Crater Lake, Oregon in B&W

[agentlossing]

In October my wife and I went to Crater Lake. It was the first time I'd seen it, despite living in Oregon for almost a decade. I took the EP-1 with 17mm f2.8 and the 30mm f2.8 for backup, though I barely used it. A wider lens than the 17mm would have come in handy up there, but the 17mm forced me to think about composition a little more, and I'm fairly happy with the majority of the results.



I used a polarizer, which did wonders for contrast, but many of my images ended up looking uninteresting color-wise (lots of dark blue and dark green, as might be expected). But the contrast was so good, I decided to go the B&W route, and I'm liking the results so far. These were processed in Perfect Effects from jpeg files (I have the raws but haven't touched them yet). You can see some posterization in the skies where it transitions from darker to lighter hue, and while it bugs me slightly I wonder whether it's worth worrying over.

AL121233 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121209 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121199 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121198 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121188 copy1 by lakonian117, on Flickr

 

[MajorMagee]

Looks A Little Different In 1947

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7mTCMvpEM

 

[randyspan]

Absolutely stunning!

 

[50orsohours]

Really excellent post processing and beautiful shots.

 

[biomed]

I really like the contrast! Great photos.

 

[esnift]

Looks A Little Different In 1947

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7mTCMvpEM

Sorry for OT but in all my years of chemistry, I've never seen this as an alkali metal volatility demonstration. I'll have to send it to some professors.

Nice shots agentlossing.

 

[Wandering Aengus]

Those are amazing. Nice work.

You should have one printed on Harman Gloss Baryta. Amazing B & W paper.

 

[agentlossing]

Thanks! I may look into that, I do intend to rework the files to try and get rid of the posterizing in the skies, maybe that'll be my reward to myself for getting that done.

 

[DeeJayK]

Great images here, but to me the magic of Crater Lake is the preternatural blue of that lake. I hate to throw that away to go monochrome.

 

[agentlossing]

I can appreciate your point of view - like I said originally, the monochrome was a stylistic choice that resulted from what I felt were unbalanced colors - too much dark green and dark blue. I of course had nothing but appreciation for the color of the lake in person, but it was hard to make the color jpegs look any different from the dozens of other images I've seen. Had we the advantage of being there during better lighting, I'd have gone a different route.

 

[Wisertime]

Nice processing. I was there for the first time back in August and it's an amazing place. I've wanted to go for ages. I loved every part of Oregon we visited too. You're lucky to live in such a spectacular state.

I find it really hard for Photos to do Crater lake justice. Shooting too wide seems to diminish the scale and splendor. Shooting too tight doesn't quite demonstrate the glory of the whole. We did a hike up to one of the fire watches at sunset, which turned out to be a great vantage point. Regretfully, I didn't have a tripod.

 

[DeeJayK]

I can appreciate your point of view - like I said originally, the monochrome was a stylistic choice that resulted from what I felt were unbalanced colors - too much dark green and dark blue. I of course had nothing but appreciation for the color of the lake in person, but it was hard to make the color jpegs look any different from the dozens of other images I've seen. Had we the advantage of being there during better lighting, I'd have gone a different route.

Totally understandable. My comment wasn't meant at all as a rebuke of your artistic choices but more as a remembrance of the beauty of that spot. The images really are nice. A few of them have an almost IR look to them.

 

[Pap]

In October my wife and I went to Crater Lake. It was the first time I'd seen it, despite living in Oregon for almost a decade. I took the EP-1 with 17mm f2.8 and the 30mm f2.8 for backup, though I barely used it. A wider lens than the 17mm would have come in handy up there, but the 17mm forced me to think about composition a little more, and I'm fairly happy with the majority of the results.



I used a polarizer, which did wonders for contrast, but many of my images ended up looking uninteresting color-wise (lots of dark blue and dark green, as might be expected). But the contrast was so good, I decided to go the B&W route, and I'm liking the results so far. These were processed in Perfect Effects from jpeg files (I have the raws but haven't touched them yet). You can see some posterization in the skies where it transitions from darker to lighter hue, and while it bugs me slightly I wonder whether it's worth worrying over.

AL121233 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121209 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121199 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121198 copy by lakonian117, on Flickr

AL121188 copy1 by lakonian117, on Flickr

 

[Pap]

Beautifully done! I personally think B&W was the way to go.

 

[Deleted member 20897]

Agentlossing, I'm a fan!

 

[PacNWMike]

Beautiful AL! I shot color film when we were there but ended up with mostly B&W anyway. It was winter in a blizzard

 

[jamiecoop]

Nice stuff! Making me miss home.

 

[siftu]

I never thought of doing Creator Lake in B&W.. I have some pics from there that I have never really liked but it was in my earlier days of photography. Might go back and do some B&W on them. I do agree with DeeJayK that when you are there it's the color which draws you.