Chinns Lake 7-29-08

[Creek]

Went up to Chinns Lake last night (well, evening) and hung out up there for the sunset. It's really beautiful up there. Anyway, here's some pics (I'm on a b+w kick lately):

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/422395a9.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/5cd40d3a.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/7bbd977f.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/6173f871.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/e72963e6.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/41b536bd.jpg

[OdiN]

B&W is cool - you need more contrast though ;)

I might go up to Loch Lomond on Monday for some fishing before I come home from my camping trip.

[Creek]

B&W is cool - you need more contrast though ;)

I agree...it's a new camera, so I'm still figuring it out. Leaving on a road trip to Vancouver, BC on Friday, so I'll have plenty of opportunities to learn the camera on the trip...some amazing scenery along the way too.

[OdiN]

Ahh.. Rebel XTi?

Good camera. If you need any help, let me know.

First off - do not shoot in B&W mode on the camera if you can avoid it.

Do you have Photoshop? If you have Photoshop, here is a tutorial I put together which covers B&W conversions.

http://www.ranetworks.net/tutorials/bwconv.zip

[Creek]

yeah, it's an Xti. Why shouldn't I shoot B+W with the camera? I downloaded that tutorial...i'll check it out...thanks

[DamnHippie]

There are a lot of ways to convert color to BW, especially in terms of what gamma factors to use. With the camera you get whatever its software guys decided on, with photoshop you get more control.

The problem with photoshop is that it's hard to resist overprocessing the image. Go too far in that direction and you end up with something that looks more like artwork than a photograph.

[OdiN]

yeah, it's an Xti. Why shouldn't I shoot B+W with the camera? I downloaded that tutorial...i'll check it out...thanks

Because with the camera, if you shoow B&W, you only have B&W, period. If you shoot color, you can convert to B&W but you also still have the color image. There's no reason to discard the color information, and in-camera B&W conversion is usually not all that great.

So unless they changed something, the in-camera B&W leaves you with only that and should you want the color shot you can't have it.

[Creek]

yeah, i just figured that out watching your tutorial...very helpful....thanks!!!

[OdiN]

No problem :)

That tutorial is basically a conversion, plus toning in one.

You can stop after doing the gradient map and still have really good results that allow you to have a lot more control.

[palermus]

I'm jealous. I lived in Vancouver area for 2 years. Did I tell you to hike Panarama ridge? A must. Don't slide down the glacier! A near miss of a 50 ft deep crevasse taught me that.

Long Beach on the west side of Vancouver Island is great and so is Victoria. Newcastle island off of the shore of Naniamo has to permanent dwellings and tons of great mt bike trails.

Enjoy yourself. I wish I was going there.

[Creek]

yeah...you mentioned panorama ridge. We're going backpacking up near Brandywine, so I don't know how much time I'll have to check out other stuff.

[Creek]

Thanks again Odin...Here's a color pic that I used your tutorial to turn to B+W...it's much better than the B+W taken with the camera in the original post

Color converted using Odin's tutorial:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/67b96387.jpg

Original B+W taken with camera:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/norml311/7bbd977f.jpg

[OdiN]

Still need to open up those dark areas though.

Fiddle around with all the sliders - you'll figure stuff out :)

And was that from an existing color image??

[Creek]

yeah...some of the b+w shots i took, i also took in color