This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge is brought to us by Patti. She writes, “This week, we’re exploring the interplay of light and shadow–at different times of the day, in different seasons, under natural light, in artificial light. Choose whatever conditions you like. It’s totally up to you. You may also want to process your images in black and white to highlight the light and shadows.” You can read her entire challenge post here.
For my response, I will take Patti’s advice and share images I’ve reprocessed into black and white. One of my favorite tools for black-and-white work is Silver Efex, now at version 3. All of the images shared here were finished in Silver Efex. My opening photo features a dramatic sky with an opening in the clouds allowing sunlight to light a small section of the ocean.
This sculpture of a firefighter carrying a small child away from the site of the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City makes for a powerful image in black-and-white.
Like the opening image, clouds in the sky when processed in black-and-white create a lot of drama. The skies and ocean lose their bright blues and the bases of the clouds look darker and foreboding.
For comparison, you can see in the original color image, that the sky has some drama due to the relatively thicker layers of clouds creating dark shadows in the sky, and darkening the blues of the ocean. Converting it to black-and-white changes the mood of the image.
The bright sky over the Pacific Ocean lights the clouds, but the thick layers create heavy shadows darkening the ocean and with the camera set to expose to the bright sky, the boats and island lighthouse are in silhouette. This image was captured from the beach near the iconic resort, Hotel del Coronado, off the coast of San Diego, California.
At San Jose del Cabo in Mexico, a busker sat on a bench in front of an abandoned souvenir shop. I reprocessed this image for the challenge this week, first loading it into Luminar Neo to add some bokeh to the background. I then exported it to Silver Efex 3 for final conversion to sepia-toned black-and-white. I decided to add a frame at the last minute.
It was nearing sunset and I was walking the beach near the Hotel Playa in Mazatlan, Mexico. I watched a lone horseman riding near the water’s edge. I knew that if I waited to take the photo until the horse and rider passed in front of the strong backlight from the setting sun, I would create a silhouette of the rider. Though there was very little color in the original image (except for the tone of the golden hour reflecting in the ocean,) I decided to convert the image to black-and-white with a slight sepia tone.
I am a big fan of black-and-white, and Patti’s challenge allowed me to share a few of my favorite conversions thanks to Silver Efex. Next week, Ann-Christine throws us a curve with a most interesting challenge. If you’d like to participate in the challenge each week, you’ll find out how to join us here.
John Steiner
Flare Legend Adventures
The horse rider is my favourite 🙂
Thanks, Brian!
All the photos are good and illustrate the theme perfectly. The sky effects are amazing.
Thanks. Skies in black-and-white can be really dramatic.
Improving all the time, John. What more could we ask?
Thank you for the nice compliment! Give me a call the next time you are in Fargo and plan a meet for coffee!
I have always loved B&W photos – a regular photo can be made stunning from just that one aspect. These are lovely. The top/opening photo is my favorite.
Thanks, Karen. I have always been partial to color, but my enthusiasm has mellowed in recent years. I now evaluate images to see if I would like to do a b-w conversion.
Stunning black and white images! Wonderful post.
Thanks, Donna!
Wow, amazing black and whites John! Thanks for showing the Kealia Beach image in both black and white and color. Each gives the viewer different feelings and story. The black and white feels like a storm may be coming and the color feels like a nice cloudy day.
Thanks, Anne!
It’s been a few years since I did that black and white conversion of Kealia Beach, I don’t remember the specific steps, but I probably dropped the exposure a bit in the b-w image to bring out that stormy look.
😊
Wow! Wonderful landscapes, and portrait.
Thank you. I really enjoyed working on this challenge!
Terrific response as always John. I too love Silver Efex and always use it for my B&W conversions. The creation of bokeh using Neo looks really great for your portrait image, which is my favorite of this set.
Thanks, Tina!
While Neo’s portrait bokeh function has helped me improve my portrait images, I really should invest in a portrait lens. It would be a lot simpler. >grin<
Yup. B&W is all about light and shadow. Great selections John. Inner Passage, sailboat, guitarist. Excellent.
Thanks, John! I’m sure to feature more B-W images in the future!
I’m a big fan of Silver Efex too and you’ve used it really effectively on these images. I love the first one and the Mexican guitarist in particular. And converting the Kealia Beach shot to black & white definitely improves it, giving it more contrast and drama!
Thanks, Sarah! I appreciate the compliment. I am afraid I neglect the other Nik applications and lean on Silver Efex.
For B-W work, it’s so much better than the other tools in my photo workshop for black and white.
I also use some of the Color Efex filters – tonal contrast, graduated neutral density, skylight etc. I like the way you can apply them selectively 🙂
They do have a unique way of selective modification.
These photos are stunning John 😀 😀
Thank you, Cee!
The view of the Alaska is amazing! Love your B&W selections. The last image, wow!!
Thank you, Amy! I appreciate the compliment!
I am afan of B& W photos John!! Great light and shadows !
I really enjoyed working on this challenge, Aletta. Thanks!
Wonderful images, a Mexican Serenade is my favorite.
Thanks for the compliment, Dawn!
Wow great images, the monochromes work particularly well
Thank you very much!
All gorgeous shots! Love the dramatic effect the black and white adds to them.
Thanks, Dawn! I really enjoy making conversions.
Beautiful set of images. I love the vintage look to the portrait
Thank you! Silver Efex really provides some great tools for enhancing photos in black-and-white.
Wow, John. A fabulous collection. I love your b & w images. The header image is stunning as well as Coronado. I love the portraits, too. I use Silver Efex….and love it. Great post!
Thanks, Patti. I was introduced to the Nik package by a photographer friend some years ago, and I am so glad he recommended it.
I learned about it from my son. I totally agree.