SAL Photography Challenge #4 - Black & White Photography

[Obelix]

OD transfer caliper

OD Caliper by Dalibor M, on Flickr

[Cinjith]

A beach side evening view .

[Jay]

Obelix, looks like you got some really nice sharpness on that shot.

Speaking of sharpness, I cannot say enough good things about the Rokinon 135/2 (or Samyang). This is wide open at f/2 and 1/160 and ISO 1000:

Original on Flickr

I agree that lens is looking killer so far Sean! Really nice portrait captures and I like the shot of your Son a lot as well. The action makes it even more exciting than a normal snap and it's hard not shooting wide-open

Thanks for sharing!

Jay

[Jay]

Excellent precision tool frames Obelix and perfect for this challenge I have not used a caliper in a while!

Jay

[Jay]

The Metal Man - Taken with the Sony A7r and Zeiss Loxia 35mm f/2 lens the day before yesterday. I converted this to BW in Photoshop this time because I wanted to play around a bit more than lightroom allows. Ended up not doing much to the image int he end though...


The Metal Man - Zacmax Sculpture by SonyAlphaLab, on Flickr

Thanks for looking,
Jay

[Obelix]

Starrett Digi Check No. 258


.6675" by Dalibor M, on Flickr

[dragion]

A6000 : SELP18105G


by dragioniii, on Flickr

[BrianC]

What a great new crop of shots here!

+Obelix Love the detail, DOF and frame on those calipers and the Starrett.
+Cinjith You got me with the rock Great sense of scale with it, the sea and the big ship. I remember watching those once upon a time...
+Jay That Metal Man looks a cool sculpture. Great "portrait". makes me want to start a road art/local sculpture thread, if there isn't one already...
+dragion Emulating the subject of your shot? Lovely capture of the place and the subject.

[Gramps]

All of these are taken with differnet camera's and were taken in colour first.
The baby one is our 1st grandie and she is going to be 10 in June this year.
She is sitting on my lap in this shot.
The model motorbike was our sons then he gave it to me but I have since given it back to him for his own son.
The little Elephants are just dust collectors but I do like the look of them.

[Jtimmer]

Macro leaf with water drops. Black and white is one of my favorite styles. I continue to experiment with the Sony A6000 to see what it can do. Having fun every time.

[Jay]

What a great new crop of shots here!

+Obelix Love the detail, DOF and frame on those calipers and the Starrett.
+Cinjith You got me with the rock Great sense of scale with it, the sea and the big ship. I remember watching those once upon a time...
+Jay That Metal Man looks a cool sculpture. Great "portrait". makes me want to start a road art/local sculpture thread, if there isn't one already...
+dragion Emulating the subject of your shot? Lovely capture of the place and the subject.

I totally agree and fantastic macro at the end Jtimmer!

Lets see what we can all do this weekend

Jay

[wilmeland]

Agree with Brian and Jay's comments above. Just wanted to add
@ badhands - nice shots, especially like the one with the elephants. Very nice composition, lighting, and DOF for that shot.
@ Jay - the B&W format really works well for that sculpture & like lighting and how you framed against the background. Was that indoor or an outdoor scene? Initially thought it might be outdoor with sunlight and clear sky background, but then thought possibly just an effect from lighting of the display.
@ Jtimmer - really like your choice of focal point and lighting. Great texture and detail.

Willie

[BrianC]

...and I agree with Willie on the elephants, Badhands, and on the leaf droplet, Jtimmer.

I'll add another. My wife and I went out to pick up a Piece of Pi souvenir, which happened to be nearby the Petroglyph National Monument. It struck me this would be a good B&W opportunity. Here are a couple of B&W shots we agreed on:

Basalt boulder:


One petroglyph:


...and a B&W panorama, sadly incomplete :/


all taken w/ a6000/kit telephoto I have yet to get the hang of LR5... *sigh

[FlavioRoss]

I like B&W because it gives an unrealistic view of the world, so you can explore things that are not really possible (or not convincing) in color.

Take this yesterday with the a7 and Zeiss 55. Sadly, I lost my lens hood this day.

[Obelix]

Taken with Sony A6000 and SEL1670Z,
I tried to make it look like film in Lightroom, added some grain and vignetting

St. Peter, Forest Home Cemetery

St. Peter by Dalibor M, on Flickr

[Obelix]

Couple geometric patterns from Forest Home Cemetery


Pattern by Dalibor M, on Flickr


Pattern by Dalibor M, on Flickr

Sony a6000, SEL1670Z

[wilmeland]

@ Brian - like the lighting and shadows captured in the first shot & very cool capture of the petroglyph
@ FlavioRoss - very creative composition, really well done
@ Obelix - nice shots, really like the texture you've captured

one from this weekend - watching the sunset

sunsetgaze04005 by Hunter S Catson, on Flickr
Willie

[Obelix]

