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Canon Image Challenge | all galleries >> CIC 226 Happy New Year >> Eligible > 19 Trying Something New
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23-Jan-2022 Alastair Norcross

19 Trying Something New

Boulder, CO

Maybe you can teach an old dog (or dogs) new tricks. My wife, son, and I went to a friend's house this afternoon to learn how to play Mah-jongg (or Mahjong). Our son has recently been living in Taiwan for a couple of years, so he had played the Chinese version, which he says is a lot simpler than the version we learned today, which I think was the Singaporean version.

Canon EOS R ,Canon RF 35 F1.8
1/125s f/2.5 at 35.0mm iso320 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Canon Image Challenge26-Jan-2022 00:27
Winner-winner...(a fabulous entry....and maybe also points out the purpose of the challenges...I am not sure you would have taken this picture unless...you kind of had an added motivation...so all to the good).

Traveller
Canon Image Challenge25-Jan-2022 22:43
Who doesn’t love a challenge and have about 4 weeks to overcome. I came into the challenge in 2010 when it was only open for 11 days at a time and those of you that have been in even longer than me should know if before that it was even less time. Was it??? Paul
Canon Image Challenge25-Jan-2022 20:51
Maybe we should do another B&W/ toned challenge. The last one was CIC 203 which was almost 2 years ago.
It would certainly be a challenge for me.

Jim
Canon Image Challenge25-Jan-2022 20:44
To add to what Alistair said: when I go out to shoot for B&W, I always set the camera to jpeg + Raw as he suggests. That way the preview in the camera screen is also in B&W. I don't really visualize a scene in B&W well as other people can. With a a B&W preview, I can tell if I am on the right track or not. If I like it, I can then shoot the scene a few times, varying the various shooting parameters. When I get home, LR can easily separate out the Raw from the B&W. After culling, I generally throw away all the camera generated B&W.

Jim
Canon Image Challenge25-Jan-2022 17:05
To add to what Jim said, when you shoot B&W in camera, you let the camera do the conversion from the full color RAW that the camera captures. While you have some control over the settings, it's nothing like as much as when you do the conversion in a RAW conversion program like Lightroom or Photolab, especially if you use various plugins with those programs. One thing you can do is shoot RAW + JPEG, and set it for B&W. That way, you get a B&W JPEG, but still keep the full RAW, so you can do different things with it. I've tried that a few times, but have never liked the OOC B&W JPEG as much as whatever conversion I can do with the RAW. It's like doing an HDR in a camera that lets you keep the bracketed RAW files as well as the generated HDR JPEG. When I used to do that with my 7DII, it was only for the ease of generating three bracketed RAW files. The HDR JPEG that the camera produced was always either flat and lifeless or hideous, depending on which setting I opted for.
Alastair
Canon Image Challenge25-Jan-2022 15:08
Dave - take a look at https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-black-white.htm

Jim
Canon Image Challenge25-Jan-2022 15:06
Dave - the answer to your question can be quite long in the detail. Suffice it to say when you convert from color, you obtain a lot a lot of artistic control, especially in tones.
I will find you a good reference.

Jim
Canon Image Challenge25-Jan-2022 12:18
I have some old Tri-X prints in a yellow box, almost all grainy. Given that most (all?) cameras can shoot in B&W, what's the point of shooting in color and converting?

Dave
Canon Image Challenge24-Jan-2022 21:03
Regarding the ring, I did some research, and discovered that it's common to wear the wedding ring on the right hand in some countries, one of which is Denmark. Our friend is Danish, although her parents moved to the US when she was a small child. She still has a Danish flag on her wall, and has quite a fondness for Denmark.
The B&W conversion was done in DXO Photolab 5, using the Film Pack plugin. I used the Tri-X simulation (but without the grain), and used the toning style "Sepia terra" (there are 3 different versions of sepia). I also increased the 'intensity' setting for the film simulation, which seems to give mostly a contrast boost. Years ago, I used a much earlier version of DXO Filmpack, which was a standalone program, and gave fairly pleasing results. The latest version integrates with Photolab 5 (though you can use it as a standalone, if you want to), which gives it a lot of flexibility. So far, I've used the Tri-X and the Ilford Pan F Plus 50 simulations quite a bit, because they were films I used a lot when I was learning photography back during the Napoleonic wars. There's a lot to experiment with. I can definitely recommend it to anyone interested in B&W conversions. It has plenty of color film simulations too, both negative and positive film, but I have so far preferred my own settings for color images.
Alastair
Canon Image Challenge24-Jan-2022 03:22
Good game, nice capture.
I like the conversion.

Jim
Canon Image Challenge24-Jan-2022 01:49
Thanks Paul. I'm not sure about the ring. Our friend is divorced, so she might wear her ring there. I've never noticed, but my wife probably has. I'll ask her.
Alastair
Canon Image Challenge24-Jan-2022 01:25
Excellent B&W conversation! Is that a wedding ring on the right hand we see? Paul