The goal in photography is to have your blacks black and your whites white.

This is what most photography courses, books and workshops will tell you.  It leaves your images looking more life like.  It gives your images more ‘punch’.

No the reality is that most of the time your camera will not be able to capture the full range of tones from black to white you you might have to fix this during post processing.  Not as difficult as it sounds and Lightroom makes it very easy to fix up your digital negatives and bring back the blacks and whites.

To get things started let’s look at my zeroed RAW file.  (For more on starting from zero and digital negatives click here.)

Not a bad portrait of a male lion but a little flat.  I photographed this big guy on a heavily overcast but bright morning so my goal is to recreate that mood.  To be clear, I am not aiming to change the image or create something unrealistic but rather finalize the digital photographic process by showing my viewer the subject as I saw it.

Even by just looking at the image you can tell that there are no pure blacks or pure whites and this is confirmed by the histogram.  Our histogram’s mountain sits almost in the middle but it does not touch the extreme left or right. As a refresher:

- The far left of the histogram represents pure black.
- The far right of the histogram represetns pure white.
- The middle of the histogram represents the mid-tone in the image.

Using Lightroom’s Basic panel I am now going to work through a few sliders in order to bring back the whites and darks to my image.

I personally always start with the whites and to do this I use a combination of the Exposure and Brightness sliders.  As you move the Exposure slider to the right, increasing exposure, you will see your histogram move to the right.  Exposure will increase the lightness of your entire image while brightness increases the lightness of the mid-tones in your image.

Before we carry on it is worth mentioning that Lightroom has a very handy feature which shows you any clipped highlights or shadows in your image.

In English – when your whites are too white you will loose details in those areas and the same goes for areas where your blacks are too black.  By using the keyboard shortcut J in Lightroom’s develop module you will be able to see when this happens.  The two little triangles at the top of your histogram will be highlighted when this feature is activated.

As you know make any changes to your image you can see which areas might be loosing detail.  Whites that are too white will be shown in red while blacks that are too black will show up in blue.  Check out the example below.

In this example I increased the exposure way too much as can be seen by the red areas on my image and the histogram bunching up to the right.  No good.  In order to fix this I would pull the exposure back down until the histogram moves away from the right and the red highlights on my image start disappearing.  Useful feature – use it!

So back to my lion image.

After looking at my zeroed RAW file I decide3d to start with the whites.  The first thing I did was to push the Exposure slider up to +0.80 and the Brightness to +20.

Why these numbers?  Well, they just look and feel right.  There is unfortunately no one formula for all images so you have to decide what you want to do with your image and take it from there.

Right.  When comparing this image to my original RAW file you can see that is quite a bit lighter.  The histogram also shows this and you can see that it has moved a bit more to the centre while also being a bit fatter. The movement of the histogram to the right was accomplished by moving the exposure slider while the width of the histogram was influenced by moving the Brightness slider.

Better?  Perhaps but remember we are not finished yet.

By looking at the above histogram you can see that the whites are a bit closer to white but the pure blacks are still missing.  You saw that by looking at the histogram right and noticing that it is not close to or touching the left?  Good.

To bring some of the blacks back I used three sliders.  I moved the Blacks slider to +4 (pushing the blacks in the image), the Contrast slider to +40 (increasing the blacks in relation to whites in the image) and the Clarity slider to +14 which increases the contrast of the mid-tones in the image).

This was again done by watching my histogram and the image.  Sorry, still no magical recipe!

Looking a bit better but something does not feel quite right.

By looking at the histogram, which touches both sides, we can see that there are some pure blacks, a decent amount of mid-tones and some pure whites in the image.  So why is it nor perfect?

The histogram is just a representation of the tones in your image and does not know what you photographed or what you wanted to show in your image.  That is why you have to look at both the histogram and the image when you are making adjustments.

So, after looking at the above image I decide that the mid-tones are to bright so the answer is simple.  Drop my Brightness slider back down to +5.

Much better.  A more realistic image which still has pure blacks and pure whites in the image.

Notice how dropping my Brightness slider did not remove the pure whites, as my histogram is still touching the right side, but the mid-tones are less bright shown by the decrease in the width of the histogram.

