Somwhere in Bonito

Jens,
I’m a big fan of this photo. The perspective is great and gives a different view of the single waterfall by adding in the one up top. The misty mood is calming and very effective as well. I didn’t jump in on this earlier, but did want to say I enjoyed the re-edits of the photo too. Well done!

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Wow, I bet you weren’t expecting this image to spark so much interest and interaction :slight_smile:

I like @StéphaneJean’s interpretation with the B&W treatments/effects, they were well done and it provides us with a completely different, yet pleasant mood. :slight_smile:
Of course, you could also replicate Stéphane’s interpretation in a color version if that’s appealing to you.

The good thing for me is that most of the treatments and techniques in this thread can be applied to a wide range of images.

Personally, I find everyone’s thoughts and suggestions to be valuable and useful in my own work.

Thanks again Jens for posting this and being kind enough to let us explore different moods and presentations!

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Shortly after this image was taken a T-Rex walked out of the forest and chased you back to your car, didn’t it? I joke, but this immediately made me feel like I was viewing a scene from a Jurassic Park movie, which is meant as a compliment. I love everything about it. I do think that Mervin’s processing adds a little bit of punch that the original was missing but that’s a pretty minor enhancement as the original is just fantastic. Nice work!

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Thank you @Merv! :blush:

To be able to inspire other artists is fantastic so thank you very much, @Jens_Ober! I’d love to show you (and anyone else who might be interested) how you might use Lr to do these kind of B&W edits some time.

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Hi David,
thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate that.

Yes, you are right, I didn’t expect that. But that’s one reason why I joined this community. I hoped to find much inspiration here.

I agree, everyone can learn something from everyone.

I had a lot of fun. Thank you!

That would be great. I haven’t been here very long. But I bet there is a place to put stuff like that.

Maybe you can post a tutorial here: Techniques & Methods

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No. There was no reason to run away. I even took a selfie with him. :rofl:

Yes, I also like the result of @Merv 's processing. The image definitely benefits from the additional punch.

Thank you for your feedback and your kind words, Bret.

Sure, that seems like a good place. Now to find the time to make a video tutorial… :roll_eyes::joy:

Would it be OK if I used your photo for it?

It could also be fun doing it is as a (recorded) live event. That should also save me some time as I couldn’t go all perfectionist and edit it for hours after recording it (and people could ask questions). :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hi Jens - Late to the party, but I’ve been meaning to comment because this is just lovely! The subtle atmosphere is perfect, as is your framing/composition. The color is subtle, too, and does set a mood of a rain forest. I think the contrast is fine. If you wanted more contrast in the foreground, perhaps just dodging the highlights would work better than increasing contrast per se. That’s my go-to method when I want a bit more pop, but still want to keep a softer atmosphere.

I could see it in b&w, also, but with a bit of a different treatment than Stéphane’s dramatic version. Because you wanted a soft feel, I kept more of the atmosphere. Here’s my take, which I did in PS, not LR (I have never been able to work a decent b&w in LR or ACR, and I always wind up in PS).

Here’s my PS layers. I should add that I did 2 radial gradients in ACR first - one to further soften the background (decrease dehaze slider) and one to increase brights in the foreground. Oh, and cropped to 5x7 to eliminate that tiny straight tree on the left and warm toned it with b&w tool.

Screen Shot 2023-02-22 at 10.06.44 AM

You should be pleased that your image has inspired so many of us to comment. :wink:

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I’m a huge fan of b+w, so very much like the direction this is heading in. if it was my photo, I would probably use not quite as heavy a vignette. Great eyes for spotting the b+w potential!

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Jens, this image is fantastic. It is one that offers endless possibilities, specially in b+w. For the color version, I to would add just a hint of contrast, and just a tad odd clarity. Amazing image. Ganz klasse!

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Thanks @J_Fritz_Rumpf! In hindsight, I agree that I probably overdid the vignette a bit. I rarely edit photos in one go the way I did here, especially with such heavy handed processing as here as I tend to catch “processing blindness” very quickly.

Many images, I spend months or sometimes even years to finish, with long periods of letting them mature in my mind. Not having much time for photography in general and processing in particular is part of that situation but I suspect that printing more of my images would help compress those timeframes significantly.

Yes, of course. Feel free to use that image for the tutorial.

That idea sounds great as well.

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Hi Bonnie,
thank you for your feedback and your kind words.

I am also happy about late party guests. :wink:

Wow, I really like your edit too. Thank you for that. It’s awesome how much inspiration I get here regarding b&w conversions. I have never seriously tried this before. But a few days ago I started to scan my hard drive for images that may benefit from a b&w conversion. Let’s see where this goes.

Yeah, that’s crazy. I didn’t expect that either. I also don’t know why I didn’t sign up here earlier. It is such a lovely community.

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Hi Fritz,
thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate that.

Dankeschön! :slight_smile:

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Hi @Bonnie_Lampley and my compliments on a beautiful interpretation!

As we’ve shown together, one of the strengths of b&w is how it offers a greater span of interpretation than colour work. Unless you take it into the abstract realm (which I think would be a pity with such a beautiful photo) I believe that you’re much more limited in “the colour world” as a nature photographer (for better or worse).

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Thanks Jens. :slightly_smiling_face:

As I tend to do when inspired, I probably got ahead of myself as time is a rare luxury that just got cut by my wife having to go away for a week to help/take of her mother, leaving me with “the rest of the family”. But who knows? And besides – with no ambitions, dreams and ideas, we wouldn’t get very far as artists, would we? :blush:

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As @Lon_Overacker noted, this photo struck me almost at once as being a perfect subject for, say, a French landscape painter from the 19th century. I wouldn’t change it at all, but the discussion is still very instructive.

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