24 Feb 15. This is a B&W version of the image I shared yesterday which I hope provides a little more of the structure (details) of the forest. With the color gone we can concentrate on all the various plant life that make up the total forest, much of which we tend to overlook due the starkness of the birches when contrasted with the yellows and blues of the color composite. A couple of times last year I put three images together to form a triptych; you may want to use 3 of the 4 in this series to make one of your own. This one might make the perfect center frame. This is of course the same image as that sent yesterday; but in this case I took one more step to convert it in a B&W plug-in to achieve what you see. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 8.
25 Feb 15. Today we look at the third of four variations of the same image. This time I've elected to put something of an nineteenth century look to it and it could be debated that it is too much or even not enough, depending on your recollection of prints from that era. I debated with the appearance of the vignette, tried it with and without, tried using both white and black, and even thought about a partial vignette just affecting the top half of the image. In the end, as is clearly evident, I went with a full white vignette. The final presentation of the vignette was a choice of very subtle to force your eye into the center without it being obvious, or to do it in a very obvious and therefore somewhat artistic form; I elected to go with the latter. If you find the vignette obnoxious, try cropping the image to remove it and see if you like that look better. It will then be a very different image. The base image that I sent on Monday was brought into a plug-in and adjusted to give both the tonal shift and then I added the vignette for effect. Same specs of course since it is the same image; Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 8.
26 Feb 15. We finish up today with the fourth of the four variations of the same image. This time the attempt was to go with something completely creative, and to that end I've run the base image through a plug-in designed to produce art in the image of famous artists, in this case, DaVinci. The particular preset used was one called DaVinci's Notebook, and I'll leave it up to you to decide if it did a reasonable job. After the plug-in runs you can then further adjust everything done to it, and the options are practically unlimited. In this case I made a very small adjustment to the light area in the top center of the image, but otherwise left alone what the plug-in did to it. IF I were to make a triptych from these four images I would likely use this one, the B&W, and the original. You might try such to see what you think about my choice, then try a combo of your own. Taking the image as I sent it out for Monday, I ran it through the plug-in, made the small change I identified above, and that was it. Again, as it is the same image, the specs are the same; Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; ISO 400; 1/12 sec @ f / 8.
