Processed two images from my last years Kanha trip, into B&W.
Shot while waiting for tigers to show up……
Elephant Grass (Nikon D2x, 600mm VR + TC14, ISO 500, 1/640, F8 )
I was playing with the out of focus circles here. ( Nikon D3, 600mm VR, ISO320, 1/320 @ F4)
Pretty much as I shot . Just added some noise in post processing.
D2x, 600mm VR, ISO 320, 1/800 @ F8 , -1 EV
Understanding Exposure & Colour Luminosity (Linked an old 2007 thread from dpreview)
I thought I would link a wonderful thread from a Guru … ” Sensei Ron Reznick “. I still refer to his ebook which I picked up in 2006.
I recently got hold of a pen tablet the Wacom Intuos 4 ( Medium Sized which is the PTK-640)
Definitely much better than using a mouse. It will take a little getting used to. For the ease of use, it will be worth it.
For those looking for one, even the smaller size (6×4 inch active area the PTK-440) will do just fine.
Well here are my basic post processing steps that I follow. I use the Nikon software Nikon Capture NX2. But you can use the same flow in pretty much any image processing software.
1. Open RAW image in NX .
2. Turn sharpening OFF
3. Image at 100% . Adjust White Balance. Then I add a grey point and chose a spot on the image which should be neutral grey in that light.
4. Adjust Exposure ( Exposure Compensation )
5. Neutralise Gamma :
a) New Step
b) Light > Levels & Curves
c) Press Right Top histo button to make histo “live”( Capture NX) { Left most button in Capture NX2 }
d) Select Red channel
e) Bring left bottom slider to beginning of histogram’s left side
f) Bring middle slider back to 128 mark.
g) Repeat steps e) & f) for Green & Blue channels ( Histo should be “live” when you do )
h) Repeat e) & f) for RGB channel. But you can adjust centre slider to taste in this step.
i) Then I chose to add overall warmth to the image
j) Next I added yet another control point and punched up the contrast.
6. Add mild sharpening to overcome the blurring caused by the anti-aliasing filter. ( This is not output sharpening). For these unsharp mask, values I typically use for D2X ( 50, 5, 4) and D3 ( 35, 7, 3). Ofcourse, you can vary these to taste but, high values here are not needed !
7. Save RAW file.
You could use the same steps above for jpeg images. But, you will not be able to turn sharpening off or directly adjust white balance. What you can do here is , view image at 100%. Then, use the white, black & neutral points. The rest of the steps are the same.
Note on colour casts: Long light (very early morning & evening) will have some cast and, even a pure grey subject will reflect that warmth.
Capture NX Tips >
http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14234
Would love to know on how you found this for your processing.
. Loved the images you have made …and...