[Rabid Penguin]

I decided to do a series on clouds. Cause clouds can look cool. This is number one.

I took it from my backyard exposed for the sky, then i duplicated it and adjusted the exposure for the grass, and merged the two images manually in photoshop since photomatix didn't want to cooperate. I was trying to get an Ansel Adams type of effect overall.

Thoughts?

[Irma]

Hi RP...

I have seen some of Ansel Adams pictures but I haven't studied his photography well enough to say whether you got the effect here or not. As a bw picture I like the textures in the clouds. I think they look fine, and so does the sky. I would only suggest to give more detail in the foreground, more light. Your sky looks as if it were taken in a sunny day but the foregound looks a bit dull...

How did you do your conversion?

[Rabid Penguin]

Hey Irma,

I couldn't really get the foreground brighter without it looking crap. I'd already increased the exposure by 2 stops. I don't actually mind that the foreground is a bit dull, because I want the focus of the picture to be the clouds anyway.

As to how I did it, I created a copy of the photo and set the exosure to +2 in lightroom, then i opened both images in photoshop and placed the overexposed copy over the original and set the blending mode to linear dodge. Then I erased the sky in the copy, and blended in the "join" with dodge and burn tools.

And just for reference, this is Adams' arguably most famous image, "Tetons and Snake River" (1942)

[Rabid Penguin]

Okay, I did what you suggested, Irma, and dodged the foreground a bit. Is it enough, do you think?

[Irma]

I think yes, and I like much better your second try... Eventhough you have only grass in your foreground I think it helps a bit more to the contrast...

You know what I fear the most when I work a bw conversion... As we know there are out there a lot of photographers that worked bw pictures in a dark room. So to me they know how the green should look when the sky is too dark, and they know how the red should look when the green is pale. I think that when you don't have the right conversion, it would be for them as to see a pink elefant in a blue jungle, or a green sky with a yellow sea.. I might be totally crazy, but I think this way....

That is why I used to make my conversions with the channel mixer. I tend to think that if I work my conversion there and I don't exceed the 100% I will have a believable image.... but again I might be wrong.

Anyway, I am also very keen on bw landscapes.... and I am very happy you like them too, and post your tries...

About Ansel Adams picture, well... it is wonderful!! and so is the landscape... The subject in this case is great and I think it has too much to do with the "beauty" of the photograph.

I don't want to take away any merit from this picture and the photographer. I know that for some people he is "the master" in photography, but to make a rural scene, a boring countryside field look interesting has a lot more merit to me. Then is when you put all your art and craft at work....

I probably think this way because I live in that kind of environment, surrounded of rural scenes and boring countrside fields...

[Rabid Penguin]

Oh, so that's what you meant by 'conversion'. I just shot in B&W.

[Irma]

The thing is that if you take your pictures in color you have more chance to work with your bw conversion/treatment.

My most recient experience was this one where you can see how much you can change the mood in a bw picture depending on how you work your colors.

We have here in our archives a ver good tutorial written by Shlejhamer about how to make a bw conversion from a color picture. Hope you find it useful...

http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=3331