560

560 by Dalibor M, on Flickr

[seanlancaster]

I've been busy so my hobby takes a back seat. But I grabbed this photo today:



Original on Flickr

Rokinon 135 wide open on my A7 1/160 - ISO 5000

[wilmeland]

I've been busy so my hobby takes a back seat. But I grabbed this photo today:



Original on Flickr

Rokinon 135 wide open on my A7 1/160 - ISO 5000

Sean, Great image/composition & love your focal point and use of that lens. Really dig the grain (which is palpable when viewing large image on flickr). What is your process? (assuming you care to divulge without giving away trade secrets). Been doing a little reading and experimenting & previously, I'd just used a single step process/ adding filter for grain, going for the least amount, as that seemed safest and most subtle. Lately, playing with adding duplicate layer to create the grain with a little more substance, then adjusting opacity of the grain layer to my taste. I've read where some use an overlay image layer of actual film grain, adjusting opacity to achieve more realistic film grain.
Care to share any tips/thoughts on film grain?

Willie

[seanlancaster]

Thanks Willie. In this case, I did not clean up the noise shot at ISO 5000. I also increased the clarity quite a bit and that can naturally add more noise to the scene. I pushed shadows quite a bit and turned highlights down quite a bit. Finally I bumped the contrast and turned the Blacks slider to the left a bit. I might have bumped sharpness up a some (which would also add noise).
If I was going to go for more film grain then I'd probably use Google's NIK software, which I have, but I don't often use. I forget the name of the individual app, but they offer a bunch of color film grain looks that I think do a pretty good job of replicated the film feel to images and everything can be tweaked. I have thought about trying to create a whole series that uses a film theme in color. I have some time coming up soon, so perhaps I'll start that theme.

[leuius]

@Sean : Thanks for the process details. It's hard to single out a picture from a group of such variety but your "style" is recognizable among all participants. Very nice effect, beautiful picture (faved in Flickr).

@Obelix: nice cemetery patterns and textures.

@Jtimmer: excellent macro work. What lens did you use?

@Jay: the metal man is pretty cool.

@Flavio: Still trying to wrap my head around the 3D sketch. Is this a picture of a picture or a real "thing"?

@Brian: That middle rock has a strange "lizard" shape on it. Almost a modern fossil... interesting accident or what?

[leuius]

Before closing shop on winter (fingers crossed), I took a last series of ice macro shots. At last we can see the ground underneath the melting ice. There is not much color involved so I figured the step to B&W was pretty small.

Taken hand-held on an A6000 using a Tamron SP 90mm (72B) macro lens at f5.6 and 1:1 magnification. Tip of lens hood is about 5cm from the ground with the sun shinning across the ice plane. It would have been a good time to get the polarizing filter out but the thought escaped me at the time.


The original (color) picture can be found on Flickr.

Regards,

[WillHucks]

I've been busy so my hobby takes a back seat. But I grabbed this photo today:



Original on Flickr

Rokinon 135 wide open on my A7 1/160 - ISO 5000

Very nice shot Sean!

[WillHucks]

My office building lobby. Shot using the Sony RX100 M3.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[seanlancaster]

Thanks Stef. I think I like the color version a bit more just because it helps highlight the layers.
Will I like your office shot, but seeing the palm tree just outside makes me really jealous. Nice to see the little RX1003 getting some good play.

[BrianC]

@Brian: That middle rock has a strange "lizard" shape on it. Almost a modern fossil... interesting accident or what?

It is technically a pictoglyph, Stef, art created by people a thousand+ years ago by scratching the surface of the rock. There are hundreds of them at the Petroglyph National Monument and thousands throughout the Southwest US and pretty much worldwide in their different manifestations.

[Jay]

Couple geometric patterns from Forest Home Cemetery


Pattern by Dalibor M, on Flickr


Pattern by Dalibor M, on Flickr

Sony a6000, SEL1670Z

Some amazing detail in the stone and I wonder what tool was used to create that? A water jet perhaps? Awesome work!!

Jay

[Jay]

I like B&W because it gives an unrealistic view of the world, so you can explore things that are not really possible (or not convincing) in color.

Take this yesterday with the a7 and Zeiss 55. Sadly, I lost my lens hood this day.

That is amazing!

[Jay]

Before closing shop on winter (fingers crossed), I took a last series of ice macro shots. At last we can see the ground underneath the melting ice. There is not much color involved so I figured the step to B&W was pretty small.

Taken hand-held on an A6000 using a Tamron SP 90mm (72B) macro lens at f5.6 and 1:1 magnification. Tip of lens hood is about 5cm from the ground with the sun shinning across the ice plane. It would have been a good time to get the polarizing filter out but the thought escaped me at the time.

The original (color) picture can be found on Flickr.

Regards,

Really like this frame

Jay