Daydreaming

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear BPN friends,

My attempts at Black and White conversions are few and far between, so posting this is a bit like swimming in deep waters for I have no idea whether it is good or bad. I leave this for you to decide, with a humble request for any suggestions that can help me improve this image.

Nikon D3S
Nikon 500 F4
F7.1
ISO 800
1/1600s

Taken in the Kalahari in February this year - this is the female of dear old Fred, a male lion we have known since 2009. We found the whole family (mom and dad and two cubs) lying near a water hole close to Mata Mata. Fred is really old, perhaps close to to fourteen years of age, riddled with arthritis but still able to look after his female and offspring. I shall post some images of Fred soon, somehow I do not dare touch them yet...

Comments and critique really appreciated, thank you.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - what a great pose and comp. Nice sharpness and detail too. I want to see the color version though I do like the toned one. If it were mine I would tame the highlights a bit. The image sort of looks flashed to me but your EXIF shows no flash so I think it is probably just the tones. I'm curious which program you used for the conversion.

TFS,
Rachel

[Don Railton]

Hi Gabriela, I love this..! She has a sort of a Mona Lisa look on her face, its got me wondering what she is looking at and what she is thinking. Its nice and sharp, but I too consider myself a beginner in the art of B&W, but I like what I see.

regards

DON

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela, had a play , if you like it, i will tell my secret tweaks , if you do not like it, i will say nothing.
Basically i like the OP but overall a tad too light , but with great contrast, i tried to emphasize the "cute " dreamy look .
Hope you do not mind.
Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Rachel, Don and Andreas,

I did quite a few experiments with this image but did not save them, I gathered they were more fit for OOTB! So let me start with the beginning and see if I can trace my steps in processing (forgive the lack of proper technical terms): I brought the image in LR and cropped, selected B/W and did a few adjustments: exposure + 0.35, contrast +14, highlights -5, shadows +11, blacks -12. Clarity +11. In curves, I increased the lights and reduced the darks. Moved the sliders in the B/W palette until I was (almost) pleased with the result, then sharpened and brought the image into CS6. There I flipped the image horizontally and (without masking) I added some contrast and played a bit with shadows and highlights. A bit of burning and dodging here and there, saved the TIFF and then resized, sharpened and saved the jpeg for web. I guess I must sit down and read my PP books and do this properly, unless Andreas is willing to give away some of his magic tricks

And of course I like your RP, Andreas, THANK YOU, I love it! I must say at some point I toyed with the idea of a darker look but I wasn't sure whether I should go for it or not, I wanted more detail in the blacks - like I try to achieve with my colour images. But was too tired to apply the changes selectively (last night it was my turn to cook, so this image was more of a quick after dinner job)

Don, regarding Mona Lisa - I just love your comparison, this is going to be her name from now on - it was a rather hot day and the whole family was lazing around the water hole (you know, like us humans do around the pool in the summer). Mona Lisa barely opened her eyes as she stood up, she was relaxed and her belly full, my guess is she was wondering whether to climb up the dune or continue her nap. So she stood there staring back towards the water for some time, considering her options. This image was taken just before she walked away into the dunes, soon followed by her two young and Fred.

Something quite funny happened when the second cub/subadult followed Mom...He was just about to cross the road but - according to Andre - he seemed a bit hesitant, for he must have had little or no experience with cars and humans. He stopped right near the vehicle where Andre could still see him, shy to walk across on his own. I was on the back seat as usual, changing my camera settings at the time so I did not see what was happening. At some point I gently removed my lens from the bean bag to try another shot on the left side if he walked past. I then heard Andre giggling and afterwards he told me that the shuffle must have startled the young lion, he growled in my direction and then jumped across the road, tail up, an enormous leap to the safety of Mom...Needless to say his belly was also very full, so he landed on the other side with a little thud we both heard! Unfortunately neither of us was in a good position to take a shot, this is just one fun memory we brought with us from the last trip and it came back to me today as I was looking through my diary for a little story to entertain you with...

