The Definitive Sony B&W Images Thread

[mediumcool]

Popping oleander

Sony a7 w/adapted Canon FD 100mm f/2.8 1/1000 f/4 ISO 400

 

[KenLee]

Teacups, March 2017
Sony A7RII, 50mm Nikkor Series E​

 

[Audii-Dudii]

Taken earlier this morning using an A7R + Sigma Art 24-35/f2 @ 30 seconds / f8 / ~4mm of front rise

 

[Bugleone]

Audi-dudi,.....I can't stay silent anymore and need to ask some questions about these wonderful B/W images which you seem to have an inexhautible supply of!

.........These are time-exposures at night...I get that much! But,...is this moonlight blended with the flood lights?....or 'just' the ambient sky light ? Is there a lot of post-editing involved?.....why are the flood lights not burned out?

Also, sitting here in the 'old world'...are these 'new world' houses really like this?...or do you vacuum the drive ways before shooting?....No unfriendly guard dogs?...or police with big revolvers!

.....These are fantastic images!...but what the heck is this all about?!!

 

[Audii-Dudii]

Audi-dudi,.....I can't stay silent anymore and need to ask some questions about these wonderful B/W images which you seem to have an inexhautible supply of!

Well, thank you for the kind words!

.........These are time-exposures at night...I get that much! But,...is this moonlight blended with the flood lights?....or 'just' the ambient sky light ? Is there a lot of post-editing involved?.....why are the flood lights not burned out?

All of my nighttime photos are captured using only ambient light (although this often includes streetlights, such as was the case with the first photo I posted above.) I never engage in any HDR shenanigans, although I do shoot a series of seven, identical images and stack / median-blend them in Photoshop to create a single, low-noise, original file. From there, I use various standard techniques in Photoshop to post-process the files, but I do everything myself, including the B&W conversions, and use no external plug-ins or filters or other software. As for why the floodlights are not burned out in the first photo, in fact, they are burned out, but only very slightly. I am very careful when choosing the original exposures and I use the usual highlight recovery methods during post-processing, as necessary. (To give you some idea of how extensively I post-process my files -- or don't, as the case may be -- I rarely spend more than 15 minutes working on any one file.)

Also, sitting here in the 'old world'...are these 'new world' houses really like this?...or do you vacuum the drive ways before shooting?....No unfriendly guard dogs?...or police with big revolvers!

Truth be told, I live in an upscale area (although my subdivision is the least expensive one in the zip code!) and the houses I photograph usually do have landscapers who maintain the yards, including blowing off the driveways and sidewalks weekly or semiweekly There are certainly plenty of guard dogs around, too, but they're usually kept behind the backyard fences. I have occasionally encountered unhappy homeowners, as well as had visits from the police, but so long as I photograph from the street or sidewalk -- i.e., public property -- I'm not breaking any laws. The biggest threat to my safety that I potentially face is actually wildlife wandering into the neighborhoods from the open desert of the Indian Reservation that's only a few blocks to the south. I encountered a mountain lion on one occasion and have been charged by a javelina on another, plus there are always coyotes chasing after rabbits and rattlesnakes slithering around, etc.

.....These are fantastic images!...but what the heck is this all about?!!

As for what this project is about and why I'm doing it, you might find this discussion to be instructive: Photos and Stuff: Criticism: Two Portfolios

I will likely be branching out again to photograph other areas at night -- I'm particularly attracted to the historical warehouse district in downtown Phoenix, as well as some of the industrial areas on the west side of the valley -- because my father died last month and I no longer need to stay quite so close to home.

We'll see...

 

[Vivek]

Spring (well almost..)!

