Marbles and Ghost Gum

Marbles and Ghost Gum, Northern Territory, Australia, June 2004.

This tutorial shows how I converted a color photo into the above black and white image.

The original photograph

Marbles and Ghost Gum - original unretouched scan.

The original photograph is an 8x10" transparency I made in central Australia. The exposure was made about 30 minutes after sunset, on Velvia 100F. Exposure time was a few minutes,  thus the movement in some of the leaves - there really was no wind but the gum leaves tend to move very easily.

The image was scanned on a Microtek 1800f flatbed scanner. (I now have a Howtek 4500 drumscanner, which I hope will help me bring out a little more shadow detail in the lower left foreground, however the Howtek is not quite calibrated yet.)

I really like this composition, but the colors of Velvia 100F can get a bit unnatural at twilight. So I wanted to give this image a chance in black and white instead.

Step 1: straight b/w conversion

Channel mixer added with default adjustments

The first step is a straight conversion. A channel mixer is added with no adjustments.

Step 2: use the red channel

Red channel selected

Next step is to emphasize the directional light of the afterglow. This light is mostly red, so I adjust the Channel Mixer to only use the red channel.

Step 3: Exposure

ZoneMapper adjusting for underexposure

Next step is exposure correction - the red channel is underexposed by about 1 stop so I move the highlights up about 2/3 stops to still hold the hightlights while creating a nice shoulder that fades the brightest highlights without blocking them.

Then on to the details:

Step 4: Burn in the foreground

The flower bed in the foreground was burnt in in the highlights while locking in the shadows.

There are some important elements in this photo - the gum, the boulders, the flower bed in the foreground, the grass. The trunk of the gum is very bright, what I want to do here is to balance the intensity of the other relevant objects to that of the trunk.

I add a ZoneMapper for the flower bed and name it accordingly. Then I create a mask for this ZM, with a wide feathering. I want to add more of the directional light, which means brightening the highlights without touching the shadows. To do this I first ad a lock above the shadows, then added another zone lock below highlights and moved that lock up.

Step 5: Boulders right - brighten and add depth

The boulders to the right is an important element in this photo. In the real world they are round, almost spherical, however in the photo they look a bit flat. There are three adjustments I want to make to the boulders:

• Brighten

• Emphasize texture

• Add depth and roundness

I can do all these three adjustments with one Zonemapper:

ZoneMapper added and masked for boulders.

First I add a ZoneMapper and mask it to the boulders. Masking does not have to be precise, as I can alswas go back and fine tune later.

Shadows locked, highlights brightened 2/3 stops.

Next, I lock in the shadows and lift up the highlights 2/3 stops (one and a half zone). This accomplishes two thinkgs: Brightness is increased, and midtone contrast is increased, emphasizing texture.

Feathering set to very wide to emphasize roundness and make image more three-dimensional.

Next, to add depth I set the feathering radius to very wide. This will better bring out the spherical property of the boulders.

Step 6: More light in the grass

More light in the grass.

I then move on to add more light in the foreground grass. Another ZoneMapper is added, then masked to the grass. Notice that there are three regions in this mask, on both sides of the tree and in between the branches. Once again, I lock down shadows and brighten highlights.

Step 8: Boulder left

More light on left boulder.

Same thing here - empasize the directional light by locking down the shadows and lifting the highlights.

Step 9: Central boulder

Main boulder gets more light.

The final step is to do the same operation to the central boulder. I saved this one for last, because I was not sure how bright it should be until I had the rest of the image adjusted. Same thing here - empasize the directional light by locking down the shadows and lifting the highlights.

 

Marbles and Ghost Gum, final version.