Fifth Evening at the Photography Course - Contrast and Landscape Photography

This evening the following topics were discussed:

• Various photos made by landscape photographers
• Landscape photography assignment
• Results of the evening photography session
• Black and white photography at the Papiermolen
• Black and white conversion in Photoshop

Various photos made by landscape photographers
We looked at and discussed landscape photos made by the following photographers:

• Franco Fontana
  See example 1, example 2, Arps & Co.
  
• Martin Kers
  See example 1.
  
• Shinzo Maeda
  See example 1.
  
• Ernst Haas
  

(note: photos are not directly included into the blog in order to avoid copyright infringements).

Each photographer has an own style. Some make conceptual pictures of the landscape. Others make intriguing series.

Landscape photography assignment
Our teacher gave us the next assignment (results must be available in January):
Maak een serie foto's waarbij je de karakteristieke eigenschappen van het landschap gebruikt als verbindend element (create a photo series and use the characteristics of the landscape as a unifying element).

To make it ourselves not too difficult our teacher gave us the advice to pick a landscape in our neighbourhood. The landscape photographers discussed should give us enough inspiration to make our own series.

Results of the evening photography session
The photos of the students were discussed. The effect of different lighting (tungsten, halogen) and color temperature settings could clearly be seen on the different pictures.
Here you get an idea how the photo discussion looks like:


The photo is actually a first. It is the first photo taken of the group during an evening class!

Black and white photography at the Papiermolen
In a few days we will have a photography afternoon session at the Papiermolen.
We have to be prepared:

• Bring your tripod.
• Dress warm.
• Wear good shoes. The Papiermolen seems to be very windy and of course there is water in the neighbourhood.
• Bring small change to pay the windmill operator.

Our assignments at the Papiermolen are:

• Take photos which look nice in black and white.
• Take photos with high contrast subjects.
• Take photos with different themes: black/white, light/shadows, texture.

Camera settings:

• JPEG shooters should experiment with the various monochrome settings on the camera.
• RAW shooters can "shoot now", and "worry later about black/white conversion when sitting behind Photoshop".
  

More will be told when we are at the location.
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Black and white conversion in Photoshop

Our teacher gave a quick introduction how black and white conversion can be done in Photoshop. There are several ways to do a black and white conversion:

• using the Red, Green or Blue channels.
• using the channel mixer with layers