Converting Your Image

Greetings, volks. Welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place! I hope everyone is faring well as press into the week.

Today we’re going to go over a simple, but interesting way to convert your photo to black and white.

As we all know, sometimes color can change the way an image feels. It can take a moody photo and make it seem wrong or out of place. It can distract from the subject and take away from the beauty of the light. There are many reasons for shooting, or converting to, black and white. For this post, we’re going to do something that takes our shot to a better place.

This is the image we’re working on. I’m using Corel’s Paintshop Pro Photo X4, but the concept is the same in Photoshop, Lightroom, or Gimp.


ISO 6400, f/3.4, 1/15
Looking into the Cathedral. The scene was beautiful, yet the image lacks some pop. We'll fix that!

I shot this photo inside the Dom in Regensburg. The beautiful Gothic architecture and art inside this cathedral seem best suited for black and white, and seem quite garish in color. The color temperature also becomes an issue when shooting at high ISOs, although I photographed this with the intent of making it black and white.

Once we’ve converted our image and opened it in our application of choice, we’re going to separate the image into red, green, and blue layers. There we’ll lighten and darken the different layers to our desired levels using curves and levels, and remove the noise. For this image, I slightly decreased the red and blue layers, while only dodging the green along the pipes of the organ. Once you’re content with your adjustments, combine the layers into a new image. For this shot, I slightly darkened the red layer, darkened the blue layer quite a bit, and dodged the pipes of the organ to increase the levels to offset the overall decrease in brightness. The finished combination now looks rather odd, and has some tinting/toning in it.


This is our image after splitting the color channels and recombining them. Notice the green tint on the pipes.

Our next step is to split the image again, this time to hue, saturation, and lightness layers. You can discard the hue and saturation layers, as we will now use the lightness layer for our final canvas. For this image, I adjusted the levels, performed a minor curves adjustment, and increased sharpness. I chose to over-sharpen, using a radius of 1.00, as I would be softening the noisy area under the arch, and applying an edge preserving smooth filter.


Almost finished, a few tweaks and we're there.

The finished result, while no masterpiece, is rewarding. It leaves you with a sense of place and scale that the color version tends to minimize. The chiaroscuro also seems quite well suited to the Gothic cathedral.


And here we go. I think this really brings out the mood and scale of the Dom. Its incredible Gothic architecture and art are magnificent.

Well, that’s one way you can do it. This is by no means the only way. You can also adjust color channels without splitting the image, and then desaturate the image. There are as many ways to convert your image as there are folks playing around to figure out what works best for their photo. One of the biggest keys, though, is color contrast and levels. Getting that where you want it can lead to some very nice results!

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Please feel free to share your photos on our Faceboook page. Everyone here would love the chance to see your work! Is there anything you’d like to see here? Do you have a question? Share your thoughts here or at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too! Don't forget, we're on Google+, too!

Your Bubbles

Greetings and welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place. Another cold and frosty morning stirs through Hohenfels and the surrounding area like a spoon through cocoa.

Our first post today features all the submissions your submission from last week’s theme, bubbles of light. Once again, Jennifer was the only one who submitted. Here’s the great shot she gave us.


Jennifer’s bubble

It’s very interesting, and it shows us how light can have its ups and downs, as it were. Using the lamp the way she did, shows us exactly how light can form a bubble. By putting herself in the corner, and using a somewhat rounded light source, she created a bubble of light around herself. You can see the light falloff on the 2 walls and the shape of the light itself really worked in this shot.

Due to the nature of light, you can create a source that seems to be a bubble using anything rounded. One good way to see the bubble is to place an IPad with a white screen face up under a semi-transparent Tupperware bowl. When you place a vertical object next to it, you can the bubble shaping up, just like the bubble that took form in Jen’s photo. By placing more objects at differing distances from the light source, you can create even more of a bubble. It’s all caused by light and the physics behind it. The primary thing to know about light is the inverse square law. If an object’s distance to a light source is double, the light’s apparent power is quartered due to spread and the nature of light.

In a later post today, we’ll be going to Nuernberg’s Christmas market, so get your camera ready!

Remember to cast your vote for next week’s theme. Don’t forget to get your pics posted at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too!

Tiny or Big, it's Bubbles!

Greetings, Hohenfels, welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Today is definitely a Monday; if ever there were one, this would be it. Hohenfels, complete with cold, rain, sun, hail, and whatever else came our way. Don't worry, though, Christmas will soon be here in our little Hohenfels area, and all the joys that come with it!

Well, this week one person submitted for the theme. Thanks to Jennifer for your submission, I’ll try to get it up here tomorrow after discussing it with her. Then, there is the news that the 6 votes are counted. Our theme for the week will be Bubbles (... Of Light, DUH!) This is more advanced than last week’s; so let’s get this ball rolling.

This one may make you think, it may make you scream, or it may make you rise to the challenge and create something magical. Of course, it may make you do all 3! A bubble of light? What is it? What does it do, and what’s it look like? How am I supposed to do this without any knowledge of this bubble thing, and if this one bursts and ruins the economy, who gets the blame?

