Mono Technique

[Resin42]

Here's a few using a particular mono conversion technique I'm currently enjoying. Thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[92sir]

I like those pics keep up the good work.What are u doing to achieve this? I am really liking the second one.

 

[tirediron]

Very nice conversions; #3 is almost IR-like. Care to share your workflow?

 

[Resin42]

Absolutely.

It's done in CS3. Firstly, while in RAW I'm pushing the contrast right up (obviously) plus the recovery to gain a little extra cloud detail then a touch of fill light to if necessary to compensate the foreground. Then (and this is the cheeky bit ) I'm putting the saturation up full. At this point it obviously looks ugly as all hell but when it comes to the B+W conversion tool it gives you an amazing amount of control over the shading of the different colours allowing for some really interesting textures. The best bit for me is the blue and cyan sliders let you give the skies a really dark, brooding feel, even black if you want to go that far. After that I may tweak the brightness and contrast again.

The downside is can make the skies a tiny bit noisy depending on what the ISO was in the original but this can always be paid attention to at the point of capture.

Pretty pleased with the results I'm getting though.

 

[tirediron]

Thanks! I'll be trying that. I've yet to find a reliable conversion method that I'm at least moderately pleased with each time. This one sounds like it has real possibilities!

 

[Resin42]

Glad and slightly surprised to have helped, I felt sure someone would say "been there done it, slightly naff" or the like.

 

[KhronoS]

The second one is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[bullitt453]

Very nice conversions.

 

[andrew99]

Thanks for the tip, I'm surprised pushing the saturation so much doesn't create posterization, I'll definitely have to play with this at home!

The first photo I think could use a bit more contrast, but the 2nd and 3rd are awesome! On the first one, you might have to mask out different areas so you can do adjustments different parts of the image independently -- the mountain on the left is too dark, for example. (although I'm on a laptop at work, so take this with a grain of salt)

 

[Resin42]

Cheers guys, glad you like.

Thanks for the tip, I'm surprised pushing the saturation so much doesn't create posterization, I'll definitely have to play with this at home!

Not had many problems with it so far, I don't know if saturating in the RAW converter and in CS3 itself yield different results. The only time it's been an issue is when the picture has been drastically over exposed.

The first photo I think could use a bit more contrast, but the 2nd and 3rd are awesome! On the first one, you might have to mask out different areas so you can do adjustments different parts of the image independently -- the mountain on the left is too dark, for example. (although I'm on a laptop at work, so take this with a grain of salt)

On second examination you could have a point here, I had a quick tweak at it but I wrecked the sky. It feels too dark all over now. I think I'm going to go take another stab at it from scratch.

 

[Resin42]

Ok, had another pop at 1. Better or worse?

 

[andrew99]

Yeah, that latest edit is really good, you can see all the detail in the mountain now, also the grass seems sharper and has more detail, I definitely like this one more than the original! Nice work! I'm glad you didn't take my comments the wrong way!

 

[Resin42]

I'm glad you didn't take my comments the wrong way!

Not at all, I'm very keen to improve shots and my PP. Thanks for the input.

 

[anubis404]

I love the shots, and the conversions are pretty good, however to me the first two's conversions say to me "shouldn't this be in color?".

 

[Resin42]

I've done loads of these types in colour and liking the results but I was getting a bit bored of them, my gallery was starting to look like a series of postcards. I just fancied something a bit different.