Creative Practise Landscapes - Ex.3 - Metering and Converting Colour Images to Monochrome.

Composition 1 - Metering Modes: 82mm lens (without crop factor of 1.5x = 55mm) and native ISO of 100, focus point is on the centre point of all these images. I used a tripod and adjusted only the shutter speed to hit my Nikon D3500's "correct" exposure point.

Matrix Metering - 1/6 sec at f/11.

Center-Weighted Metering - 1/13 sec at f/11.

Spot Metering - 1/3 sec at f/11.

Composition 2 - Spot Metering: 150mm lens (without crop factor of 1.5x = 100mm) and native ISO of 100. I used a tripod and adjusted only the shutter speed to hit my Nikon D3500's "correct" exposure point dependent on where the focus point was using the Spot Metering mode.

To find the highlights, midtones and shadows, I used the matrix metering mode - f/5, 1/4 sec, AF-S.

Spot Metering, focusing on the shadows - f/5, 0.8 sec, MF.

Spot Metering, focusing on the midtones - f/5, 1/8 sec, MF.

Spot Metering, focusing on the highlights - f/5, 1/30 sec, MF.

An example of my Nikon's screen when the "correct exposure" is set using the Matrix Metering mode:

The circle around the "OK" button on my Nikon D3500 allows the focal point to move on the camera's screen.

Composition 3 - Original image which I converted to a jpeg in Lightroom from the RAW file with no post processing. I originally chose the Centre-Weighted Metering mode because I hadn't used it very much and refering back to composition 1, I thought the image was the best of the three.

I didn't like how the left side had lots of shadows and contrasted too much with the highlighted right side. So, I re-shot the image using the Matrix Metering mode.

Composition 3 - Monochrome Conversions: 39mm lens (without crop factor of 1.5x = 26mm) and native ISO of 100, focus point is on the centre point of the image. I used a tripod and adjusted only the shutter speed to hit my Nikon D3500's "correct" exposure point (focus point was on the centre of the frame) using the Matrix Metering mode.

1) Here is the Matrix Metering image I then used for the other componants of composition 3. Original image which I converted to a jpeg in Lightroom from the RAW file with no post processing.

My Nikon D3500's Black & White filter can only be added after the image has been taken so here it is. You can see that the blues and greens on the tapestry appear darker in tone than the oranges, yellows and pinks. The grey tones in the above image appear almost the same in the below, monochromatic image. In the bottom right corner you can see that the pinks and oranges have slightly different tones in B&W, making them distinguishable. The orange appears darker than the pink.

2) I converted the original image to Black & White from the RAW file using the channel mixer in Photoshop and saved it as a jpeg.

3) I opened the original image in Photoshop. I create a B&W adjustment layer after adjusting the black and white points. I then added the Deep Emerald photo filter which darkened the image, especially the ivy and top section, but maintained it's clarity. I saved it as a Photoshop file with the layers and saved it as a jpeg too.

A screenshot of the process in Photoshop. I flattened the image and changed it to greyscale, ready to put here on my blog.

Deep Emerald:

4) I opened the original image in Photoshop. I create a B&W adjustment layer after adjusting the black and white points. I then added the Magenta photo filter which brightened the image but maintained it's clarity. Created more texture and lightened the purples whilst darkening the greens. This is because, based on the colour wheel, using the filters will brighten the same colour on the wheel and darken the opposite colour. I saved it as a Photoshop file with the layers and saved it as a jpeg too.

A screenshot of the process in Photoshop. I flattened the image and changed it to greyscale, ready to put here on my blog.

Magenta:

5) I opened the original image in Photoshop. I create a B&W adjustment layer after adjusting the black and white points. I then added the Warming Filter (LBA) photo filter which contrasted the shadows greater in the top left hand part of the image. Greater clarity. I saved it as a Photoshop file with the layers and saved it as a jpeg too.

A screenshot of the process in Photoshop. I flattened the image and changed it to greyscale, ready to put here on my blog.

Warming Filter (LBA):

Reflection:

I have found it useful to see the difference between the metering modes clearly and realising that I need to give thought to the modes, especially when shooting outside with lots of clouds.

The spot metering composition was useful too as I could see how the exposure changes for the shadows, midtones and highlights very clearly. It's showed me what I need to think about/ do when shooting inside with a window in shot.

The change in colour tones when converted to B&W was very interesting. I learnt a lot about tones and colour filters that I hadn't before experimented with. Learning about the colour wheel too and how that is affected with filters and in monochrome was very useful!