B&W Adventure and Discovery

By PF Staff in Favorite Photos on Jan 28, 2013

I would like to tell my fellow Pentaxians how I crafted this critical masterpiece.

Equipment Used

• Pentax K20D
• Sigma AF 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 Macro
• Image Capture: Av mode, f/9.5, ISO 100, 70mm, 1/8 sec
• Handheld with SR turned on
• 4-star JPEG with standard noise-reduction settings
• Post-processing: Adobe Lightroom 4  

I always shoot in the Adobe color space. I usually shoot in DNG RAW, but due to memory constraints I had shot in JPEG for this photo shoot. First I used a digital graduated ND filter to underexpose the sky and tree branches in the top-left corner of the photo. I also applied a second digital ND filter to the right side of the photo to underexpose the leaves. Second, I did a color to black and white conversion using Lightroom. I adjusted the black and white mix to get the look and effect that I wanted. Technically speaking, this is a grayscale image. Finally, I altered the clarity tab to make the SUV stand out from the background. I wanted to convey a sense of adventure and discovery with this shot.

Before:

After:

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- photoman1