Tuesday 11 April 2017

Stanage Edge - Photography Week 12 (2017)

These are a set of black and white images taken at Stanage Edge in the Peak District and they are notable because they come straight out of the camera with little or no post-processing in image software.

I had a black and white finish in mind when assessing the conditions and altered the camera's settings to record a monochrome JPEG in addition to the RAW data. Normally I would use the JPEG only for reference and process the RAW data accordingly.

On this occasion, I felt that the finish on the JPEGs was exactly what I was trying to achieve and only minor tweaks to contrast, sharpening, and dust spotting were required in Adobe Lightroom. A polarising and 3 stop graduated filter were used to control the light at the point of capture and, of course, the millstones below Stanage Edge made perfect subjects:








Getting images right in the camera is an aim for most landscape photographers but it is not always that easy. The minimum I look to try and achieve is a balanced exposure (no blown highlights or blocked shadows). Later in post-processing I will use image software to enhance contrast and colour producing a hyper-version of reality or, in the case of black and white, an altered version of reality.

Whether the final version skews reality to a point that tests credibility is largely down to the viewer opinion but if I ever have any doubts about my own processing it is normally due to an image that has been poorly conceived or captured.

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