So far I am quite happy with the look and feel of my image but take a moment and have a good look at it.

The nose draws my attention too much as it is a little too dark.  Easy fix.

By selecting the special adjustment brush I simply paint over the nose area and then adjust the exposure for just that area.  By using the keyboard shortcut O I can see where I am painting.  Once I am happy with my selection I click O again and then make my adjustments using the slides.  In this instance I increased the Exposure of the nose are by +0.61 using a brush size of 5.0.  I selected to Feather the brush which will help me to blend the exposed area in a bit and not make it too harsh a change.

Small change but as in life, the devil is in the details.

And that just about does it.

One last change was to darken the bright green bushes just a little bit.  I chose to do this not only because it took a bit of attention away from my subject, but to get it closer to what I saw.  The overcast conditions made the scene a little more dark and contrast-y and I my goal is to show that in my image.

I could have used another adjustment brush to selectively dodge (make darker) the background but decided to just use a very subtle vignette since all the areas I wanted to darken are around the outside of the frame.  What the slightly darker areas around my frame will also do is stop my viewer’s gaze from escaping out of the frame and keeps the focus on the centre of the frame.  As I said before PLEASE be subtle when using vignettes in your images.

Keeping in mind that the goal of this exercise was to to make my blacks black and my whites white so after all of that, here is the final result.

The difference is quite obvious but let’s focus on the two histograms.

In my zeroed RAW file, on top, you can see that the histogram does not touch either left or right.  After all my adjustments the histogram shows that here are both black and whites, by touching both sides, and  ther mid-tones have also been maximized as can be seen the wider ‘mountain’ in the histogram.

Once you start working through your images like this you will see that it is a very quick process.  This blog post took me much longer than processing a single image.

The best part about doing all of this in Lightroom is that every single change is non-destructive which simply means that you cannot hurt your original file.  You can play with every single slider, see what they do and learn while working through your images.  Go ahead give it a bash!

One more look at my final image.  Blacks are black and whites are white.

Nezt Thursday I will be showcasing some more wildlife photographer and their websites so if you have any suggestions let me know!

See ya tomorrow!

Gerry

Anybody can get lucky.

Anybody can go out on safari and get a fantastic wildlife shot.  This Black Rhino, which is a very special sighting, walked across the road right in front of us.  All I had to do was pick up the camera and shoot away.  It is a great reference shot but fantastic wildlife photograph?  Not necessarily but a lucky shot, absolutely.

The challenge is to go out there and do it again and again and again.  Without relying on luck.

Yeah, yeah I know.  Wildlife photography definitely ‘requires’ a certain amount of luck.  Even more so than other types of photography because your subject, most of the time, just won’t do exactly what you want them to do.

If you are going to rely on luck you are going to get very frustrated when you go out there.  Guaranteed!

Go out there with the intention of creating wildlife photographs.  Set yourself a goal, whatever it is.  You might not find what you are looking for but you will look at everything differently.  You will look for photographic opportunities. You will have patience (hopefully) to work a scene and get great wildlife photographs!

After the Black Rhino above walked across the road, we decided to hang around for a while as he was extremely chill and we were all intent on getting some wildlife photographs.  Our patience paid off and we spent the next 15 minutes taking pictures of an extremely endangered animal.  Great privilege.  Great images.

Next time you head out on safari with your camera, have a goal.  The options are endless and could include:

- Numbers:  Work a subject and shoot 5 different images of each animal.
- Color:  Choose a color to include in every shot.
- Texture:  Try and shoot only textures.

If you head out with the intention of creating images, of photographing wildlife and nature, you will be looking at things in a more ‘photographic’ way meaning you will be ready when opportunity presents itself.  And as I have said before, there are photo opportunities everywhere!

I guess the bottom line would be intent, patience and luck (of course!) but you can never negate the need for sound technical knowledge.  Yeah, you need to know how to use your camera!

See ya tomorrow!

Gerry

This last week has been pretty slow from a wildlife photography point of view.

In stead of digging in the archives I thought I would post a shot I got yesterday at the lodge.  Shot at midday, when most people would tell you to put your camera away.

