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Well, that’s rude! What did I cut? That would be Saturation. By this I mean the saturation of colour in the following photographs. If you know me at all, you know I am a true Black & White Photography person. I love to look at it, shoot it, develop it and manipulate it. I would be very sad without B&W pictures in my life.

When I shoot with my Fujifilm (essentially Nikon) Finepix S1 Pro, I always shoot in the colour mode. Why, you may ask? Well, because there’s more to a black and white print than just black and white. Lots of tone hides in the colour and it’s a shame to just strip it out all the way from the get go. So, I play, tweak, lift and separate! I thought it might be interesting to take you through a couple of photos and show you what I did to manipulate them to be what I wanted them to be. I am by NO means a professional at anything I talk about, but I feel it’s informative to show others how to get a cool effect. Plus, this one is so simple I claim nothing great in this accomplishment! I just really like the outcome and thought you may as well. So, that said, here we go!

This is the original colour picture unadjusted. As you can see the yellows and greens really compete for attention. I also thought they added a certain “fluffiness” to the lovely grain of the stone, therefore making it not truly representative of what my eyes could see. So, I cut it! As is it’s not a bad picture, but it’s not what I was going for. That’s one reason why I never delete a photo from my camera until I take it home and see what’s it’s truly like on screen, full size. Viewfinders just give you an idea. So, don’t delete until you know for sure At least, that’s my advice. Anyway, about the cutting of colour…

This is the result. Quite different, huh? I absolutely adore this photo and plan to go back and do a series in a more complete way. But I digress…the details. This was shot with a Nikon 28-80mm zoom lens at 28mm. The aperture was set at 6.0, ISO of 320 and I honestly forgot what shutter speed. Oops! I used no flash. Then, I began the manipulation in Aperture. For overall saturation, I cut it down to 48% with the contrast up by 7%, brightness down by 3% and the shadows lifted by about 75%. I wanted to keep some shadows intact, to keep the air of mystery, but didn’t want to go overboard and expose everything under her lovely hood. Yes, beneath the deformed-esque figure, it is a woman. For individual hues, I upped the leftover saturation of the green channel and it’s luminance just so you could “feel” the greenness and it didn’t appear flat. I took the remaining channels of blue and yellow and turned them down all the way. I didn’t touch the red and magenta channels, as they seemed unaffected when I moved them. I had to play a lot with the brightness and shadows to get them to this point. I feel it still needs a bit more darkness in the tree area, so I may play with that in Photoshop with masks and the like. But, I love the stage it is at right now. It’s slightly disturbing, warm yet cool and evokes a sense of October completely. Also, the main focus was on the tree. She’s slightly out of focus, which adds a little bit of depth, and movement, in my opinion.

Then, we move on to the Lion. There are two Lions, but this one was my favourite. I loved how one of his eyes was white and the other black with stain and mold. The Lions are the guards to what I named “The Lady”. You can see the Lady in the background, but she deserves a more complete shoot before I feature her here.

This is the original shot of the Lion, unadjusted. Again, those yellows just ruin what I saw with my eyes. Yellow, I cut you! Also, it has a haziness of blue-green that I just didn’t care for at all. I felt it ruined the integrity of the Lion and what he stood for. I wish I had him for my back garden!

Then, the cutting and moving around of sliders began. These were shot with the same camera and settings as the first picture. That was easy! So, I did an overall saturation cut to 48%, brightness down by 20% and contrast up by 6%. In this one I completely lifted all highlights and lifted the shadow by 62%. I left the green again, but only added more luminance and left the saturation where it was. There is a bit of blue peeking through the sky and I upped the luminance of that. I left the red and magenta alone again and totally cut the yellow. After all, he is not a cowardly Lion! Sleepy, maybe. Cowardly, never

As you can see, this one got a little “pixely” when I saved it as a jpg. But, this is just the nature of the beast. It looks so much better as a big, fat, huge tiff. It’s a 20 Mega Biter, in fact! Oh matron!

So, you may be wondering where I shot these lovely photos. If you are wondering, I shot them in a cemetery! Hee hee. No, but seriously. This day was spent at Spring Grove Cemetery here in the Cincinnati, OH area. Located in Northside, near the Tavern, this cemetery draws people in to her magnificently beautiful surroundings all seasons of the year. I have spent many a day here taking photos, reading, writing and just “being”. I love it when I see others that are there for the beauty of it. They set out picnics with their children, have family photos taken, feed the ducks, swans, geese and other birds and just admire the nature that surrounds the souls in the air. I have never considered cemeteries a bad place. My Mother always took us as children to feed the ducks in the Lexington Cemetery. We’d go and visit the graves of our family, tend to the flowers we had planted on their graves and spend the day outdoors together. I have always associated it with good memories. You can learn so much walking through a cemetery! If you never have, go give it a try. You’ll start to notice so many details you never saw before. Plus, all the stone figures are waiting to meet you!

Here are a few other shots I took. I’ll just put them up and let you admire them as they are. I could tell so many stories for each one!! But, I’ll spare you the grief

All my love to you on whatever journey you choose!

With a Cup of Tea,

Christa Belle