Antelope Canyon in Black & White

I think converting an image to Black and White is a very subjective thing. I tend to do it when there is high “structure” in an image- because losing the color is replaced by drawing a viewers eye into the details or texture of the photograph.  I use Silver Efex Pro for almost all of my conversions, I find that it typically nails it on one of its presets (“High Structure”) is my favorite preset of the bunch. it is fun to experiment with filters… only the hours in a day will restrict your playtime (…and kids, and work, and the dog 🙂

Anyway, back to Antelope Canyon… come walk the wider part with me… in Black & White…

The Canyon in White & Black

Certain images just lend themselves to a Black & White conversion. Antelope Canyon, I believe, lends itself to a monochromatic POV. While its color is unearthly, the striations along the rock, the curving walls, the texture of the rock all lend themselves to black & white.

Used Silver Efex Pro. Literally 3 clicks to turn this color image into a powerful piece of art.

Learning to Wink ;-)

Small moment, but glad I got it on camera. And glad I happened to be playing around with the Lastolite Ezybox when this moment occurred.

My son Aidan is a winker. He loves to wink as a way of telling you “All is good.” During the time he was getting the wink mechanics down, he was literally winking a thousand times a day. He would wink so much he would literally stumble into walls. He really wanted to nail it (my little perfectionist), and eventually he did. If wnkning was an Olympic event, he just might qualify.

So with camera in hand, and SB-900 hooked up to the Ezybox, I asked him to gimme a “special” wink… and he did… and I snapped.

And the rest as they say is history. 🙂 Enjoy!

While I loved this in color, I finished it using Silver Efex Pro. Dunno why, just thought, like the wink itself, it made it a bit more… well, special.

P.S. He also gives the best hugs…

Silver Efex Pro at the Beach

Been playing with Silver Efex Pro sparingly, but lately, been applying it to more and more images that I think would make a nice Black and White (or White & Black… take your pick) image. The one below started out in color, but was lacking some pop to really make it stand out. After running Silver Efex, and playing with the sliders a bit, I settled on the following… thoughts?