Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: Nat Coalson on April 23, 2008, 10:23:46 am

Title: 100 New Works
Post by: Nat Coalson on April 23, 2008, 10:23:46 am

I've been traveling and shooting a lot over the past couple of years and recently (finally) getting lots of images processed and put on my site. I always welcome comments and critiques!

Here's the link to my site (http://www.nathanielcoalson.com/?s=ll)

Also I have been working in/printing black and white lately (Piezography Selenium K7) and having a ball. New BW collection on the site now.

I welcome you to have a look and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Title: 100 New Works
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on April 23, 2008, 06:04:09 pm

Quote

I've been traveling and shooting a lot over the past couple of years and recently (finally) getting lots of images processed and put on my site. I always welcome comments and critiques!

Here's the link to my site (http://www.nathanielcoalson.com/?s=ll)

Also I have been working in/printing black and white lately (Piezography Selenium K7) and having a ball. New BW collection on the site now.

I welcome you to have a look and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=191401\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Fantastic images!

Just a couple of minor points - it's not particularly obvious how to get back to the index of albums from an individual album thumbnail page. I eventually realised that I have to click your name at the top. I wonder if a button wouldn't be better.

Second, it would be nice if the arrow keys worked when viewing images from an album.

Jeremy

Title: 100 New Works
Post by: Stuarte on April 24, 2008, 05:41:57 am

Good to see the portfolio updated.

I find the BW1 gallery the most powerful and engaging.  It would be great if you could give a bit of background on the BW images - technical and aesthetic.

Title: 100 New Works
Post by: Nat Coalson on April 24, 2008, 01:46:05 pm

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Stuart, here's more info:

First, I shoot digital only so I am always capturing in color (you can't make a raw file b/w in the camera anyway). Forget the in-camera black and white options.

A color digital capture has much more potential for b/w conversion that you'd have using b/w film.

For each image, I choose what gray tone a given color will become.

For example, in the Zebra Canyon shot, the sandstone was several different shades ranging from orange to purple. I made the purples darker in the grayscale conversion, and the oranges lighter.

In Lightroom (I love LRs b/w conversion capabilities):

1. Keep the image in color
2. HSL > Saturation: lower the Saturation for all colors to -100.
3. HSL > Luminance - have fun.
4. Try changes to White Balance at this point, too.


Certain compositions lend themselves much better to b/w conversion than others. I previsualized each image as b/w when I captured it.

Scenes with wide dynamic range, lots of fine detail and, and somewhat ironically, lots of color variation, make the best candidates for b/w.

Consider that in our normal eyesight, color is a critical component of recognition. The fact that a stop sign is red helps us "see" it better.

In b/w photography, the removal of the color component of seeing means that the visual cues (shapes, lines, light/shadow etc.) have to come from tone contrast alone.

Also, b/w photography is much more dependent on quality of light and its appropriateness to the subject than is color photography.

There's lots to be said for developing the ability to "see in black and white"; I can't. I just recognize compositions that would be stronger without color, and fiddle with the gray tones in Lightroom.

Title: 100 New Works
Post by: Samotano on April 25, 2008, 06:30:42 pm

Quote

I've been traveling and shooting a lot over the past couple of years and recently (finally) getting lots of images processed and put on my site. I always welcome comments and critiques!

Here's the link to my site (http://www.nathanielcoalson.com/?s=ll)

Also I have been working in/printing black and white lately (Piezography Selenium K7) and having a ball. New BW collection on the site now.

I welcome you to have a look and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=191401\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Splendid images!  I particularly like how you can play with shapes and warm colors to create excellent compositions (e.g. "scrap arc", "green soju" etc.) .  There's something unintuitive about the navigation of the website though.  
Great work!