Untitled by Vivek Iyer, on Flickr

NEX-5NM (Monochrome sensor), Sony FE 55/1.8, The Hague

 

[Audii-Dudii]

And one without a house in it that was taken last Sunday night:

 

[mediumcool]

Seed pods

Sony a7 w/adapted Canon FD 100mm f/2.8 1/500 f/4 ISO 400

 

[mediumcool]

Bright leaves

Sony a7 w/adapted Canon FD 100mm f/2.8 1/500 f/4 ISO 400

 

[Vivek]

Untitled by Vivek Iyer, on Flickr

RX1R II, The Hague

 

[Vivek]

Untitled by Vivek Iyer, on Flickr

 

[pegelli]

A sobering headstone at the Cement House WW1 commonwealth cemetery


A700 + 18-250

 

[Audii-Dudii]

Try as I might, I couldn't sleep, so I headed out with my dog and my camera on a tripod over my shoulder around 2:15 am and returned home a little after 4:00 am.

Among the handful of photos I took (it wasn't a very productive outing, I'm sorry to say) was this one:

 

[Vivek]

You must be very brave to be out late with all the lethal weapons (guns) everywhere!

 

[Audii-Dudii]

You must be very brave to be out late with all the lethal weapons (guns) everywhere!

Nah ... this is an upscale area and it's rare that I encounter anybody when I'm out photographing at this time of the night.

Besides, I'm often (but not always) one of those people who are carrying a gun, because in the state where I live, both open and concealed carry without a permit are legal.

When the bad guys know there's a good chance that anyone they target may be armed as well or better than they are, they often think twice about hassling them ... funny how that works, eh?

But even when I'm not armed, my primary concern isn't being attacked by other people, but by wildlife that wanders into the neighborhood from the open desert that's located immediately to the south of it. I have been charged by a javelina (ended up swatting it with my tripod!) and stumbled upon mountain lions and bobcats lying quietly in the grass as they wait for a meal to show up, not to mention the rattlesnakes and coyotes and hawks and owls that are out and about late at night looking for a meal...

And perhaps surprisingly, I have only once felt threatened when photographing late at night in parts of New York City, where I used to frequently travel on business. Due to NY law, carrying a gun or pretty much any type of self-defense weapon is illegal, yet I usually feel quite safe there and it's only the bridge and tunnel police that ever concern me. Go figure.

 

[mediumcool]

… stumbled upon mountain lions and bobcats lying quietly in the grass as they wait for a meal to show up, not to mention the rattlesnakes and coyotes and hawks and owls that are out and about late at night looking for a meal...

So. High turnover of dogs and cats?

 

[Audii-Dudii]

So. High turnover of dogs and cats?

Occasionally, but they're not a mainstay of their diet, which is usually rabbits (of which our neighborhood has a very large number these days) and most backyards around here are fenced, which tends to complicate matters for them.

That said, two years ago, my next door neighbor watched an eagle swoop down and snatch her cat off the patio in her backyard and a few years further back, my other next door neighbor had to beat a coyote with a broom to keep it from jumping back over her fence with her 5 lb. dog in its mouth.

Fortunately, Miss Abby is a Standard Poodle and weighs in at ~55 lbs., so she isn't going anywhere easily or at least not without a fight.

Anyway, here's another photo from our outing earlier this morning:

This one is about as deep into the shadows as I can go without my A7R falling back to 12-bit files.

 

[pegelli]

Rain, snow and sleet didn't stop me from getting this scene, near Reine in the Lofoten (Norway)
But the amount of frames spoiled by a drop on the front lens was quite large. Had to clean it at least 10 times every single time I was out of the car to get some shots :bugeyes:


A6000 + E18-105/4

 

[seb]

This is a great one Pieter. Every cleaning was worth it.

Rain, snow and sleet didn't stop me from getting this scene, near Reine in the Lofoten (Norway)
But the amount of frames spoiled by a drop on the front lens was quite large. Had to clean it at least 10 times every single time I was out of the car to get some shots :bugeyes:


A6000 + E18-105/4

 

[mediumcool]

Marrabel

Marrabel Sony a7 w/adapted Pentax-M 35mm f/2.8 1/4000 f/8 ISO 400