As this is my first post of 2013, I hope you all had a great holiday season and really hope you all have a great 2013. I know a lot of people have started 365 projects – stick with it guys.
Today’s post comes from a conversation in the Photography Chat Google+ Community. This is a great community that has formed as an offshoot of Photography Chat (TogChat) on Twitter and it’s really great to see the level of engagement and interaction between photographers of all abilities.
To the pictures; I had posted a HDR from a couple of years back, I’ve always liked the shot but as I mentioned in the community I was never 100% happy with it. As a result I had another go at reprocessing today and the results are below.
Processing
I shot this as a bracketed set of 7 exposures from +3 to -4 EV, this was then Tonemapped in Photomatix Pro 4.2.2 (there have been some big changes in Photomatix but that’s for another post) and saved as a 16 bit TIFF.
Photoshop CS6 Layer Masks
Image 1. The tonemapped image was opened in Photoshop CS6 and I used layer masks on the sky, boat and beach so that I could fine tune each element more accurately – the sky had a cyan tone I didn’t like, the beach was a little too yellow.
Perfect Effects
Image 2. The saved TIFF was opened in On One Perfect Photo Suite 7 and a few adjustments made in Perfect Effects to give a bit more punch.
Perfect Black & White – Ambrotype
Perfect Black & White – Daguerre
Image 3 & 4. I then decided to go a little crazy and still in Perfect Photo Suite 7 I opened the image in Perfect B&W, the first image is with the Ambrotype filter applied, the second with the Daguerre filter.
Images are best viewed large, click for large view or to purchase.
A Brief Moment in Time 
Interesting set, Chris. I particularly like the last two. I’ve recently started using OnOne Photo Suite 6 – mainly the Effects module – bit bewildering to begin with, so much choice. Is there now a specific B&W module in Version 7?
Hi Andy, thanks for the input, it goes against the grain a little to use textures and overlays but I’m trying to expand and evolve so I thought I should have a go and it’s interesting to get peoples feedback, the last one has been particularly popular.
Yes, On One Perfect Photo Suite 7 has a specific B&W module. Still getting to grips with the suite in fairness and doubt I’ve tapped a fraction of it’s potential yet.
Yes, the potential is vast – I would like to eradicate about 75% of the options in the ‘Effects’ module and then I might be able to concentrate on the real usable possibilities!
We photographers are a funny bunch, give us the basics and we probably want more but too many choices and we think it’s too much. I’m totally with you on this, I think the issue is there are too many presets and it gets easy to fall into the habit of getting an image, not being quite happy with it and slapping a filter or effect on as a quick fix instead of working on it until we are happy or discarding it if we can’t make it what we want.
(Or is that just me?)
I agree with Andy chris, I really like the last to in particular the last image. The effect suits the image amazingly well.
Thanks Edith. I have to admit to liking the last 2 images as well although if you had asked me before I would have said the opposite. I think the effect works because it is an old boat and there are no modern items in the scene.
Happy New Year, Chris. Hope your holiday was fantastic.
That last image really stands out, although all are very nice.
“We photographers are a funny bunch, give us the basics and we probably want more but too many choices and we think it’s too much.” – You are so right. 🙂
It was good Jimi, hope you had a good holiday also. Thanks for the comments on the images, I think I will need to consider this and other techniques more carefully in future and not be so quick to discount them,
I really like that last one Chris, cool treatment mate!
Thanks Jim, that seems to be the majority view, gives me food for thought as I would never have done this before.
I’m going to add my vote for the last two as well, Chris. I tend to use the presets in Photo Effects 7 in combination with the new Perfect Brush so that they only apply to parts of the image. I have not had much success applying a preset to a whole image but having seen what you achieved with your last image above I must persevere a bit more.
Thanks Mark, I’m still trying to learn Perfect Effects, had not even thought of using the brush.
Love ’em all, but I too prefer the last two with the final image being my personal favorite. There’s something dramatic and expressive in the tones and details that you’ve brought out with this processing, my friend. I am so happy to see you back and active again, can’t wait to see what 2013 brings us all from your studio!
Funny how this is the favourite of the majority of people, I really did not expect it to be this big.
Thanks so much for the nice words
Oh man, I love the “Perfect Black & White – Ambrotype”
Thanks Kevin, it does seem to be popular