Dr Isaac Vaisman, PPSA
March 2023 - Light Beams
About the Image(s)
Light Beams was created a few years ago in Medellin-Colombia. I was walking on some side streets and I found this empty restaurant (midafternoon) and with these light beams coming through the roof . I leaned the camera against one of the side windows and with a three bracketed exposures I recorded the seeing. Used a Nikon D4 with the Nikkor zoom lens 24-120 mm f/4 @ 24 mm and with these settings: ISO 100, f/10 and three bracketed exposures of: 1/10 sec, ½.5 sec and 1.6 sec. All three images were combined using lightroom and converted to B&W using Silver Effex 3 and corrected for distortion. No cropping.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
10 comments posted
Isaac, this is a very clean looking mono image with great contrast and sharpness. I am amazed that you were able to acieve the sharpness with exposures going up to 1.6 sec just leaning against the side window. The composition is interesting. Conventional thinking might want the other roof window to be in the frame, but I think this would unbalance the image. The one roof window plus two bright patches on the floor work well together, with the near bright patch providing the foreground interest. Posted: 03/08/2023 07:44:36
Just beautiful. Good tonality. Very atmospheric. Good use of textures and shapes. As said before by Guy excellent technique with your slow shutter speed brackets. Posted: 03/08/2023 11:59:11
Isaac, to my eye the composition of this image, two light beams one each side of the table, is exceptional. The contrast you have chosen seems to cover the spectrum from near-total whites to full blacks. From my experience the one "touch" that might improve the image would be to soften the edges of the lighted squares on the floor. Nice work. Posted: 03/08/2023 19:27:29
Gary, The problem arises when you combine the three images HDR group. The most overexposed one creates that spread effect. The only one that has sharp edges is the very underexposed one, but it is too dark and if you add light, the noise is in heaven..
This is a collateral damage of the process Posted: 03/08/2023 20:55:16
This is a collateral damage of the process Posted: 03/08/2023 20:55:16
Isaac, I would take the finished product and overlay it with the one that has the softest edges on it, and then slowly with a soft brush, blend the two of them to ease the significance of the line at the edge of the light. The impact of the HDR can be overcome. I would suggest trying this in Photoshop. I've had success with this in the past. Posted: 03/09/2023 07:07:20
Hi Isaac
Wonderfully moody ant atmospheric,both the interior and exterior lighting is beautifully handled,wonderful tones and textures,really well suited to mono and works so well. Posted: 03/10/2023 15:20:47
Wonderfully moody ant atmospheric,both the interior and exterior lighting is beautifully handled,wonderful tones and textures,really well suited to mono and works so well. Posted: 03/10/2023 15:20:47
Erik is having some computer issues so I have agreed to upload his input and VF.
Isaac-This is a strong mono image Isaac, the hues of black to white offer anticipation, mystery and emotion to the viewer. Good structure definition as well. The difficult problem to overcome are the three hot spots. My attempt to soften them. Bridge-Camera Raw Filter, white slider to the left, then Quick Selection Tool, one area at a time, then lower the brightness to your liking. Hope this helps Posted: 03/19/2023 12:04:09
Isaac-This is a strong mono image Isaac, the hues of black to white offer anticipation, mystery and emotion to the viewer. Good structure definition as well. The difficult problem to overcome are the three hot spots. My attempt to soften them. Bridge-Camera Raw Filter, white slider to the left, then Quick Selection Tool, one area at a time, then lower the brightness to your liking. Hope this helps Posted: 03/19/2023 12:04:09
Thanks Erik for your improvements, and thank you Gary for posting it. As you guys have pointed out, there is always more that can be done to make the image better. Posted: 03/19/2023 20:37:28
That's a terrific shot. Being an old film shooter I love good black and white pictures. This one is outstanding. I might consider cropping above the foreground highlight. It has the tendency to pull my eye away from the main subject, the empty table. Great eye Amigo. Posted: 03/24/2023 15:58:51
Bill, is this what you have in mind ?? Posted: 03/26/2023 22:06:56