Relax; it’s nothing like that. Creating a bubble of light is a trick that can be seen by looking back at our post on chiaroscuro, which can be found here. The biggest secret is that light moves and bounces according to your light source. One of the easiest ways to create the bubble for this week’s theme is to use off camera flash and a semi-translucent half dome. The effect can be even more apparent with subjects cloaked in dark and shrouded in light, with nice transition between the two. Of course, it’s not really like a bubble, but presents the illusion of one.

By examining the image from that post, you can see how it seems as if the ladies are surrounding a glowing orb. By knowing how and where light falls, Van Honthorst was able to create the magical lighting in his image. It seems as if the matchmaker is closer than the older ladies are, almost like she’s showing a treasured globe. The lighting here, and the resulting bubble, come from the shape of the candle flame. Another type is to make it seem as if your subject is encased in a bubble of light, almost like a snow globe. Examine some rounded shapes, balls, bubbles, footballs, and other items to see how the light falls on them. Knowing that can help you figure out how the light radiates from them, and what kind of bubble you might expect.

For those without a flash or the ability to trigger it remotely, you can use lamps of any kind, LED flashlights, anything that will create the type of bubble you want to make. The important thing to remember is the shape of your light source and how the light will radiate from it. Flash or other types of light will produce almost identical results in that department. You can also work some more of this type of magic with multiple lights, and colored gels. When you shoot in B&W, the color of your light can be changed, and a matching filter added to increase the effect even more. The sharper your transition to dark from light at the very edges, the more abrupt and sharp your bubble will appear. Keep that in mind.

If I get some time this week, I will try to make an example image, but I probably won’t have much time. The new poll for next week’s theme is up, it expires at midnight on Sunday night. Here's hoping we get at least 19 votes this time around! Get your votes in, vote early, and let’s bring volks into this theme.

Tonight, take the time to check out some spheres, globes, bubbles, and balls. Take a little time to visualize your own shot; even it’s an exact copy of Van Honthorst’s painting. Write down some ideas. Then during the week, refine your visions and your notes. Once you’re ready and your vision is fully fleshed out, set up your scene, blow your bubble, and get the pics posted at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Of course, commenting on both Facebook and here is always appreciated, too!

Prevalent Art Styles in Our Area

Greetings, Hohenfels, welcome to Hohenfels Volks, THE place for our place. This lovely Thursday came in cold, remained cold, and leaves us shivering in it’s tightening embrace! Things are warming up spiritually, though, with the approach of the holidays, so look forward to the warmth and glow of family, friends, and cheer!

Today I thought we’d touch on some of the different art and architectural styles you’ll encounter during your journeys through our place. We’re only going to touch on a couple of styles and the basic characteristics. The reason we will discuss these is that as you explore cathedrals, palaces, churches, graveyards, and other parts of the area, you will encounter these quite a bit. It helps to know what you’re looking at when folks ask about your photos, so let’s run through a little. I’m not an art authority, so please let me know if I make any mistakes, so I can correct them.

Let’s start with Romanesque, which seems to have started around 1000 AD and ended about the 13th century. There was quite a bit of Byzantine influence, especially in the churches. The tops of columns were often carved with whole scenes. Statues of the Madonna were quite popular during this period. Most of the bright colors used in the art have faded, with the stained glass being the most colorful examples. To see this style, check out the Schottenkirche, St James’s in Regensburg.

Moving on, we run across the Gothic style or period. Gothic art was a medieval style reflecting the themes of the day. A large amount of Gothic art was religious in its nature. The architecture of the time relied heavily upon pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and the flying buttress. These allowed more emphasis of lines and light, and space in the structure. The labor and time to create these majestic Doms was immense! A trend in Gothic art was the integration of sculpture, stained glass, and architecture. Bamberg cathedral has the only life sized horse and rider statue in Europe since about 500AD, look for the "green man" below the horse's hoof. The Gothic period ran from about 1200 until about 1600. A great example of Gothic architecture is the Dom St Peter in Regensburg or the cathedral in Bamberg.

Next up, we find Baroque styles coming into importance. The baroque period ran from about 1600 until 1800. The general characteristics of baroque art were movement and energy. Strong contrasts of light and shadow, chiaroscuro, were very common in the arts of this time. Themes included scenes of ecstasies, martyrs, and other religious events. Artists tried to portray the emotions and feelings in the soul on their subjects. This time gave rise to the Dutch masters and others who worked with light in new ways, and continue to inspire us to this day! In Hohenfels, we have St Ulrich Church, a Baroque church built between 1716 and 1720. The Asam brothers did the frescoes inside.

Rococo Art is often called later Baroque. The Rococo style led to art that was more decorative and served no other real purpose than decoration. Bold colors were favored. Themes involved hobbies of the rich and the nobles, sensual activities, love, frivolity, and romantic intrigue. It was very ornate and playful, with elaborate details and craftsmanship. For some great examples of Rococo style, check out the Residenz in Munich, as well as the Residenz in Wurzburg.

