shot of a tree a while back...
But plants don't do a lot for me (my wife is the gardener).
Plus I'm a bumbler when it comes to all this.
Anyway, thanks for the photo posts.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Bumbling is good :)
I never got into flowers until I started looking at them as miniature architecture - flowers are really architectural when seeing them as structures. That was my way in - probably makes no sense to anyone else
My wife is also the gardener - I am the hole-digger-in-chief
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Well, I rummaged around for my tree shot...
Too dark really, but the tree was standing all alone.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
doesn't look to dark to me
Still lots of details in the shadows
Like the way you've used the partial tree on the right and branch at the top to frame the composition.
Also the toning works
Where was this shot? I want to go hiking there.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
The Rockies in Colorado
Another vantage point.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Great sky and a sense of depth
I really do envy anyone that does landscape photography well.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Say, cool! Old color photo of Hershey Park, I took the color
out and increased the contrast. Totally different effect.
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Tone (or shades of gray)
are really what black and white photography is all about. Our brains are more wired to appreciated contrast than color so increasing contrast almost always gives a photo more impact. Also we are hardwired to home in on light tones - in this case the fountain.
Very cool shot.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Thank you! I learned photography today! Woot!
I didn't know I could do BW from color until you explained.
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Great - my pleasure
This coming Friday I'll go into more detail about how to really control the black and white conversion process.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Had to find my flower pics = )
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Great detail
Pear tree blossom by any chance? We have three Cleveland pears which look nice but smell like rotting meat when they are in blossom. We did not know this when we planted them
The Aristotle quote is a favorite of photography instructors everywhere
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Pretty sure they are not pear but
really am not sure what they are. I took the picture of one of the trees downtown. This is south central Michigan, and I don't think pears grow here. But I could be wrong. = ) Thanks.
I started taking photography classes while I was working on my BA degrees. I loved the smell of the darkroom, but as a hobby it was a bit too expensive for me to continue, so now I work with a low to mid range digital camera. I sure miss my SLR Canons though. Eventually...*sigh*
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Mystery blossom
I just showed your photo to my wife who is a retired landscape gardener - she thinks its a Cleveland Pear. These trees are ornamentals though and don't actually produce real fruit. We are in North Indiana and there are lots of them around here. Ours are in blossom at the moment. (the trees are shaped like lollipops so they get used where space is tight as alternative to crab apple trees).
I do miss the darkroom sometimes but the computer is more convenient and flexible. I used a friends recently for a small project and it was more fun than I expected it to be. Maybe it was the chemicals
I still have a twenty year old Nikon film SLR which comes out of mothballs occasionally. I still use 35mm-80mm kit lens that came with it a lot.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
I think you are right.
I Goggled Cleveland Pear and the blossoms are the same as well as a number of the tree shapes in comparison to the pictures I took of the whole tree. They are the most predominant tree in the downtown area here.
Pretty sure it is the chemicals. LOL. I still have my telephoto and wide angle lenses, but the Canons were lost to my mother to discharge a loan, so I will never see those again. *sob*
When and if I can ever afford it, I would like to get a digital with interchangeable lenses mostly because I like max control over the initial results. I can fix a lot of things in Photoshop, but I still need something reasonable to work with at the start.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
(No subject)
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
an easy option
Found an easy piece of freeware for other inept techies.
http://www.easyphotoeffects.com/
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Just read a review
it sounds really good - will have to give it a try.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Flower photographs for assignment
Shot these this morning - just after sunrise.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire