Favourite Maple

[John Chardine]

This is one of my favourite Maple trees in the Maritimes, found near Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. I thought it would be fun to try a B/W conversion in Ps. I used Image->Adjustments->Black and White and adjusted the sliders to taste. Also added a slight sepia tint.

I cropped to about 75% of original size.

It was one of the first images I made with my newly acquired 5D. I'm quite pleased with it so far (understatement).

Canon EOS 5D
capture date: Monday, December 29, 2008 1:25:26 AM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/640
aperture: f5.6
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF
focal length: 92.0
lens: 24-105 mm

[denise ippolito]

John ,The scene is simple yet gorgeous! I love the conversion w/ the hint of color. The tree is placed perfectly in scene and I like the foggy BG. You just have some noise in the sky.

[John Chardine]

Thanks Denise. I noticed during the B/W conversion in Ps that adjustment of certain colour sliders created course noise in the sky. I think I will reprocess and convert to B/W early on in the processing stage and certainly before down-sampling. The 5D has very low noise so it was definitely me and not the camera.

[denise ippolito]

I shoot w/ the 5D and I'm sure it's not the camera-Everytime I do a B&W I get noise in BG also

[Dave Mills]

Hi John.. simple, clean and effective image. The sepia tone adds to the mood of the image. Over many years I've found that some of the simplest images can be the strongest....

[Robert Amoruso]

John,

Good comp and the bird balances the tree well and makes the sky not appear empty to the right. Though I am AOK with the tonality of the tree, I think you might also try opening up the shadows with SHadows/Highlights for an alternate look.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey John,
Yet another opinion.......I like it as presented.....including the noise.........yes you read right......including the noise....This gives it an old school photography feel to it.......as does the sepia tone.....if anything.....I may even try enhancing that noise. Not bad that you can get so many different versions in one image......that is testament to your very strong comp.

[denise ippolito]

Roman, I see your point it does look old school-but what if you don't want the noise? I 've noticed when I do a conversion w/ silver efex-or photoshop I usually get alot of noise-What am I doing wrong-or what can I do to prevent it?

[John Chardine]

Many thanks for all the great comments. Here's a repost where I have tried to incorporate most comments. Didn't manage to put more noise in yet but there's some there from the B/W conversion (interested in answers to Denise's question). Contrast is lower which reflects the scene as I remember it and this gives more detail in tree. Darker version was bolder and some may like it better, me included!