Fine art b&w processing tips

keety

keety

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Morning people,

I don't suppose anyone has any links to tutorials or can give me some tips on processing b&w ina fine art style?

Specifically i'm after long exposure shots where the focus is typically a sole object (say an object in water, a boat or a tree or groyne) and the background has been removed, so you can't see a horizon or anything like that, yet the background has a nice gradient effect and could almost be mist, I can do the photography bit easily enough, its the photoshop bit i'm struggling with....

stuff like this

https://www.google.com/search?q=lon...AUIDigB&biw=1920&bih=937#imgrc=DHlMVqVMEJn0-M:

Any tips or advice would be greatfuly received!
 
The photographer you linked to does training including photoshop work, and Noel Clegg does similar stuff and does (excellent) training too - I went on a 1-1 with him and would strongly recommend it. I don't think they have any free content out there. But Joel Tjinjelaar does (or at least used to) at https://www.bwvision.com/
 
Yup, they look like they were "got right in camera". Probably enhanced a bit with PP but mainly achieved at the shooting stage.
 
Some of those were yeah, but a lot are not... it seems to be more compositing.... you can't for instance even see a horizon (the water just blends perfectly into the sky) .. i'm fairly sure its some kind of graduated fill type effect but I just can't work out how to do it...

@Neil Burnell seems to be a master at it, and I'm probably wrong but they don't all look like they're shot in the fog...
 
keety said:
Some of those were yeah, but a lot are not... it seems to be more compositing.... you can't for instance even see a horizon (the water just blends perfectly into the sky) .. i'm fairly sure its some kind of graduated fill type effect but I just can't work out how to do it...

@Neil Burnell seems to be a master at it, and I'm probably wrong but they don't all look like they're shot in the fog...
Click to expand...

Fog is obviously ideal but a lot of the linked images would have been manipulated in post-processing to lose the horizon, no doubt about that. There is no need for compositing though its all done within one file with really simple tools and techniques and you're not adding anything to the image. I've actually moved away from doing this now personally and will only shoot if the conditions are good or I will keep the horizon or simply tone it down a little if there is no fog.
 
keety said:
Thanks, although it's not quite the look i'm after, Neil's profile pic is a perfect example of the style...

I'm thinking of masking and trying out a guasian blur along the horizon to remove it...
Click to expand...

I'd keep away from guasian blur unless you like banding, especially if you are trying to do this technique in colour! Colour fine art techniques are ridiculously hard to do without the correct conditions, why do you think most fine art photography is in mono ;)


SFTPhotography said:
Learn how to use curves and/or levels and how to set black/white points within the tone curves for each colour channel.
Click to expand...

This is a good idea to start but that doesn't really answer your question although it will help massively when toning images.
 
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