Learning more about these styles can help us in more ways that one. Knowing them allows us to explain what we shot, but it also allows us to learn new ways to work our camera and art. Remember to share your pics and post your questions at the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page, and or by commenting here!

I've Seen the Light!!

Welcome back, Volks! Winter is lurking just around the corner, and Hohenfels is starting to feel its presence! I hope you’re prepared for it!

Hallelujah! I have seen the light! I say that about several things, but in this case, I mean something unexpected. Today we’re going to talk about how to see the light. I plan to keep this somewhat short, so let’s get this train moving.

Seeing the light is something that we photographers need to do to get the most from our art. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to see the light.

Light isn’t just white. We learned a little bit about that when we discussed color balance. We need to see the effects that color may have on our subject. Color is just a part of it, but it’s important to look at. You can use your white balance card and camera to see that color. There are times of day that photographers know are generally colors by the atmosphere. About sunrise and sunset are prime examples and called the golden hours, for two reasons. The first is that this is one of the best times to shoot photos outside, and the second is that the light takes on an almost golden tint. Just before sunrise and after sunset, the light becomes bluish, and some call these times the blue hour.

Another part of seeing the light is seeing it’s impact on your subject’s tones and exposure. Remember your triangle here, you’ll need to see the light to offset or maximize its impact.

Lastly, let’s mention seeing the light in the context of seeing the light that’s not there. Examine your shadows. How do they interact with your light? How do they interact with your subject? Do your light, shadow, and subject, all play well together? Sometimes we judge what we have by what we don’t. Seeing the shadows helps to gauge your light.

Visualize the light you want, make that light happen. Easier said than done, even with lots of equipment, but can make for some shots that reward your effort with some wonderful warm feelings. You can’t always create light, but you can visualize the scene in different lighting conditions, and either wait for the right lighting or return at the right time. Not every shot needs taking.

Take some time over the course of your day to see the light. Examine how it falls on someone or something. See how you can change it by moving an object or the light source. See how you can shape the shadows, watch grow, shrink, and distort. Even if you don’t really learn, it’s a fun exercise!

Seeing the light, it’s more than becoming a convert to something or seeing the error of one’s way! It’s an important part of our creativity, of our art, and of our special part of the world, right here in Hohenfels!

Enjoy your week. Here’s hoping you enjoy the autumn and see the light in your own neck of the woods. See it and use it, create those masterpieces within you and share them with us on the Hohenfels Volks Facebook page. Don't forget to leave your comments and questions here and there!

Adding Depth

Greetings, Volks!

Chiaroscuro. What does that mean? What is it and how does it apply to photography? More importantly, what does that have to do with adding depth?

Chiaroscuro is the term used in art for the strong contrast between lights and darks, or highlights and shadows. That’s a generalization of the term, but serves the purpose. By taking that definition, we can understand it to mean contrasting your light areas and shadow areas. Here's an example-


The Matchmaker by Gerrit Van Honthorst

Have you ever noticed a photo taken with a large blast of light? It generally appears flat and lacks contrast. It becomes more noticeable in portraits, especially in shots taken with a built in flash.

Built in flash is about the biggest mistake a photographer can make! When you blast the on camera flash straight on, it takes away the shadows, making the face flat and featureless. Shooting anything with only frontal lighting will make things dull.

The old Dutch Masters, Golden Age painters like Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Van Honthorst, and Cuyp used chiaroscuro to provide ambiance and reality to their works. If you ever view any of the Dutch masters’ works, you will notice the play of light and shadow. Observe the way the shadows that seem to dance about the image. Notice how the way they worked the light into a scene brought depth and dimension to their work. Notice how your eye is drawn to certain parts of the art you are viewing. It feels almost as if you are compelled to look there! Notice, also how the image lighting creates a sense of space and depth, the space seems open or tight depending on the lighting, the bodies and faces seem almost alive in the shadows and lighting.

Chiaroscuro, the Dutch weren’t the first ones to use it, nor were they the only ones, but it became a hallmark of the Dutch Golden Age of Painting. They even named a style of portrait lighting after Rembrandt!

To give you an idea of its role in photography, I’ve added a couple photos to demonstrate.


Now notice how the back-lit image is alive with depth.


Another shot showing some depth to it.

In the images above, you can see how the light diminishes as you get closer to the camera. Notice how the fingers have lighting on the camera side, as does the face, yet the shadows are stronger there. You get a sense of depth from the relationship between the light and the shadows. Although these pics aren't the best examples, they give you an idea of depth and how to create it.

The next time you are taking a photo, stop, visualize, and look for the play of light and shadow. When you see the combination that gives you the shot you visualized, shoot it. Take more and enjoy the freedom of seeing something different and being open to it. When you get home and load your images, you’ll find some good pics, probably some that aren’t so good, and maybe you’ll find something that stops you in your tracks.

Remember, chiaroscuro occurs naturally, but can be created. Using reflectors, flashes, and shade you can create some great pics without too much difficulty.

Enjoy the weekend, get lots of pics, and have fun!
Ciao!