Skip to main content

52 Week Photo Challenge – Week 5: Landscape – Black & White

I did the week 5 photo challenge this week, which was a black and white landscape.  I struggled with this challenge because I’m not feeling landscapes right now.  I find it is hard to get into a landscape mood when it is gray, dreary, and bland outside. That is the problem when winter starts edging towards spring but it isn’t exactly spring yet, all you have is mud, debris, and trash.   Thus, it has hard for me to do landscapes. 

These two landscapes were taken down at the National Harbor, while I was scouting outdoor photo locations for Katsucon.  I took these with a Cannon 70D with an 18 to 200mm lens.  I took the first picture at 32mm with an ISO of 100, at f14 and a 1/200s shutter speed.   As you can see from the original picture it is very bland, but the bridge is a good focal point.  I took the image into Lightroom to crop it, adjust the brightness, clarity, and overall contrast of the image. I then used Lightroom to convert the image from color to black and white. I also add a bit of vingnetting to the image.


Original Image

Final Image

For the second image, I used the harbor with boats and the Capital Wheel as the main focal point of the image.  I also like this image due to the reflection of the ferris wheel on the water.  This image was shot at a focal length of 18mm with an aperture of F20 and a shutter speed of 1/125.  I then pulled the image into Lightroom and did similar adjustments as the first image. 

Original Image

Final Image

I think black and white improves both of these images, since there was very little color to begin with. As I said, I’m having difficulty with the landscape images. I am hoping as the weather improves I’ll get more into taking landscape photos.   Next week is the faceless photo challenge week, which will be interesting since I’ll be at Katsucon doing several portrait shoots of the cosplayers in attendance. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...
Post a Comment
Read more

2025 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2026

This year was a bit interesting especially since during the day, I’m a government employee, which resulted in a lot of stress and a 42-day furlough.  I didn’t attend as many cosplay events with the D.C Cosplay group, now Costume and Camera, as I normally would have, due to schedule conflicts.  However, I traveled up to Poughkeepsie, New York for two photo events, one of which I was a featured photographer.  I attended two conventions, one of which didn’t turn out as expected and the other just confirmed my decision to take a break from it.  Though happily I did a lot of studio work this year, which I enjoyed.  But on the other hand, I lost my dear “studio supervisor”, my dog Teddy.  He liked to great clients and then “supervise” while lying/sleeping in his bed. I also started to work on the business side of my photography work, by investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) site to manage bookings, schedules, and payments. No more trying to juggle...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spooky in the Morning

On October 5 th , I did an on-location spooky session with Rebecca at Claude Moore Park.   The theme was Victorian ghost; however, it is hard to be a ghost at 9:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day.   I did my best to get a spooky look. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 30-inch umbrella Light stand Assistant Smoke Genie The setup The set up was relatively easy.  I mounted a Canon speed light on a light stand with an umbrella.  My assistant then held the light in the appropriate spots as we made our way around the park to different locations. Camera Settings This session was held outdoors in bright morning sun and was intended to look spooky, so I tried to keep the images dark.  Thus, I used ISO 100, which is great for sunny conditions.  I wanted to maintain a soft background as much a...
Post a Comment
Read more