When you like a picture, it doesn’t have to be for any particular reason. Maybe the reason I like this is because it’s old-timey. Maybe because an antique sink, completely covered in dust just has some charm. Maybe it’s because the Seattle Underground Tour is fun for the whole family. Or maybe it’s because this is the most anthropomorphic sink I’ve ever seen.
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Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF50mm f/1.8 II |
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1/30 s |
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2010:01:01 14:24:13 |
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f/1.8 |
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Photographer: Ari Brown |
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400 |
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Normal program |
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50 mm |
C’mon – there’s a face in that, right? He’s even got a different color for one eye. That’s great stuff! But yeah. A sink. I just liked it. Getting a little photography wonky, it was a dark tour. I took it with my 50mm, which goes down to 1.8, but when you’re being jostled by the crowd, you don’t have a lot of time to set up or a tripod, so you get what you can and I liked how this came out. With low light, you can often lose some color, which made me want to try it in black and white. Hit the jump to see that one!
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Tags: 50mm, anthropomorphic, antique, B&W, face, lowlight, seattle, sink, tour, underground
Posted in Photos | 3 Comments »
How do you decide when to take a picture in black and white as opposed to color? In the film days, it was actually a decision you had to make but with digital, it always starts as color. Most cameras have a black and white mode, but you’re kinda nuts if you use it*.
Most of the time when I take a picture and decide to process it into a B&W image, it’s because it either has really strong lines and contrast or it has very little in the way of color to start. That was what I found here:
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & 12.0-24.0 mm |
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1/60 s |
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2009:12:19 12:30:21 |
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f/5.6 |
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Ari Brown |
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200 |
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Normal program |
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15 mm |
You like reading all of my jabbering? Click the link for more:
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Tags: B&W, building, garage, ghosttown, lines, wood
Posted in Photos, Technique | No Comments »
I was back in San Diego last week. Especially downtown and along the waterfront, so much has changed since I lived there. I blame Petco Park, but mostly I think it was just the real estate boom.
For all the new, there is still some old. Down in Seaport Village, the Marriott Hotel is still going strong. As much as those new buildings might look nice, this is the only one I wanted to take pictures of.
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Canon EOS REBEL T1i (Canon) & EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM |
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1/200 s |
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2009:10:10 17:11:04 |
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f/9.0 |
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Photographer: Ari Brown |
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200 |
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Normal program |
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24 mm |
Since it’s all geometry and lines and shapes, I think it turned out pretty well in black & white. Color isn’t bad either, but this got my vote.
Tags: B&W, geometry, hotel, marriott, sandiego, seaportvillage
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I used to work at a place that had something to do with cars. While I was there, my photography thing and my work thing seemed to overlap and I got to take some pictures of cars we were reviewing as well as a whole lot of car shows. The kind of pictures that worked well there weren’t usually the kind I liked taking but I always took a few for myself. Things like this and this. I just dug back into the vault from the same show that the other two came from and found another one I liked.
Only thing is, I can’t for the life of me remember what kind of car it was attached to. Anyone know at least the make if not the model? C’mon you car buffs out there – show me what you got!
Getting back to the photo nerd thing, the bokeh is nice. With so many symmetrical reflections I really like the pattern across the top of the hood. This image has been chopped up a bit and I don’t have the original so I don’t have the EXIF information, but I’m pretty sure I took this with my 50mm lens just because you can count the number of diaphragm blades that make up the aperture – 5, just like the 5 sided bursts of light you get in this picture.
Tags: B&W, cars, classiccar, hood ornament, oldcars
Posted in Photos | 1 Comment »
Like most things in life, when you want to convert a color photo into black and white, there is more than one way to get the job done. When you want good enough, life is simple. Got Picasa? Hit that Black and White button. Even in Photoshop, you have a few options:
- Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
- Image -> Mode -> Grayscale
Want to learn about a few more choices, by all means, click for the rest of the post.
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Tags: B&W, can, photoshop, rust
Posted in Photos, Technique | No Comments »
Pigeons on a telephone wire – classic picture, right?
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & 24.0-105.0 mm |
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1/4000 s |
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2009:04:04 14:58:38 |
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f/4.0 |
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Ari Brown |
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100 |
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Aperture priority |
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75 mm |
Even so, finding the right shot can be hard. I wanted the simple lines and symmetry in the wires. Sun should be up but not right overhead. You need some pigeons in there, right? Well I was out shooting radio towers and I just saw this out of the corner of my eye. Want more? Hit the jump for the rest of the post.
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Tags: animals, B&W, bird, geometry, lines, pigeon, sepia, telephonewire
Posted in Photos, Technique | 2 Comments »
Ready for more Photoshop trickery? This one is easy. Officially this would be called working with Layer Masks. We’ll call it taking a color image, making it black and white, and then leaving color in just one or two spots. Like this, right?
Hit the jump to read how it works.
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Tags: B&W, birds, layermask, parakeet, photoshop, zoo
Posted in Photos, Technique | No Comments »
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Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT (Canon) & 24.0-105.0 mm |
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1/1000 s |
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2009:02:25 14:58:29 |
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f/8.0 |
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Ari Brown |
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200 |
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Aperture priority |
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73 mm |
I can’t explain why the port fascinates me so much – maybe too much of The Wire, Season 2 or something. Seattle is a huge port town, even though it’s easy to ignore. There are also some great parks where you can watch the action. I went out on a day far too cold to take some pictures, but didn’t really like anything I shot of the cans (heh… cans), trucks, or ships. I do like the lights though. When you’re working around the clock, I suppose you need to see what you’re doing. During the day, it’s just a 12-armed monster. Love the shape though – I like how it looks in sepia too.
Tags: B&W, light, lines, port, sepia
Posted in Photos | 1 Comment »
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