PC_Advisor_Issue_264_July_2017

Feature: Best photography techniques
Unprocessed image
Using a Photoshop plugin like HDR Efex
Pro 2 (free from Google) or standalone
PC applications such as Luminance HDR,
significant amounts of detail can be
extracted from one image.
Alternatively, you can take any image
and alter the levels to bring out the
shadow and highlight details, saving them
as separate images, and then recombine
them for HDR processing.
Even using a single RAW image, you’ll be
impressed with what tone mapping can pull
out of what looks like a rather unexciting and
flat image. Processing a single image using
tonal mapping tools can exploit the hidden
data in an image.
19. How to shoot in black and white
Digital black and white is shooting colour with
the intention to eliminate it later, even if you
use the hue data in post processing. Most
cameras offer a black and white viewfinder
mode or in-camera processing. Nikon, for
example, will convert the JPG to black and
white, while shooting in RAW+JPG, though
the RAW will still contain colour. It then
shows you the mono JPG on the viewfinder.
These features help, but it’s also down to
the photographer’s eye to see the light and
dark within the frame and understand how
that might work in monochrome.
Photoshop has excellent control over the
conversion process, letting you reduce or
enhance different channels, making it one of
the best tools for black and white to work.
You can do this at the camera with coloured
filters, but that limits the options available to
you in post processing. However skilled you
are with using these features, the real trick is
to pick subjects with high contrast that don’t
rely on colour for composition or impact.
As shown above, low contrast scenes or
ones with strong colour don’t convert well.
However, those with high contrast can look
spectacular (see below)
20. The tilt-shift technique
The use of perspective control lenses
goes back a long time, with Nikon selling
Processed image
88 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features July 2017