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Posts Tagged ‘monochrome’

Event, Music, Photography | 0 comment

SingStrong – Without Color

Blake Lewis at SingStrong DC - ©TimeLine Media

Photographing SingStrong musicians performing is one of the most exciting projects you can have! These artists have done hours of practice with their groups before going on stage. In a cappella, all-vocal music, the performers are really bare out in front of the crowd without any instruments to “hide” behind when singing. The groups really rely on each other during their sets.

A cappella Festival

Blue Jupiter at SingStrong DC - ©TimeLine Media
Blue Jupiter at SingStrong DC – ©TimeLine Media

The musical art form obviously is focused on affecting your ears more than your eyes. A photographer is usually concerned about the visuals – trying to keep distracting elements from getting in front of your main subjects. Anything that can be moved out of the way prior to firing the shutter will save lots of time in Photoshop later. For photographing live music, there is a lot of things in front of the performers that serve the primary function for the audience – speakers, wires, microphones, etc.

Ten at SingStrong DC - ©TimeLine Media
Ten at SingStrong DC – ©TimeLine Media

All of these things add to the environment of the scene. At SingStrong, the sound setup is one of the best I have ever come across for vocal music. Marty and his crew really work magic to make sure the audio is perfect for both the performers and the people in the seats. The lighting setup makes it very easy to photograph giving lots of options to shoot the performers. They have strong backlights, spotlights from the front of the house, and other accents that they use throughout the night.

Blake Lewis at SingStrong DC - ©TimeLine Media
Blake Lewis at SingStrong DC – ©TimeLine Media

Changing these select image to monochrome helps to blend the distracting elements so that the performers are still front and center. Pushing the high ISO settings from the camera, then additionally pushing the sliders in post make for a nice grain in dark areas. It transforms these images in a pleasing way to me. It shows how hard the performers are emoting and working to connect with the listeners.

Monochrome A cappella - ©TimeLine Media
Monochrome A cappella – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Printing Image on Inkjet Printers Part 2

HDR Lincoln Memorial - ©TimeLine Media

Continuing on with my first printing project from my own inkjet printer, I first wanted to ensure that only the black ink was used in the next print. I clicked all the boxes in the dialog box to only use the black ink, but this had an unintended consequence. In choosing to only use the black ink, the printer dialog does not let you specify the type of paper. My thought was that the printer can handle this change and make the appropriate changes to get a good print. That was not the case! Here is the print:

Second inkjet print from black and white HDR image - ©TimeLine Media
Second inkjet print from black and white HDR image – ©TimeLine Media

Printing Setup

For the third attempt, I changed the paper type in the printing dialog box to match the type of paper I was using. In this case, I was using a “premium glossy” paper from Kodak. There was no specific settings or profiles for this particular paper, although I have seen instances where more professional papers and printers will let you set each. This made the biggest differences in the printing quality.

Third inkjet print from black and white HDR image - ©TimeLine Media
Third inkjet print from black and white HDR image – ©TimeLine Media

The banding is now gone, and the image takes on a picture-like quality. The first two attempts not only had banding, but you could see many of the components dots that make up the image much like duotone or newspaper printing. This third attempt, this is almost disappears completely, and gradients between the light and dark parts of the sky transition nicely between each. When you hold the photo at arm’s length, it looks almost like an optical print. I am happy with the results, but I think that I am limited with how far I can take this. If I do make any more prints, I will stick to small ones – probably 5″x7″ or smaller.

HDR Lincoln Memorial - ©TimeLine Media
HDR Lincoln Memorial – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Printing Image on Inkjet Printers Part 1

Lincoln Memorial - monochrome HDR - ©TimeLine Media

Because of the nature of event photography, and the way I sell my photos, I do not do any of the printing of these images using my own inkjet printers. With the amount of images that I need to print, and the number of different places that I need to send these, I outsource this task to professional photo labs. They have the expertise in doing this work, and they have the best in optical printing machines to create the best possible prints for my clients.

So, if you have come across this post because you have purchased prints from TimeLine Media before, please know that no changes will be made to how I create those photos. If I print using inkjets, it will only be for personal work for the near future. In this case it was the first experiment in printing on inkjets using this HDR photo from a recent walk in D.C.

Original File

Lincoln Memorial - monochrome HDR - ©TimeLine Media
Lincoln Memorial – monochrome HDR – ©TimeLine Media

This is an HDR image that was processed in HDR Efex Pro 2. It was subsequently converted to black and white in Silver Efex Pro 2. At this time, I wanted to try a monochrome image first. I thought it would be easier to see and fix any problems compared to adding color into the mix. Here is my first attempt with the default settings from my printer. Undoubtedly it is not pretty! To keep the changes to the images minimal, I kept the 4×6 aspect ratio. It was then printed onto 5×7 glossy paper:

Inkjet Print

First inkjet print from black and white HDR image - ©TimeLine Media
First inkjet print from black and white HDR image – ©TimeLine Media

Truth be told, I just hit print immediately, and did not even see a dialog box for printing settings. There is some serious banding problems in this attempt. In looking at the settings as the print was going through, the printer was using some of the color inks. It was not just using the black ink to create the print. For my second attempt, I made a few more changes in the dialog boxes prior to printing the next try.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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