The Start of Posting Again: Another Re-Edit. All and Any C&C Welcome and Desired

E

Eric Swenson

Active Member
6544095209_8bcd4778fb_b.jpg

Totem Pole Carving

EXIF:

ISO 1600, 200mm, f/5.6, 1/40
Shot in .ARW, converted to .DNG, processed in LR.

Taken with the A55 + Tamron 200-400mm f/5.6 LD SP.

Yes I realize it's fairly grainy, but that was done on purpose as a choice. It's not a photo that looks great close up, I like how it looks when you take a step back because of the grain's texture. If you disagree that's awesome, because that gives me more to think about with the photo. Thanks!


I haven't been spending much time on photography recently due to junior year finals (Oh the joy that was *sarcasm*) and the fact that my Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro and Tamron 70-210mm f/2.8 LD SP have both broken down. Hopefully I'll start posting and actually being an active member of this community soon enough, and I'm sending the lenses off to be fixed this week (though I'm being optimistic on the Tamron... It's an old lens and I don't think anyone can guarantee repair part availability...).
 
This is a Great photo!
As Adrian says the texture works really well!
Leathery is a good word here I think!
I love the compo, my only comment would be on the content it's self ... It's hard to see what is going on ... But maybe that's not a bad thing?!?!
Other than the grain, which seems to work (on my little screen) what's the process used?

Sorry to hear about your lens woes
 
Love the juxtaposition of the wood grain and the skin grain - really beautiful B&W tones Eric
 
Hamish Gill said:
This is a Great photo!
As Adrian says the texture works really well!
Leathery is a good word here I think!
I love the compo, my only comment would be on the content it's self ... It's hard to see what is going on ... But maybe that's not a bad thing?!?!
Other than the grain, which seems to work (on my little screen) what's the process used?

Sorry to hear about your lens woes
Click to expand...

Yeah the angle and composition was due to the crowd of people that I shot this through/over (can't remember which for this exact shot). Just doesn't work well to be cramped indoors with a 200-400mm f/5.6 on a APS-C body with a crowd of people, poor lighting, and a short working distance. Though honestly I kind of like the focus on the hands, that's not really new for me either.

It's really just a crop of a minor push-pull process done in lightroom with some added levels play and black point adjustment. And then a little added grain.
 
I don't suppose you would be interested in saving the Lightroom setting as a preset and letting me have a look would you?
Your more than welcome to say no, I'm just intrigued by how and what people are doing with black and white in LR at the mo!
 
Eric Swenson said:
Just doesn't work well to be cramped indoors with a 200-400mm f/5.6 on a APS-C body with a crowd of people, poor lighting, and a short working distance.
Click to expand...

Using a 200-400 in those conditions must be bloody hard, what you got there is sufficiently sharp, so well done! I think your post processing (B/W conversion and crop) really works in masking the grains and bringing the focus to the hands.

Hopefullly you will get your sigma repaired soon, it should make your life easier in those indoor low light situations :).
 
I like this, the PP works for me on every level, even though I can't see exactly what the guy is doing straight away I can see that he is a skilled craftsman, the hands alone tell me that, reminds am a little of the old trawlermen fixing their nets, reckon it would be nice to have a series of craftsmen at work showing just their hands as in this, nice shot Eric
 
Hamish Gill said:
I don't suppose you would be interested in saving the Lightroom setting as a preset and letting me have a look would you?
Your more than welcome to say no, I'm just intrigued by how and what people are doing with black and white in LR at the mo!
Click to expand...

I haven't done much with presets, so I'll just tell you the various #'s.

Exposure: +0.14
Recovery: 0
Fill Light: 0
Blacks: 47

Brightness: +50
Contrast +25

Clarity +100

Tone Curve: Strong Contrast
Highlights: +5
Lights: +7
Darks: -5
Shadows: -39

B&W Colors:
Red: -5
Orange:-16
Yellow:-21
Green:-26
Aqua:-19
Blue:+8
Purple:+16
Magenta:+7

Sharpening: 57
Radius: 2.7
Detail: 25
Masking: 47

Post-Crop-Vignetting:
Amount: -22
Midpoint: 50
Roundness: 0
Feather: 50
Highlights: 0


The thing is that for me, I generally edit each photo individually to my tastes, especially in the case of black and white conversions. It just takes a while to find the right balance, so I virtually never use presets.
 
Last edited:
Jim Kuo said:
Using a 200-400 in those conditions must be bloody hard, what you got there is sufficiently sharp, so well done! I think your post processing (B/W conversion and crop) really works in masking the grains and bringing the focus to the hands.

Hopefullly you will get your sigma repaired soon, it should make your life easier in those indoor low light situations :).
Click to expand...

It definitely wasn't fun. I had both my Minolta 70-210mm f/4 "Beercan" and Sony 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM with me at the time, but in that dusty environment I didn't want to switch lenses, and I didn't have the time to go out, switch,and come back in. I'm just lucky to have kept any real sharpness at 200mm f/5.6 (It's not the sharpest lens wide open)... and especially at 1/40 shutter speed. Yeah I'm hopefully going to send it for repairs this afternoon actually. :) Thanks
 
Kev Pugh said:
I like this, the PP works for me on every level, even though I can't see exactly what the guy is doing straight away I can see that he is a skilled craftsman, the hands alone tell me that, reminds am a little of the old trawlermen fixing their nets, reckon it would be nice to have a series of craftsmen at work showing just their hands as in this, nice shot Eric
Click to expand...

Yeah I happen to love the way in which the details and intricacies of a person's hands can tell a story of their livelihood and life. And then the way in which B&W really tends to bring out those little details.
 
Eric Swenson said:
I haven't done much with presets, so I'll just tell you the various #'s.

Exposure: +0.14
Recovery: 0
Fill Light: 0
Blacks: 47

Brightness: +50
Contrast +25

Clarity +100

Tone Curve: Strong Contrast
Highlights: +5
Lights: +7
Darks: -5
Shadows: -39

B&W Colors:
Red: -5
Orange:-16
Yellow:-21
Green:-26
Aqua:-19
Blue:+8
Purple:+16
Magenta:+7

Sharpening: 57
Radius: 2.7
Detail: 25
Masking: 47

Post-Crop-Vignetting:
Amount: -22
Midpoint: 50
Roundness: 0
Feather: 50
Highlights: 0


The thing is that for me, I generally edit each photo individually to my tastes, especially in the case of black and white conversions. It just takes a while to find the right balance, so I virtually never use presets.
Click to expand...

Im the same for the most part, but i have developed a few of my own presets that i find make good starting points ...
here is an example http://www.realphotographersforum.com/content/487-high-contrast-b-w-lr-preset.html
give it a go and let me know what you think if you like ...
 
I've never used any Lightroom presets ... I didn't know they were there when I fisrt got the software ...
I do have a massive library of my own though
I discovered the concept of presets through creating my own...
I still to this day haven't used any ... I maybe should, I might learn something ...
 
Dave Moss said:
I normaly use presets then alter them to suit the shot
Click to expand...

While that would definitely save time, I like the process of starting with a blank slate every time to approach the editing from a different angle and come up with something different. It's just a matter of preference really.
 
Personally, I can't find a single thing to criticize. There may be a bit of grain (I can't see much on my laptop!) but there is true analog depth to the image.

I'm a newb here, and this kind of photo is why I've come to a photo forum...it's so different than anything I've shot. Truly inspiring.

I going to be "wasting" a lot of time exploring the old posts here over the next few months!
 
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