reflections

Wally · Dec 4, 2005

Taken this past summer in Erie NWR Crawford County PA. Comments welcome

mcoppadge · Dec 4, 2005

I like it a lot. Very cool.

Out of curiosity, how do you get your black and whites to be so...black and white? Mine usually turn up more of a grayish that black and white.

Calliope · Dec 5, 2005

Love the reflection in the water... very intense. Nice job!

LaFoto · Dec 5, 2005

This photo has a lot of impact.
I think, however, that the day was much brighter and lighter than it seems to be in this. Here, the clouds seem oppressive (certainly wanted) and everything quite dark and gloomy. But that makes everything of importance (clouds, reflection of clouds) show so much more.
But I keep wondering if I would have made it this dark? (Or is it my monitor, which no longer is my nice, bright TFT-monitor :cry: since it died a sudden death on my after only 9 months of being mine :cry: )

M @ k o · Dec 5, 2005

Awesome reflection Wally :thumbup: Great shot !

woodsac · Dec 5, 2005

Beautiful Wally!

Chiller · Dec 5, 2005

Excellent Wally. I like this one. !!

scoob · Dec 5, 2005

i really like this picture. nice reflection!!!

Wally · Dec 5, 2005

Thank you everyone. The darkness in this frame was due to the unusual weather that day, and the use of a red filter that darkened the sky.

Those clouds were very thick and would drop rain evey time the passed over. When I took this, it had just finished raining. The dark cloud in the upper left had just passed and was still blocking the late afternoon sun.

The sides and tops of the clouds were very white as they were being lit up by the sun. The red filter did help a bit here, and you can use them even on a digital SLR (as I did in this case)

The dark blacks and white whites came from proper exposure. When I learned photography there was no digital, and when shooting B&W film you used to hear "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights". The same is true with digital, only it is easier. All you need to do is expose to the right of your histogram. By this I mean really pay attention to your histogram after the exposure. It should be as far to the right as possible without clipping any of the highlights.

Then in Photoshop adjust the levels so that the black and white points just get to the point where they start to clip the data in a few pixels. You can do this by holding down the Alt key while you slide the sliders back and forth.