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Same photo, two very different outcomes.
The colour version of this photo of the Dachstein Massiv in Austria is very nice and cheerful. Something you might find on a chocolate box lid or travel brochure for example.
The monochrome version is something completely different. Quite dark and moody, the distant peak looks indomindable and threatening set against an almost black sky.
The only difference between these versions is a couple of adjustment layers in PhotoShop, and this ability to bring different meanings out of photographs is something that I love about working digitally.
Back in the day when I worked with scanned transparencies it was possible to carry out minor tweaks, but go just a fraction too far and the colours would over-saturate, the shadows would block and the highlights would blow in quite spectacular fashion.
Working in RAW digital is just so easy in comparison. Not that that allows laziness or lack of discipline in the taking of the photo, but the great latitude of a RAW file compared with an old fashioned scan means that you can go much further in expressing your vision through conttrast and colour manipulation than you ever could before with film.
Taking ease of manipulation one step further. Working digitally in monochrome, starting from the same colour RAW file, gives even more wiggle room for adjusting tonality as you can't over-saturate the colours, only blow out the tones if you increase the contrast too much.
I just love the freedom of expression that I now have with digital, and I would really get frustrated if I had to go back to film.
Filename - mountain trees 01.jpg
Filename - mountain trees 02.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 58mm
Exposure - 1/200sec @ f11, ISO100
Location - Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - 0.7 stop underexposure used to hold detail in the cloud.
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