I've been anxious to test the S1R as a black and white camera; you know, for those times when you want to feel like you have been swept back in time to the 1970's when you lived for Tri-X and D-76. I took the camera out for a two hour walk and set it up in a very particular way in order to get the kinds of photographs I thought I'd want.
It was set to L. Monochrome D, which is a snappy black and white profile (three to choose from). I tweaked the contrast and sharpness parameters to taste. I set the filter effect to either Green or Orange, depending on the subject at hand. To keep things simple I used the 45mm Sigma lens because I've familiar enough at this point to guesstimate how it will render at my three favorite f-stops.
After I came back to the studio I took all of the files (shot as Jpegs = no turning back) and processed the ones I liked in Luminar 4.2. There are some nice controls and it works pretty quickly. I think I can tweak my shooting settings a little more but I'm very happy with what I got. The next thing I'll try is reducing the noise reduction for the L. Monochrome D profile to introduce a bit more noise and a bit harsher sharpness into the files.
That's about it. Short and sweet. The test is the images, the words are secondary. Probably unnecessary.
14 comments:
The three bench studies are very nice and illustrative. My first thought was "ah, Kirk's discovered the use of 'simulated color filters in post'" but then I realized that, nope, they were all just taken at different times.
Very nice!
And Andrew, they are actually three different sets of chairs! Thanks, KT
Oh right, there's all that stuff behind them I could have looked at ;) So much for my observational skills!
I shoot both digital an B&W film. I see no need to simulate film when converting my digi files to B&W. Film is film and surprise surprise it beats digital when it comes to looking like ..... film. I find there are so many extra things I can do with B&W digi files to enter an entirely new form of expressive image making rather than trying to limit my options to just what can be gotten out of a real film negative. Don't get me wrong I can pound out a truly stunning B&W print from a film negative, but I can also get really excited about what I can do with B&W digi files too.
I like where you are going with your Panasonic and B&W imagery. Sometimes it's refreshing to revisit our roots. B&W images I feel appeal to the intellectual side of the brain much more so than 99.9% of colour images made. People of your calibre represent the .1% who can do it. It's hard, really hard to develop the chops to produce really evocative colour images that can break through to the inner reaches of the mind. The 99.9% is just eye candy.
Eric
Thanks Eric! Made my day (which was already pretty happy...) glad you left that comment. KT
D-67? A secret KT developer?
Should have been D-76. Must be developer dyslexic.
Love those last four shots with the beautiful clouds in them. Let me guess, you used the orange filter for those?
I agree with karmagroovy- the clouds out your way are something special. Are those Luminar clouds? Or...? Good B&W really brings out the artist as far as I'm concerned. Most color is just distracting. Your skill is reflected in your work.
Beautiful images, Kirk. I've been dabbling in B&W lately and am curiously fascinated by the "less is more" perspective. I think it requires the viewer to engage just a little more, each of us seeing it from our own perspective.
So, in conclusion, IYHO, does it cut the mustard?
Love that last shot!
Dale
It's that 1st bench shot (8 down) that caught my eye. Perfect tones.
Looks like a productive walk about : )
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