The image below shows Tsokwane, one of the oldest, largest elephants in Madiwke.  The old guy was hanging around our waterhole so I snuck off the deck and shot up at him to create a bit of a stronger angle.

When the sun is high in the sky you are going to have a lot shadows to try and work with.  There are two ways in which you can deal with this.  Get to a higher vantage point and shoot down on your subject or think of converting your images to black and white.  The heavy contrast has the possibility of working very well in a monochrome image.  Give it a bash and see how it works out!

As you know, tomorrow is guest post Thursday, and I have no doubt you are going to enjoy this one.

Wynand van Wyk has a good eye.  He creates amazing images.   He has a pasison for nature and the outdoors.  He has been published in the BBC Wildlife Magazine and Getaway Magazine.  And the most amazing thing?

He is only 15 years old!

Make sure to join Wynand tomorrow as he writes ‘The Beauty of Dreams’.

This is another Photo-Africa guest post you can no miss!

I’ll be back on Friday!

Gerry

When asked Gerry me to be a guest blogger on Photo-Africa I was delighted at the opportunity. Especially to be considered to be at the same level of the people that have contributed to this site before and will after me…. so thank you.

I had posted some black and white photos on my blog and I think this is what caught Gerry’s eye, these images were useless to me in color so I changed them to black and white to get a stronger effect, but more of this later…

In the digital age most photographers will take a photograph and later convert it to a Black & White image. This process in itself has made people look at Black & white images as an afterthought, I am not saying that there is any thing wrong with this but with a little extra thought the photographs would have more impact. Changing a photograph in any way or form has been has been the center of many a heated argument in the photography world.

One of the fundamental things about being a wildlife photographer is being able to show in your photographs a true representation of what was seen out in the bush. So Removing the color from a image to create a black and white photograph is in it self digital manipulation. Now here is the big Grey area in digital photography, what can you do to your images on a computer and still show an ethical representation of the scene that you took a photograph of…

“I eagerly await new concepts and processes. I believe that the electronic image will be the next major advance. Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable structural characteristics, and the artist and functional practitioner will again strive to comprehend and control them.”- Ansel Adams forward to his book “The Negative”, published January, 1980

I personally have two chains of thought on image manipulation – documentary photography and photography as art.

If you are documenting the lives of an animal as many wildlife photographers do, and then the image must be a true representation of that animals moment in its life.

Here is a short view on how I go about it…

Generally Allowed:

- Brightness/contrast control
- Color correction
- Cropping a frame to fit the layout
- Retouching of dust & scratches

Never Allowed:

- Adding
- Moving
- Removing objects within the frame

So taking away the color within a photograph would in my view be pushing the limits of documentary photography, but B&W images are generally expected as the middle ground between documentary photography and photography as Art… but I believe that B&W photography falls under the Photography as Art so when I convert a photo, I do so to make the photo as compelling as possible… not really worried of what I can or cannot do.

But not all photographs look good in B&W. Most people when going through there photographs on a computer will play with a few images turning them into B&W images, but for the best results you need to think about these images when you taking them to get the best possible results when you convert them later.

NOTE: As a wild life photographer you are documenting the lives of your chosen subject, they should be wild and free to live their lives with out restrictions. If an image is of a captive animal then it should be stated as such….

There are key ingredients that you need to visualize in a scene to make it work as a black and white photo. What i have done in the last few weeks is go over most of my photos stored on my hard-drive and look at them again in the idea of converting them to B&W images. I am not afraid to play with these images any way or form. It about what is visually pleasing to me, and the people that look at them.

Contrast

Contrast is really important, as your eye will naturally considerate on the various colors within the scene. But you need to look at the dark and light areas. What is the contrast between these areas and just as important is the shades between the lightest light and the darkest dark. The clearer the distinction the more impact your image will have.

Light

Key ingredient in any photograph and this is linked to contrast. But more importantly from which angle is the light coming in from. Direct light will add contrast. Sidelight will highlight textures and surfaces. Backlight will point of shapes, silhouetting them.

