[mountain wilderness]

Still learning the art of mono photography-this is a shot i took on my way home from work a couple days ago, i like the idea behind the shot and i new what i was wonting from it but i feel it could have been converted better and processed to a more pleasing and natural result, the tones are about right but some of the clouds look funny and the power poll/lines don't look as they should-any comments/thoughts/techniques on this and mono processing in general would be appreciated

[morlandroger]

Very dramatic. Like it a lot. I am sure lots of advice will be forthcoming from others but for me a very good image.
Looked again. Does it need a slight rotation, or is it just my eyes?
Roger

[Dabhand16]

I also think a slight anti-clockwise rotation is needed.

I like this image However, the tonal range needs a little tweak. There ought to be total black at the dark end through to pure white at the other end, and I'm not sure if you have pure white in there, although I'm using my work monitor which might not be showing me the right balance.

Open the image in your editing software and check the levels. The right hand slider should just be touching the right hand end of the histogram, and hovering the cursor over the lightest parts of the image ought to have a numerical value of '0'.

The reverse goes for the black point.

Alternatively, you can set the white and black points in the levels palette in Photoshop by using the appropriate 'eye droppers', and other editing programs will have their own way of doing this.

Once you are happy with this, you can work on the mid greys to give a little more seperation, although I do realise that with the Sun so low, there would be quite high contrast.

I think this would print really well and would look great on your wall

[Dabhand16]

Right - back home now. Both of these versions were straightened, cropped a bit to tidy up the edges from the straightening, (missed a bit in #1) and I added a border in #2.

Here I've just adjusted the levels - highlight slider only - took 5 seconds



In this version I've just done some dodging and burning. Took about 2-3 minutes, and could be better with more time and hi-res image. Web images are a swine to adjust.



Method two gives far more control, but of course you can mix 'n' match methods, or use completely different ways in the original conversion to mono.

Not suggesting these are perfect, but shows what can be done.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by mountain wilderness

any comments/thoughts/techniques on this and mono processing in general would be appreciated

A dramatic conversion for sure. What steps did you take ?

[wicks]

This picture has so much potential.
The low floating clouds and wires/light pole are killing it for me at the moment. I see a that distiinctive Unsharp Mask halo around the edges. Can you post the original photo? I'd like to give it a go as well. Mono's are very tricky, I use to think a simple grayscale mode or desaturate would do the trick...then I join a similar forum and learned a thing or two.

[Charlotte]

Nice shot. I thought the composition needed tweaking more so than the processing - it's already a good mono conversion, except it's a bit posterized from overprocessing (I'm guessing you shot JPEG) - and a slight brightening up, something like this ...



Straightened, cropped, levels (L slider in to 7, middle slider L to 1.21 [didn't touch the highlight slider]), sharpened @ 50% radius=0.5

[WOODY]

NICE SHOT, BUT I THINK CHARLOTTE'S VERSION HAS IMPROVED IT, AS IT SEEMS LIGHTER. BUT GOOD MONO ALL THE SAME.

[fionaB]

i like the composition in the original, Charlottes to my eye means hte power lines look somewhat cut off, they havent been given a chance to go anywhere,
Apart from the tweak in levels and a straighten i dont think it really needs anything, its a terrific pic!

[mountain wilderness]

Thank you to all concerned who have taken the time to respond-i will post the original raw file latter today for everyone to have a play with as i am keen to see what different results can be obtained-busy now, i will also answer all your questions tonight as i am going to work soon

[mountain wilderness]

this reminds me...how do i upload a raw file for people to download?

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by mountain wilderness

this reminds me...how do i upload a raw file for people to download?

You can only upload jpeg files. If you convert your original RAW file to a 300kb jpeg with no adjustments we should be able to have a reasonable stab at it.

[mountain wilderness]

Thanks Dabhand16-i was thinking of a post from Dave a wile back where he had 3 files for download an it turned out the they were made from the same file-the idea being to see different types of HDR conversions-