Let’s play pretend today. Instead of ushering in the new year with below freezing temperatures and bone chilling winds, let’s imagine the new growth, the explosions of color and the promise of spring.
I cheated a bit and dug this image out of my archives from spring and summers past. Just look at the delicacy of these just opened pink blooms, the cluster of buds eager for birth and the young unspoiled green. I’m feeling warmer already.
As usual I have no clue as to the names of these lovely pink flowers. I’ll simply drink in their beauty and let someone else come up with the names.
These two photos remind me of our creativity, how new ideas mature and suddenly burst forth when conditions are right.
This is the color original I used for the B&W conversion of my “Reflections on a New Leaf.” I thought it might be fun to compare the two. I like both versions for very different reasons.
Jumping back and forth was making me crazy so I’m including the B&W version here to make the comparison easy.
I used the mono conversion tool in Picture Window Pro (PWP) to convert the color image to B&W. PWP uses an intuitive method that mimics the way you would use colored filters on your lens for B&W photography. I don’t recall which color filter I used here — too impatient I suppose. I’ll try to duplicate this (or use another image) and put a detailed tutorial together.
The essence of the process is still channel mixing, i.e. extracting information from one or more of the RGB channels to create a monochrome image. The beauty of PWP’s approach is that you do this by either picking a colored filter or ANY available color from the color cube using a probe instead of fiddling with percentages and layers.
It’s not difficult once you get the hang of it and you can see the results in a separate preview window as you work. When I do the tutorial(s), I’ll be sure to include lots of screen shots. Meanwhile, you can see for yourselves how well the transformation can work.
Be sure to visit Lisa’s Chaos for more Macro Monday photos. Thank you Lisa. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to share.
Excellent macros! Thank you also for the technical information, I didn’t know Picture Window Pro software. Have a beautiful new week! Ciao! 🙂
Boy these are wonderful photos. There is so much more to photography than just snapping the picture. it can be a bit overwhelming I must admit. Hopefully with your tutorials I’ll be able to grasp the whole idea 🙂 It’s so fascinating 🙂
How pretty and delightful!
Happy New Year.
How weird, my comment vanished into thin air.
Those floral images are great and I´m quite sure that specimen belong to the family Geranium.
Lovely! I especially love the leaf with the raindrops!
A couple of very good colour shots; I’m not a hundred percent sure where I sit on converting colour to b&w, and I’m not sure why. I think it’s because some subjects seem naturally better in one format than the other, and the choice is often made at the time the shot is taken. The conversion is an after thought, and then I think it is less successful. For that reason I prefer the coloured leaf. Well, just a thought.
Read your piece on film that you started on the 3rd; look forward to following pieces.
I have found that many of my negatives, especially colour and slides, have not lasted too well. Colour negatives especially have suffered from colour casts which take a lot of work to correct on the Mac. Some of the slides have got a slight fungal infection under the glass. I am gradually scanning all, but then discarding the negatives. They just take up too much storage space, and at age 65, if they last 20 years in digital format, that will just about see me out and then I don’t care.
Anyway, look forward to future musings on film and 35mm cameras.
I agree John, color or lack of it suits each shot some look poor with out the color some tell the story better and help the viewer focus when the color is absent it just depends of the shot and what it is trying to say to others, thanks for all your help on this issue.
Amanda
I agree that the choice is usually best made when you take your shot. You and I can make the choice easily John because we shoot B&W film. Folks who shoot 100% digital are getting color whether they want it or not. I think it best to shoot in color and make the conversion later rather than allow the algorithm built into the digital camera make important artistic decisions.
I’ve been using the conversion process as a way to learn and to satisfy my curiosity. I still think B&W film is king.
I hear you John. My color slides from the sixties are faded, color shifted and some have a bit of the fungus as well. My few rolls of color negative film are much worse.
Thanks for your support and interest. I’ve got lots of opinions and photos I want to share.
I think all the pictures are lovely.
Maybe you should think about selling the slides? Or storing them in the attic for your descendants. I so wish I had more of my Dad’s creative output. I remember watching him do pointillist technical drawings of insects for hours as a child, and do I have a single one now? No I don’t, and I would so love to have one on the wall. He used to do them for Entomological magazines so maybe I could track an old copy down… A project for 2010!