Shapes, Patterns and Textures

This is an area where a color photograph looses out on, as the different shapes in an image would probably be of a different color highlighting that way. but patterns and textures in a B&W photo really come to life.

Some tips to help when taking a B&W photo…

- Shoot in RAW: This offers the Superior control when an image is converted to B&W
- Shoot in color: Do the conversion on you computer – its just better but you need to think about it in your head as a black and white image when pressing the shutter button down.
- Low ISO: Even though a B&W image can be more forgiving when it comes to noise – try to keep it down and much as possible
- When to shoot : I found I get the best results during the gap of morning tea and afternoon tea, this a time of day when contrast is at its highest, but remember there must be shades between the lightest light and the darkest dark.

So I suggest going through your hard drive and converting a few images, as a starting point select the photos that where taken when the sun was high in the sky…. and don’t be scared by what people will say about digital alterations, the technology is there use it, just be able to admit it.

Etienne Oosthuizen

Etienne’s Links:

- Website: Photographic Africa
- Blog: Photography Africa Blog

When is enough really enough?

This weekend I spent a bit of time following the links to various different photography sites.  I am not referring to people’s own sites where they showcase their own work but rather photo sharing sites where you can upload your images where a community of people then rate of comment on your pics.  It’s all fine and well uploading your work to all these sites, for whatever reason, but when is it enough?

Apart from this blog I try and do regular updates on Facebook and Twitter and that’s about it.  Honestly, I don’t have enough time to still go and upload some of my images to all these other sites as well.  Tried Flickr, liked it, but just got a bit much trying to post images there as well not even mentioning any other sites.

So my question is this…

Do you think that uploading your work to as many photo sharing or photo communities as possible is a good thing or should you rather keep your work in a central place with just a few links here and there?  I am not sure either way and I suppose you could argue both sides of the coin.  Not referring to stock sites where the intention is to sell your work but the photo sharing sites or photo communities.

On the one side I quite like the idea of my work being all together on a single site and not spread out all over the web.  Surely this makes it easier to create an identity for you and your work.  Perhaps more exclusive?   Then again, to have your work out there on as many sites as possible surely gets your images noticed by more people?  More noticed yes, but does it not make your images loose that special bit of ‘you’ if they are all over the place?  I can think of a few very well respected photographers that have their own site where they showcase their images and that’s about it.  Does uploading your images to as many sites as possible make your images less ‘unique’?  Does flooding the web with your work make your image loose it’s magic because it can be seen everywhere or is it just another part of modern photographic marketing to get your name out there?

Make no mistake, there are some amazing photo sharing sites out there, some of which giving you great learning opportunities, but even if just from a ‘not-enough-time’ point of view, for now I think I will keep my images together on this site with a few posts and pictures here and there.  Perhaps when I find time I might post them on more sites.  Or maybe not.  What do you think?

During my surfing this weekend I found some amazing black and white photos in between some great wildlife images and that kinda inspired me to play with black and white again.  Creating striking and powerful black and white image is truly not as easy as the click of a button.  It has to do with the image you start with, vision and your processing skills but to mention a few.  I quite like the ‘recipe’ I used to get the above image of a lion cub on a kill.  Similar to the image below but it’s never quite the same.  The image you are working on needs to guide you towards the final final black and white version but I suppose the same questions could pop up.  When is enough really enough?  No doubt I will be playing with a few more and I somehow have a feeling that, as soon as I find the time, there is a black and white project in the pipeline.

Will be back tomorrow.

Gerry

Taking pictures or converting images into monochrome is as popular now as it has ever been. With colour film and the modern digital technology that are available today monochrome for me still brings out the magical reality of a specific scene. It brings out the mood and atmosphere of certain scenes. The way I convert my images to monochrome is:

• Shoot in RAW
• Convert and edit in CS4
• Convert from colour to monochrome with NIK software : Silver effex pro and Color effex pro.

Everybody that does wildlife photography come to the point of monochrome at some point in their lives at which point you face the question – why black and white?

Why do you want to take out the contrasts with the colour.  The answer is simple – monochrome is special.  It gives a different ambience to images. The lack of colour makes certain images powerful and brings out the seriousness of the image.  In some images colour can deviate the centre point of an image and distract you from the real subject.

