Images and Notes » toned

Rising from the fog – North Myrtle Beach, SC

James Howe — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:23:37 +0000

(Olympus E-3 150-300mm at 300mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/2500 sec @f/5.6)

Browsing through my Lightroom catalog this morning I came across this shot I took in North Myrtle Beach, SC in 2008. What caught my eye was the fog layer in this shot and I was suddenly inspired to work on this image. The thing I like most about this image is the way the new building is seen rising above the fog. The murky nature of the weather combined with the construction in the background made me think of a more industrial scene rather than a beach scene. As such, I processed the image to increase the murkiness.

Processing consisted of an initial crop and then using Silver Efex Pro 2 to create the final image. I increased the structure to bring out some detail in the upper clouds, and I increased contrast and reduced brightness. I added a bit of blue tone and picked an edge which I thought looked interesting. I don’t think it came out too bad for a few minutes work.

What do you think? Feel free to leave comments below.

Headstone

James Howe — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:15:45 +0000

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 300mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125th sec @ f/5.6)

Just down the road from where I took yesterday’s image is a small cemetery. I’ve always felt odd about photographing in a cemetery, but I do find old headstones to be interesting. I suppose it is somewhat cliché to shoot a cemetery in winter, but with a blustery snowstorm going on around me, it just seemed like the right thing to do! The wind was really nasty and cold so I didn’t spend a lot of time here. I tried various angles and focal lengths and ended up liking this one the best.

I just received my copy of OnOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite so I was anxious to try out a couple of things. The first thing I did was adjust the crop in Lightroom and darken the blacks somewhat. I then took the shot into Photoshop where I used Silver Efex Pro to do a black and white conversion. I upped the structure and then used the opacity slider to bring back just a bit of color to the image. I liked the color of the headstone and I didn’t want to lose it completely. I also used some edge effects to create a stronger vignette and to burn the edges of the image. I finished the image using Focal Point 2 to increase the blurring surrounding the main headstone a little bit.

(click either image to view in lightbox mode)

Thoughts, comments or questions?

Nothing Fancy

James Howe — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:53:36 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 70-300mm at 169mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/800 sec @ f/5.0)

I’ve been looking at this image from time to time in my Lightroom catalog for some time. The picture was taken in 2008 and I’ve tinkered with it on and off since then. There isn’t really anything that interesting in the shot, but I like the simplicity and the repetition created by the poles.

Processing consisted mainly of converting the image to black and white, removing a wire which crossed the image at the top and a bit of cruft on the left side. Nothing fancy.

Hoyt Library – Saginaw, Michigan

James Howe — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:15:25 +0000

(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 17mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/500th @ f/8.0)

I’ve shown several images from Saginaw which show things in various states of decay. However, not everything in Saginaw is falling apart. Saginaw was, and still is, home to many buildings of architectural significance. One of those is the Hoyt Public Library building. In 1882, Jesse Hoyt of New York bequeathed $100,000 to East Saginaw for the construction of a library. While an early design was done by Henry Hobson Richardson (he of ‘Richardsonian Romanesqe architecture fame) the final design was altered and executed by Van Brunt & Howe (no relation that I know of). The library was built in 1887. An expansion (seen on the right) was done in 1960 and was designed by the father of my best friend. The building is a great example of Romanesqe architecture and has been well maintained.

I actually took a series of 9 exposures with the intent of creating an HDR image. I ran the shots through Photomatix and I didn’t really like what I ended up with. I might try again with some different settings, but for this image I chose one of the middle exposures and used Silver Efex Pro to create a black & white version. I used a few control points to darken the sky and lighten some portions of the building, and then I used a preset that I created which creates a toned Holga-like shot. I then backed off the opacity just a bit to let a little color come through. I also did some minor perspective correction.

Love to hear your thoughts.

[Click either image to view it in lightbox mode]

Grand Central Terminal – 7am

James Howe — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:16:00 +0000

(Olympus E-500, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 200, exposure 1/3 sec @ f/4.5)

This is a shot of Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. The image was taken at 7 am, just as the morning rush hour was getting started. I didn’t have a tripod with me (and the transit police probably would have hassled me anyway) so I just set my camera on the staircase railing. I wanted to use a relatively slow shutter speed to capture some movement, but I didn’t want everything to be blurred. I really like the fact that there is a mix of people who are blurred, and others who aren’t. This images is a toned black & white converted from a color image, but in reality the color image doesn’t look that much different.

Comments and feedback welcome.

This image can be purchased.