Mono conversion - lonely goatherd

[David Kilpatrick]

Shirley got a very much closer shot, I had only the 24-85mm on A99 within the brief time this situation existed (probably less than one minute overall and only 15 seconds optimum as the goats moved). NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 Antique Plate filter applied for mono conversion at the very last stage - lots of distracting detail including fences, sign etc removed by burning-in.



David

[jbtaylor]

Wonderful composition and treatment.

[sury]

David,
Great capture. Thanks for the tip on burning distracting elements. I never thought of
burning as an "diffuser" of distractions. I only used to enhance an effect.

With best regards,
Sury

[RobbieA]

Lovely textures and tones. Monochrome conversion very effective.

[David Kilpatrick]

Here's the original raw file as a straight conversion. You can see the big sign, wire fences and stuff:

goatherd-raw.jpg (156.81 KiB) Viewed 5734 times

I find that burning-in is more useful than bleaching out detail because it's more common to have areas of black. Basically I treat it exactly as I would have done in the darkroom, where I would often remove distracting elements by darkening the area involved.

David

[jbtaylor]

The cropping is also an improvement.

[mvanrheenen]

Very nice conversion indeed!

Mark

[Ken M]

I like it!

[sury]

Here's the original raw file as a straight conversion. You can see the big sign, wire fences and stuff:

goatherd-raw.jpg

I find that burning-in is more useful than bleaching out detail because it's more common to have areas of black. Basically I treat it exactly as I would have done in the darkroom, where I would often remove distracting elements by darkening the area involved.

David

David,
Thank you for the color original to show what you did. Much appreciated. You have shown me another use of a technique.
Though it might be common knowledge to many experts, ignoramus like me appreciate it. I will try the technique on my examples.

With best regards,
Sury

[RobbieA]

David, I hope you don't mind. I took your "raw" image and processed it with a translucent glow type effect. I also cropped and cloned some of the distracting elements out. The end result is so very very different to yours. Yours has a nice deep mood to it. It goes to show that whilst there is always this debate about cameras, the image is actually created in the photographers head. The same image, 2 completely different end results.... and then some students argue with me that photographers is not art. Too many amateurs argue about the hardware instead of actually concentrating on the photography. As you said, you used techniques that we used in the darkrooms, nothing new. I feel at times that we have lost the true meaning of photography.

[Dusty]

Robbie, it reminds me of the drawings in the Children's Bible books.

Dusty

[David Kilpatrick]

Robbie - I think as a screen image, your treatment works well. As a print image, I've found that dark monochrome versions tend to be more popular, maybe because people find them easier to fit in with room decor. Also, from experience with many years of litho printed magazines, a great deal of the light/bright saturation gets lots in CMYK conversion. I like your result and if I was selling holidays for goatherds, I'm sure it would go down better!

David

[aster]

Nice one, David.

Lovely scene and conversion...


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz


ps. Expecting your nice work for the latest challenges as well. : )

[Birma]

For some reason I have a strange desire to put the Sound of Music on the DVD player ?

Nice pictures DK and Robbie.

[bakubo]

Looks very good and I like the conversion.

I had one small idea which you may not like, but I'll just mention it. It might look good if the sheep in the shadows on the hillside were dodged just a little bit. A light and subte touch would bring them out just a little. Just an idea.