When I am out in the field I find that monochrome works best for portrait shots. It really brings out more of the personality of your subject.  In Madikwe, especially in the summer, we have a few days that is overcast and this is the best conditions for monochrome shooting.  It really sets the mood for the capture.  Diffusedlight is the best for black and white.  

What I noticed is that black and white images can evoke both negative and positive emotions.  When photographers wants to get a message out there of violence, disasters of nature or war they use black and white to evoke certain emotions. The message of injustice can be carried over so much better then in colour. The image below is quite funny and I think it evokes laughter to a certain sense.

For me monochrome works well however, something that I still find difficult is to see in black and white before you take the image. All the different colours like green and red are two totally different colours, but they come out as very similar shades of grey. Black and white represents different colour in these images. And it takes a while to get used to it.

A handy tool to keep with you is an orange filter to look through.  You will see monochromatic subject but the colours will be very similar to that in your black and white image.  Remember monochrome doesn’t work well with all images. It will never be able to replace that warm light of early morning or late afternoon however if you are photographing a subject laying in the shade with sunspots coming thru, dappled light, black and white works very well.

When converting into black and white you can also leave some colours as they are like red or yellow. It works very well especially when lions are on a fresh kill, it is something unique.

Keep on looking with that ‘black and white’ eye.

Grant Marcus

Grant’s Links:

• Blog:  Wildlife Throught Grant’s Lens
• Facebook:  Hook up with Grant on Facebook
• Portfolio: Grant’s Images on the Photo-Africa Stock Library

Comparing, competition and critique.  Are they important?

I think so but there is a line where any of the above can cross over to a ridiculous obsession.  Yes, you need to compare your images with other photographers.  Yes, you need to have enough confidence in your own work to enter competitions, whatever the outcome.  Yes, you need to be able to critique your work or take criticism from other people and not feel offended or take it personally.

The realities of wildlife photography are:

• There is always be photographers who are better than you.
• There will always be photographer who think they are better than you.
• There will always be photographers who look up to you and your work.
• You can learn from almost any other wildlife photographer.
• Critique, when taken correctly, will make you better.
• Your subject will more than likely not play along.
• Not everybody will like your work.
• Some people will hate your work.
• Some people will love your work.
• You will capture many average images.
• You will capture many amazing images.
• You need to process your images.  Yes, you do.
• You need to process your images – but not too much.
• Some days there will be nothing to photograph.
• Some days there will be nothing to photograph.

This is but a starting point so if you have any others to add please go ahead!  Where did this all come from?  Well, the first reason is that I have a slight issue with wildlife photographers who think, and more importantly, act as if they are better than everybody else but gonna leave that one there.  For now…

The second reason is to link it to tomorrow’s guest post.  Having someone crit your images is normally quite nerve wrecking as we do tend to take it personally.  The reality of it is that you can learn a lot from the experience and, with that in mind, I have no doubt that tomorrow you will learn a lot.  Now if you have ever browsed the galleries on Outdoorphoto you have no doubt came across ‘The Chad‘.  He is one of the most vocal members who makes the most comments on the various images on the site and that is why I asked him to do a guest post.  Chad is very direct with his criticism but not in a negative way.  It is very positive criticism that can only make you learn – if you are willing to.

I am very happy to have Chad Cocking as tomorrow’s guest blogger for his article ‘Wildlife Photographs That Work‘.  In his post Chad looks at a number of his images and shares his thoughts about the image and why they work.  Chad’s images are truly inspirational and the way he breaks down the images will teach you a helluva lot about how to approach various scenes and subjects when you are out in the field.

I will be back on Friday but make sure to pop in tomorrow for some fantastic images that will teach you a lot about African wildlife photography!  Oh, the black and white image above is the result of me playing with some grain versus black & white.   I like the result even though not everybody will agree and some might even hate it and you know what?  It doesn’t matter!!  Go out there, shoot images and be proud of them no matter what!

Until next time.