I love the pink flowers – I think they are pelargoniums. Theyre used for outdoor bedding plants for spring and summer, but I have some blooming right now in my conservatory. 🙂
Oh yes…I am with you while I read your post Im imagining too. The weather outside is frightful ^_^ the colors here makes a big splash to look forward to spring time. Thanks for sharing!
MacroMonday:An Angel
These are lovely! Thank you for the hint of spring!
I like both versions as well, I would hate to pick one from the two as they both have different qualities, very well captured.
Thanks for the tips on mono-chrometization (I know that ‘s not a word). I will go through some of your tutorials to get more hints so I can try to convert my photo of the burl into B&W. Lovely pink geranium!
It’s a word now. LOL
I just finished the draft for Part I of my tutorial on color to B&W conversions. My plan is to finish today and post for tomorrow. I’ll follow up with the balance in Part II for Wed.
I love those little pink buds, should I send some of my California blue sky and 70 degree weather your way? I’ll share…. 😉
Please send some nice weather Amanda. BTW, I got a page not found on your Macro Monday link.
Beautiful photos. I prefer the color ones, but I also like the diversity and uniqueness of the black and white!
Love your photos here!
Wonderful images 🙂
Oh what a treat…only 5 or 6 months left to go…
You call yourself impatient? It’s perfection.
I’m looking forward to your tutorials.
Thanks. In my hurry to see results, I neglected to record which colored filter I used to make the image. I’ve learned my lesson I hope.
I love the black and white leaf, the foreground sharper, then the other part fading into background. Thank you for stopping by – being both a printmaker and a more recent digital photographer,
the tools available today are made for some interesting experimentation, the one informing the other. I will be interested in your experience with conversion – for instance, when you talk about scanning a negative (such a small piece of film) how does that work, I wonder. I will stay tuned!
OH MY…your photographs are amazing! I’m a horticulturist and so appreciate your plant photos. The Reflection on a Leaf is nothing short of drop dead gorgeous!
Years ago I shot everything in black and white and rather liked tri-x for its speed. Now I have a digital camera, a good one, and shoot everything in color. I have not even tried the B&W setting on the camera. I use paint.net to convert the color. After doing that I usually adjust the brightness and contrast to get something that pleases me. Paint.net also lets me adjust the curves but I am clueless how to do that. I really don’t know how that works. I hope you talk about that soon.
I enjoy your blog very much. I find it helpful and encouraging.
Thanks for the kudos. I’ve been shooting Tri-X at 1600 these days. Yes, 1600. Looks good too. I develop in Diafine. I’ll probably do a piece on that one of these days.
A good digital camera. That’s the real kicker. I haven’t gone digital because I simply can’t afford to match the quality of the film equipment I have now and I refuse to compromise when I don’t have to.
One of my tutorials for film scanning mentions curves. I should do a more in depth tutorial on that one as well.
Odds are I won’t run out of things to write about any time soon. I have part I of a color conversion to B&W almost ready to post. It will be up late tonight for tomorrow’s date and I want to follow up with part II the next day.
Thanks for the warmth of your beautiful flower. That is what color can accomplish and B/W will never do.
You’ll get no arguments from me about color Maia. I love color and can’t imagine shooting those beautiful pink flowers in B&W.
B&W and color are so different. B&W has a “color” all it’s own and much power when used creatively — and differently. I prefer B&W for portraits of people, but for portraits of flowers, color rules (most of the time).
Very nicely done, I enjoy b&w photos. . . they let me fill in the “blanks”.
John you photos are just wonderful. I love the water dappled leaf in both photos also for different reasons. Your flower is a Pelargonium which is a tender perennial and not frost hardy in cold regions. They are from the same plant family as the hardy perennial Geranium, however, and most everyone refers to them as geraniums. That too is a great photograph. I enjoy your blog and appreciate all your kind comments when you visit me. Photography is one of my favorite things and mixing it with gardening is the perfect combination. I just love it. I am looking forward to learning much from your tutorials. thanks so much for your time and effort you put in.
Archives are totally fine with me! Especially with all the bright and prettiness on a cold dreary day! 🙂 You never disappoint!
Shucks ma’am you’re makin’ me blush.
That purpley leaf is wonderful.
Lovin’ Macro Mondays,
Cameo @–>–>—