When Love Gets you Twisted

I don't post a lot of B&W here, I usually push these over to Happenstance.  But I decided to do a "before and after", so that means LSquared.....

So, this was taken Saturday, during a quick visit to University of Kentucky.  This is one of the stairways at the WT Young Library.  I like the lines, and decided to take a photo.  Even though it is far from a unique concept.

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Anyway, you've seen the final product, what did it look like SOOC (straight out of camera)?  Not a lot different, but there is actually more tweaking than usual...

So, how did it get to the final image?  Well, if I was good I could walk you through the steps precisely.  But, I tend to take a more "Jazz" approach, working from a general concept that is likely to evolve during the process.  I'll try and remember the general steps:

1)  straighten the image based on the horizontal rail that runs about 1/3 up   It's not far off, but for the graphic feel I wanted, I figured to make it "perfect"

2) Crop.  I usually shoot just a touch wider than I want, just to be safe.  I had too many times in my film days where I messed up and cut something off... So everything gets cropped.   Also, Crop to 4x6 aspect ratio.  My compact digital shoots  4:3 ratio, but I mentally default to 35mm standard (which is 3:2). 

3)  Levels...  Every image gets something done in levels, or at least checked.  It is brightness/contrast on steroids, one of the core digital adjustments.  In this case, I really wanted to boost the whites/blacks, and wash out the mids.

Here's a comparison of the before and after histograms to give an idea.  It does reflect additional changes as noted below:

4) I really wanted to make the railings "pop", so I played around with Topaz Simplify to create a layer that was just the lines.  I don't really remember what I used, but I'm pretty sure it was the "Quad Tone Silhouette Dynamic" filter in the Topaz B&W collection.  As usual, I applied the effect to a layer, and blended it in (about 30% multiplied IIRC).

5) Convert to B&W, again, using Topaz.  I think.... pretty sure...  I used one of the High Key filters.

Anyway, something like that.  If folk find this interesting, maybe I can do more of these...  and take better notes on my work flow.