Gerry

Baby Jackal

Madikwe Game Reserve

(Nikon D300, Nikon 80-200 @200mm, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 320)

___________________________

A week ago we found this little youngster in the middle of a large open clearing.  Initially quite relaxed and sleeping in the grass, the young jackal suddenly got up and proceeded to stare very nervously in one direction.  Even after a few minutes, when we drove away, he did not budge.  We never found whatever got this young jackal so upset but the interesting thing, photographically speaking, was that the moment the animal turned away from us a lot of the people stopped taking pictures.  Many books and blogs will tell you that you have to always get the animal’s eyes sharp in focus but that does not mean you should stop the moment you cannot see the eyes anymore.  When this happens, and an animal looks away from you, start looking for lines, shapes and use basic compositional guidelines to create your images.  By placing the young jackal in the bottom right hand side of the frame I left some negative space for the animal to look into.  Since I could not see the eyes I focused on the ears which was without a doubt the focal point of the scene.  At f/2.8 this meant that the animals body would be slightly out of focus.  This, along with the full frame of grass, ended up giving the image a slightly ‘dreamy’ feeling which I then took just a little further in the digital darkroom by adding a slight vignette around the edges.  Something slightly different and I quite like the end result.  Your thoughts?

Since I got completely carried away this weekend and did two posts that’s it for today!  If you missed the weekend’s posts here is a quick reminder:

• Honesty in Wildlife Photography
• Africa On Your iPhone
• New Images Added:  Kerry de Bruin

More soon!

Gerry

Buffalo in Light

Madikwe Game Reserve

(Nikon D300, Nikon 18-105VR @ 100mm, 1/100, f/5.0, ISO 200)

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To many people they might look and act like cattle, but Buffalo is one of the most quintessentially African animals.  For me they are also one of the more difficult of the larger mammals to photograph.  Don’t know why.   Just is.  Perhaps a mental block of sort even though I can see the images I would like to take in my head.  Two days ago we found a large herds pretty close to the road but in some serious thickets.  Virtually zero photo opportunities.  Then one female slowly kept on grazing out into the open and up to about 5 meters from the vehicle.  As I was looking through the viewfinder it just suddenly fell in place.  A stream of sunlight fell through the trees, our buffalo took a few steps forward and click.  Even though I could see the image and colors light up when the sunlight hit the large animal’s horns I knew immediately that this was going to be a black and white image.  Kept that vision going into the digital darkroom and, after a few contrast and sharpness adjustments, I finally came up with a buffalo image of my own that I quite like.  Your thoughts?

More soon.

Gerry

If there has ever been a perfect merger of wildlife photography and fine art this is it.

There is a reason that Nick Brandt’s first book, On This Earth:  Photographs from East Africa is one of the most popular photography books of the decade.  The moment you open A Shadow Falls you will understand why.  Words almost fail to describe the images in this book and there can be no doubt that wildlife art will never be looked at in the same way again.

A Shadow Falls features some of the most emotionally evocative images of African wildlife you could ever wish to see and the book draws you into the world as Nick Brandt sees it.  Through 58 tritone plates, Nick tells the story of a vanishing world which heightens the emotive nature of the images even more, if that is at all possible. Whether you love monochrome image or whether you love African wildlife, this book is an absolute must and one that will be enjoyed forever.

I bought my copy of A Shadow Falls two days ago and have probably paged through the book a hundred times.  It is beautiful and makes you appreciate the fragile nature of the subjects and that the shadow that is falling over the earth is us.  Humans.

Emotive.  Inspirational.  Visually brilliant.  If you are looking for an absolutely amazing gift, for yourself or anybody else,  you cannot go wrong with this book.  It is truly majestic and as good as it gets.

You can get your copy of A Shadow Falls from Amazon by clicking here.  I got my copy from Exclusive Books and was quite surprised that Kalahari.net does not have it on their site yet.  You can however get a copy of Nick Brandt’s previous book, On This Earth:  Photographs from East Africa, from Kalahari.net by clicking here.  If anybody wants to send me a copy as an early Xmas gift that would be great ( ) alternatively I will no doubt be getting my own copy of this one soon.

More soon.

Gerry