Flame On
Participation in Monochromia has encouraged me to seek out subjects that will convert beautifully to B&W (as opposed to in the past when I would convert mostly when the color didn’t turn out quite right. Hey … Just being honest here). Anyway, there was much about this gas lantern that drew my eye, in particular, the flame. Yet no matter how I processed the image, I just wasn’t able to get that lovely orange glow to stand out sans color. While somewhat disappointed with that, it wasn’t until I got home that I realized that I’d caught the reflection of a flag hanging in front of an adjacent building. What a nice happy accident!
Okay all you photographers out there: how would you have emphasized that flame?
If you’d like, check out Life on the Bike to see other images from my brief visit to Charlottesville, VA last week.
Monochromia 
That’s a beautiful lantern! A great photo Laurie, the flag indeed is a wonderful bonus. 🙂 You’ve gotten great suggestions for the flame… I’d say the same… making the rest of the photo a bit darker and adding some highlight and exposure to the flame could help.
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Thanks Elina! I was sure that I would get some great suggestions for how to give the flame it’s proper due!
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Laurie, love the flag!! 😀 Like, Emilio, I work in Lightroom and would have used an adjustment brush specifically on the flame and then played with the various sliders to see if anything worked. A hit and miss approach, that’s for sure, but sometimes you end up with something that works wonderfully.
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Thanks Stacy! I may just have to go back and play some more!
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Great shot, Laurie! I think it might be just as good, though maybe not as dramatic, in color. As for the flame, what joe suggests you might be able to duplicate in post. what I do whenever I have a streetlight or headlights is use an effects brush in Lightroom to highlight the area, then keep making the spot brighter until it looks like the light is on. In a color image I’ll add a yellow tint to the “light”. Something like that might also work, just brighten the flame with a highlight effect.
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Good thoughts, Emilio! The flame actually showed up nicely in the color image, and a bit better in a B&W that I did not like as well.
But there is that flag 🙂
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Without knowing what the colour version would be like, this looks great in black and white. 😀
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Thank you, Raewyn. Very much appreciate that!
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A lovely shot Laurie! As you say, such a happy surprise to find the flag! As for the flame, I might either have followed Joe’s suggestion or come back when it was darker.
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Thanks, Patti. It was a moment in time … ah well, next time!
The flame shows up nicely in the color image. So much to learn 🙂
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Awesome shot Laurie and I do see the flame but as you mention the flag is an added bonus 🙂 To emphasize the flame I might have tried underexposing the image in increments of 1/3 stops. The rest of the photo would of course get darker.
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Thanks for the suggestion, Joe. Now … to figure out 1/3 stops LOL!!
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Don’t worry Laurie most cameras are set to 1/3 stops when you under/over expose 🙂 I would also try the other suggestions also.
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Reblogged this on The Visual Chronicle and commented:
Love black and white images ? Visit Monochromia – https://groupexpo.wordpress.com
Photo by Laurie !
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