Diane Jarvis-Schuller

A long while ago Shutter Sisters had a post about black and white photos. Maya at Springtree Road blog celebrates November in Black and White. Black & white photography is one of my passions. Likely because I grew up with black and white (yes, I’m that old). Now that I have my own [digital] darkroom I spend a lot of time converting numerous images to black and white, or sepia, or one of the many versions of the vintage look.

Trouble is, I have so many to choose from. Soft ones, high contrast ones, high key, and all sorts that fall somewhere in between.

Diane is a lifestyle photographer serving Grande Prairie & Northern Alberta. Visit Diane Schuller Photography.

Huh? You’re probably thinking I have that old cliche turned around. You’re right, I do.

For those using film and not digital, the darkroom is where the final processing occurs for photographic prints. Ansel Adams is known to have worked magic in the darkroom ‘finishing’ his masterpieces. Now that so many of us are using digital, a darkroom still exists — it’s the digital darkroom. I’m no master in the digital darkroom though I’ve been spending time in that digital darkroom practicing, experimenting, and even stretching the limits now and again. Today’s image is a result of some of that practice.

The image above, as it came straight out of the camera (SOOC), was nice enough but I thought it had potential for altering it somewhat to give it a more vintage feel. Using my Lightroom 2 software, I created a negative applying specific levels of processing. I’ve found it so much fun to experiment and play around in this way. Recently I also created my very first high-key image which can be done either in the camera or in the processing. I took an already somewhat overexposed image of a horse, increasing the exposure in the digital darkroom, made a few other minor adjustments, and ended up with a more artistic version that you can view at my photoblog. I was really pleased with the results.

This image of a bloom on my Easter cactus has been through the digital darkroom. Using Lightroom I was able to make it appear like it was created with Velvia film. Velvia film is known for having brighter colours and deeper saturation, among its other attributes. While in that darkroom I could have just as easily made this black and white, sepia, or many other options for final processing. Remember the beautiful close up of that clematis and the pink peony I offered for desktop wallpaper? The colours were more brilliant and crisp but I reduced that brilliance, purposely desaturating both images to give them more of a faded old-time feel. All done in my digital darkroom.

Then again, I could run a photo through that digital darkroom, leaving it as it came straight out of the camera, but add one small touch: a bit of vignetting (that darkening of the edges) like with this box of cupcakes. The only difference between the film version of processing and the digital version is that one is done with chemicals and one is done with the computer. I hope you’ve enjoyed walking through my digital darkroom.

In what ways do you like to experiment or play around with any of your creative pursuits (gardening, photography, painting, crafting, sewing, woodworking, or …)?

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” ~ Edward De Bono

If any of you have played the post processing game by Laura at Dolce Pics, you’ll recognize that right away. If you aren’t familiar with “What’s Your Play?” it is a weekly photo challenge in which Laura posts one of her straight out of the camera (SOOC) shots and challenges others to play with it. The idea is to play with the post processing to come up with something other than the original. This is my first time playing What’s Your Play.

It was 42 degrees below zero this morning and, although it has warmed up, is still 27 degrees below zero. Instead of being productive doing other things, I felt this would be a good day to play with some post processing.

 

[caption id="attachment_1003" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Laura's original sooc"][/caption]

Using Lightroom 2: for this first one I cut back the Exposure, increased the Blacks, lightly tapped up the Clarity, increased the Brightness, reduced the Saturation, warmed the Temp, played with the Hue in highlights, and added a strong Vignette. The result is a bit of an antique feel.

[caption id="attachment_1004" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="My first 'play'"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1006" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="My second play"][/caption]

Using Lightroom 2: for this second play I changed the White Balance, tapped back the Exposure, increased the Contrast & Blacks, really increased Clarity, touched up the Vibrance & Saturation a bit, went back and increased Brightness somewhat but then needed to again increase Contrast. Played with the Tone Curve, then just ever so slightly with the Shadows, and to finish I added a hint of Vignette so it’s barely detectable. This was intended to be more enhancement rather than a different type of effect as the first one I did.