Hilo Daily Image

 

18 January 2015

# 171

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Here's the first image of Black & White Week (see yesterday's image for an explanation).

 

The b/w project has turned out to be fascinating. I'm using Adobe Lightroom's default b/w settings rather than any of the others (such as red high contrast filter).

 

I've looked at this lava bomb many times, and shot it a few times, but never liked the results. It's an orangish-brown, and although the color was always accurate, the shadows always looked muddy and ugly. But that all goes away in b/w.

 

That's not what I meant by fascinating, though. What was fascinating was playing around with the settings (exposure, contrast, blacks, whites, highlights, shadows and clarity) and realizing that as I made trial adjustments I was literally imagining myself choosing a grade and finish of Agfa Brovira (my favorite) paper. I found myself thinking "Here's #2 glossy . . . lots of detail," or "Here's #6 matte . . . nope," and then finally deciding what to give you -- what felt to me like #2 matte.

 

It was startling, to tell the truth. I never expected this lost-for-many-decades way of seeing to surface so quickly and in such detail. But there it was. I hope it stays.

 

This is going to be an interesting week.