Monochrome: Tone the highlights or tone the shadows?

If you look through the pictures I have posted in this blog, you can see that I am something of a monochrome enthusiast.

Monochrome workers ever since the earliest days of photography have been able to add a subtle tone to their pictures to convey a particular atmosphere. In the age of Lightroom and Photoshop this is now a trivial procedure: Lightroom, for instance, provides a large number of presets for this.

I have been casting round for specific split tone settings for monochrome images, and in the past few months have found a couple of methods that I like. Both Lightroom and Camera Raw allow you to add toning to either the shadows or highlights, or even different tones to each. (Having said that, I have never really taken to adding different tones to both the highlights and shadows, and haven't pursued that.)

I came across an entry in Scott Kelby's blog where he showed toning of the shadow regions -- giving warmth to the darkest tones.

Fig. 1. The split toning panel in Lightroom: settings similar to the Kelby toning method. An equivalent panel is available in the current version of ACR.

This appealed to me, so I have made a Lightroom preset similar to this (Fig. 1). I have posted a number of examples of this, but to illustrate, here is one. Note how the highlights sparkle white, but the darker regions have a slightly warm tone.

Fig. 2. Darker regions toned using the settings shown in Fig. 1.

I had never previously thought of toning the highlights rather than the shadows, but Tim Clinch introduced me to a very pleasing method. The Creamtone preset supplied with Lightroom puts a soft creamy appearance on the highlight regions, and this can be very attractive.

Fig. 3. Settings for Creamtone highlights

The problems with this particular preset are that it introduces an increase in the exposure, and the black-and-white conversion is by simple desaturation. My preference is to use the B&W panel in Lightroom for converting to monochrome, so that the targeted adjustment tools can be used to alter the contribution of the original colours to the final image. So, I set up my own version of the Creamtone preset, which doesn't change the exposure and the B&W panel is used for conversion; the toning follows the original Creamtone values (Fig. 3).

Fig. 4. Toned with the Creamtone settings

I think for the moment these two approaches will do me for much of my monochrome work.

Walking in London

On Friday, Wonky Horizons took the afternoon off work, and went for a walk in London (see also Martin's post below). Covent Garden/Neal's Yard, and then a leisurely stroll from Charing Cross to London Bridge via Hungerford footbridge and the Southbank. I've walked along parts of that region of the Southbank many times, but have never done the full walk in one go - highly recommended in the evening light.

My general policy for days like this is to take one camera and one lens. (The only other things in my camera bag are spare flash cards, and a bottle of water.) The D300 is heavy enough without having to schlep all the extra weight of more lenses.

I also have a paranoia that, when transient compositions are forming all round, all the time, the simple act of changing lenses will cause me to miss pictures. The same applies to chimping. I try to avoid looking at the screen on the back of the camera as much as possible - and do so only to check exposures.

I also tried out using auto-ISO, with the camera set on manual shutterspeed and aperture. The reason here was that I wanted to ensure a high enough shutter speed to eliminate most camera shake and subject movement (except - see #3 below), plus sufficient depth of field. In the event, I think it worked pretty well - but it does mean accepting some absurdly high ISOs. Picture #1 below, for instance, was ISO 2200: ridiculous, but I don't think it matters. With the high ISO pictures, I've just done a little chroma noise reduction, and nothing else. (I suppose that, having grown up with Tri-X and HP5, a little electronic "grain" is the least of my worries.)

Of course - a day like this is not worthwhile without sustenance. During the afternoon, I introduced my fellow Wonkies to Maison Bertaud in Greek St, where we restored our blood sugar with cakes and coffee. These are essential during any photo walk!

A few quick edits from the day: I've put some more on Pbase.

Lunch - from different points of view

Anais

Southbank skater

Watch out - Wonkies at work!

The Streets of London

The three of us managed to grab an afternoon in London on Friday and, with lots going on, there were plenty of photo opportunities. As well as some camera work there was the obligatory pub lunch and an hour in the National Portrait Gallery - the BP Portrait Award 2011 is a stunning collection. What struck us all was how photography has influenced modern portraiture.

Anyway, back to the photography! I was particularly taken with the skateboard park just downstream from The Eye. There was very little light under the concrete roof of the park so I needed to wind up the ISO to achieve an effective shutter speed. At a focal length of 70mm I set the aperture to f/5 and pre-focused on the back edge of the 'wedge'. Setting the ISO to 8,000 I took a couple of test shots which showed that some +ve exposure compensation was required. I settled on +2/3ev and could achieve a shutter speed of 1/400th, which I hoped would be sufficient to freeze the action. All I needed now was a a willing boarder.

My patience was rewarded I got a number of shots, with this one being my favourite.

As with all my posts, click the image to view at 1024px wide

'The onlooker'

I managed to freeze the action and capture the onlooker in a good position in the frame. I punched up the contrast and left the noise (digital grain) in place to add to the grungy feel (OK, so I did 'wiggy' the beer can a couple of metres to the right to form a triangle with the two boarders).

I could not resist a recession shot of one of bike stations. [One was missing so I suspect that Boris was in town].

People shots

Britain is known for its diverse society and this makes for great street photography.

I liked the juxtaposition between the pair of couples

Drinking white wine is sure to ruin your lippy

New boots and panties

At a Neal's Yard bistro - cheque please!

A pair of holiday makers pose by one of the beach huts on the south bank

The market trader

Vincent, playing his steel drum over the Thames. Unlike many buskers, he was really enjoying himself!

Admiring their recent purchases

A soprano singing busker. Unlike Vincent, she appeared a bit up tight.

The painted street entertainers were out in force.

Pattern pictures

I love the shapes, patterns and design of modern London.

Street lamp

Mural

Steel and glass

Classic London

That Cathedral via that bridge

RIAT 2011

Anthony and I arrived at Fairford early on Saturday morning in preparation for the show. My first time at Fairford, Anthony is an old hand - no pressure!

It rained hard most of the morning, peaking between 09.00h and 11.00h so we sat in the car, chatted, drank coffee and grazed on various unhealthy items of food. As noon approached a few glimpses of blue could be seen between the clouds and the weather continued its improvement as the day went on.

Most of the single aircraft images were taken with a 500mm lens on a 1D Mk IV, hand held at around f/5. Images of the display teams were taken with a 70-200mm lens + 1.4 converter on a 50D at around f/5.6.

I like to make a strong pictorial statement in all my photography, that way the images will hopefully be of interest to people who do not normally relate to a particular subject. At Fairford I wanted to convey not just the feeling of power and speed but also the beauty that the planes paint in the skies.

An A10 'tank-buster' was one of the first planes to display

Probably the highlight of the day for me was the French Rafale B which gave a fantastic display - I could have watched it for hours. Here are just a few of the (many) shots I took of it.

My favourite image of the day. No Photoshop needed here!

Seasick Steve made a guest appearance

A Dutch F16

Eurofighter / Typhoon

By now things had really hotted up and next out was a Vulcan. How could anything that large fly so slowly and not fall out of the sky?

Vulcan

No air show would be complete without the Red Arrows and the RIAT is no exception. Here's a selection of my best shots.

One could be forgiven in thinking that Frecce Tricolori is a speciality pasta, well close, it's an Italian display team. They gave a very good display giving the Arrows a run for their money.

Over and out!

From the archive: Farewell NoTW

I hate to admit this, but I can't remember when I last bought a Sunday paper on a regular basis. More than a decade ago, I'm sure.  But when I was young, there were always Sundays around. To illustrate this, here is my grandfather in the early 60s with the News of the World.

Goodbye News of the World.