Chris Prior
January 2025 - Cloud Capped
About the Image(s)
Canon 20D with Canon 24-70 f4 lens, 1/1000sec f4 ISO 400
Image shot from cruise ship in Mediterranean north west of Rome near island of Elba as a storm was building.
Opened in RAW and made some subtle global adjustments to highlights & shadows then used transform tool to rotate horizon line 2 degrees to get it straight before cropping ever so slightly. Dodged water to reveal some detail as it was very dark in original. Converting to mono by creating a new fill adjustment layer and selecting SOLID COLOR (black) and COLOR blending mode on 100% opacity. Finally added a curves adjustment layer to slightly tweak brightness & contrast.
3 comments posted
I like the feeling of a storm coming in this photo. I don't thik I can offer any suggestions to alter it, the closest I got was wondering if a ship in the right hand side mightadd a bit more detailed interest, but I can see a case for leaving it simple.
I'm always curious about your mono conversion process, so I've been trying to reproduce it in Affinity, as I suspect you use Photoshop. I tried previously but didn't succeed, but have found the way now. Affinity's not quite the same, but I can add a fill layer and fill it black, then alter the blend mode of that layer to "Hue", which gives a mono, it doesn't have a colour blending mode. Then to adjust the light and dark tones I can add a curves adjustment layer, and tweak that as usual, and it does work. I can work the dodge and burn brushes on the background layer and I see the usual effect. I can add an HSL layer and tweak the mapping of the colours to grey. Indeed, it works "normally", much like a mono conversion adjustment layer, and if anything is a little more versatile. I'll have to try it on a new image. Posted: 01/06/2025 15:27:06
I'm always curious about your mono conversion process, so I've been trying to reproduce it in Affinity, as I suspect you use Photoshop. I tried previously but didn't succeed, but have found the way now. Affinity's not quite the same, but I can add a fill layer and fill it black, then alter the blend mode of that layer to "Hue", which gives a mono, it doesn't have a colour blending mode. Then to adjust the light and dark tones I can add a curves adjustment layer, and tweak that as usual, and it does work. I can work the dodge and burn brushes on the background layer and I see the usual effect. I can add an HSL layer and tweak the mapping of the colours to grey. Indeed, it works "normally", much like a mono conversion adjustment layer, and if anything is a little more versatile. I'll have to try it on a new image. Posted: 01/06/2025 15:27:06
Hi Stuart. Yes I do use photoshop and both their 'colour' & 'saturation' blend modes can be used. I find it is quick & easy with good results so it has become my go to method. The best part is it is a quick way to check if a colour image will look good in mono. If it does not then you only have to press EDIT- undo twice to get back to the colour version. Anyway I am glad your tried it and hope you get something out of that. Posted: 01/07/2025 22:08:04
Great clouds and time to seek shelter! Posted: 01/14/2025 16:02:55