Have a good evening, thank you all for comments and advice

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela ,
very nice to hear you like my treatments , becoming a running gag for me now.
My edits have been quite simple.
First step : i created a quad tone toning for the image , own mixture in the DUOTONE conversion added two other colors . Just ask Steve how to create a DUOTONE in PS , he can explain better then me , i found out myself by asking Mr Google.
Back to RGB - two curves adjustment layers set to MULTIPLY - each with a lumo mask- one for the HL - one for the shadows - grouped the two layers - Add layer mask - invert the mask - start part painting where you want the effect to take place - brush opacity set to 10% .

On top of the group comes a "Orton Effect " - selectively applied . Just google the "Orton Effect" , takes too long to explain, or wait till oct..

Took me roughly 10 minutes work.

Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Andreas,

I do a lot of PP experimenting but I don't have the guts to show you yet maybe in October?
These days I am afraid to overdo things, I am not sure where to stop when I start playing with colours...

Google is my friend, will certainly look up the Orton Effect and see what it does. Although I find it quite satisfying to stick to the basics these days. Here I kept it simple, maybe too simple...I have to admit that your version is so much better than mine!
Steve taught me "less is more", and lately this thought has been at the back of my mind when I worked on my images. I am obsessed with doing the right crop because to me this is part of the story-telling, I now avoid cloning as much as I can, I also avoid filters etc. because it feels like I am trying to compensate for my mistakes (blown highlights, etc).

Let me see what I can surprise you with next...no PP work tonight, maybe at the week-end, this week has been rather tough at work...going to jump into the feathers now...

Nite nite, gentle sleep...

[Mike Poole]

Some shots are just perfect for a conversion- this is one of them. Absolutely beautiful shot, and IMHO the edit is stunning wall material.

Excellent joint effort!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice one Gabriela. I won't rehash what was said above...I love Andreas' toning but feel (like his impala) that he went a tad too dark with it overall. Lions love sepia/coffee toning as it resembles their natural skin tone while having a monochrome look.

I would go for a softer feel, perhaps using the clarity slider in LR as the fur detail seems a bit crunchy for me?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, I think somewhere between the two images, but retaining you original colours and having a darker BKG to just bring focus back to the head. Just be careful of that Clarity slider, it can bite you.

Techs look good.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Steve i am slowly becoming a bit disappointed , you never like "my" colors .But thats life ……………….

Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and suggestions, I would like to experiment some more with B/W and sepia ( I like the idea of "coffee toning", Morkel), so you can expect some more images from me this month. I am watching your images with much interest and learning a lot from everyone.
Steve - thank you, I understand what you mean, will go easy on clarity and contrast sliders

Wishing you all a wonderful week-end,

[Thinus Schoeman]

Hi Gabriella, This is a super image, very sharp with great detail and clarity. I like your conversion better, its somehow looks more natural to me. I would have brought back the highlights just a tad, but that is the only real improvement I can suggest. Overall your balance of contrast looks good. Congratulations!

[Don Railton]

Love your stories Gabriela...! I agree something between the op and Andreas work be about right IMHO.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you all again for your kind comments, I received a lot of interesting feedback and now doing some "research" regarding conversions. Looking back at my previous work, I have been either too adventurous or not adventurous at all, so I shall try to find some balance but bring some changes at the same time.

Regarding this particular image, and after reading carefully all your comments, I came to conclusion that what I would like here is a darker BG, some toning (coffee, cafe latte or cappuccino , not sure yet) and to reduce the highlights on the subject. Image is indeed a bit crunchy and a tad too pale, so I will start from the scratch when I process again.

This is fun, and I thank the Moderators for this Theme, what a great idea!

Have a wonderful weekend,

[Marc Mol]

Nice one Gabriela. I won't rehash what was said above...I love Andreas' toning but feel (like his impala) that he went a tad too dark with it overall. Lions love sepia/coffee toning as it resembles their natural skin tone while having a monochrome look.

Great first up effort Gab, with Morkel summing up my critique perfectly.