More From Mt. Rundle

Since I had literally taken hundreds of photos while I was in Banff/Canmore a couple of weeks ago, and I had found and processed the one photo of Mt. Rundle that I was looking for, I was revisiting the collection again the other day. It is an opportunity to look for other interesting angles and shots but also a chance to play with Lightroom. I was sorting my photos into collections and playing with the developer controls on the RAW camera images (NEF on Nikon). One of the controls lets you see what your photo looks like in black and white.

I played with one of the wide angle images I had taken and then brought it into Photoshop where I applied a combination of my OnOne filters to the image. Back in the late 70's you had to pay a premium for Ilford IR (Infra Red) film and the special processing for it. The results were worth the extra effort as IR film turns foliage and clouds into glowing soft white surreal landscapes and blue skies into deep, dark blacks and charcoal greys. With the OnOne filters you can add various amounts of IR and soft glow to recreate that spectacular IR effect on landscapes.

Mount Rundle in Ansel Adams Style

The resulting image above reminds me of the beautiful, creamy black and white contrasts of Ansel Adams' spectacular photos of the Yosemite. At least, it is inspired by his brilliant black and white images as an attempt to get close.

Ansel Adams - Yosemite

Making vs Taking Photos

All of the steps in preparing digital images remind me of the lessons I learned in photography from the series of books by the great Canadian photographer Freeman Patterson. The one book "Photography and the Art of Seeing" was inspirational to me to the point that I've used Freeman's philosophy of "seeing" in both my designs and my teaching over the years. 

In his first instructional photography book "Photography for the Joy of It", Freeman discusses the difference between taking photos and making them. This distinction is highly instructive of the mental process involved in either taking an ordinary "snapshot" and creating an image that has depth, meaning and artistry. 

I was thinking of this distinction while I was going through the process of sorting through hundreds of images in Lightroom. Even though Freeman urges his students to think through an image and "make" the photograph rather than simply "take" it while you're holding the camera, the end process in the digital darkroom has the same thought process. You are constantly questioning various images. As you apply various effects and techniques, you are literally making the photo; creating your final vision.