Central Marken (Church area) in B&W from the harbour side of the town. Marken is a very traditional location in Noord-Holland, just like Volendam but a bit less killed by tourism. The people here cling to their traditions and visitors are not allowed to take their cars into town.
Their are a lot of green and black wooden buildings with small alleys. Suddenly you walk into a death end and find yourself in someones garden.
Exposed with the emphasize on the sky. Wanted to keep the clouds in. Otherwise you might have seen more detail in the three most black buildings.
Shot in NEF, loaded into Nikon Capture for a RAW conversion where I changed stuff like the curve (extreme to bring back shadows), edge noise reduction @ 3, moire reduction (against color noise in the shadow) @ medium, enhanced the color in landscape mode to saturation @ 14, sharpening to medium low (wished I had set it at low).
Saved as 16 bit TIFF
Loaded in Photoshop:
* cropped
* 8-bit
* channel mixer to monochrome
R: +100
G: +60
B: -60
* resampled to 640 wide
* USM on lightness channel in LAB mode:
120% on 0.3 radius with a 1 treshold
Using negative values in your channel mixer is fun. When you push the blue to -100 and up the green to +100 you are starting to approach IR. The negative side effect is strange effects on the exposure. The strong shadow recovery curve + NR + negative blue value led to some oversharpening on the tower without even applying USM. So I had to keep the USM down a bit.
If it weren't for the Basic editing rules I would also have changed the distortion towards the middle that came with using the 18mm side of the lens. The churchtower especially. On the other hand, don't be surprised about Dutch churches in Noord Holland. Several of them are not straight!
Very beautiful, scenic, and serene. The B&W contrast is excellent. However, I do wonder what it would look like in color. You mention in the description that this place has many "green and black wooden buildings". I wonder how vivid and/or bold those hues appear against the greens of the grass and the blue of the sky.
Thanks for all the comments, favorites and even print wish list additions (I'll see what I can do). Here are some answers and info additions:
Moose101 wrote: This must be Italy from the name given?
Nope. "Marken" is about 10 to 15km North of Amsterdam on semi-island in the IJsselmeer. It is a very popular tourist location. Mostly the busses go to Marken in the morning, visit a cheesefarm an hour later, next stop Volendam and them off to Alkmaar (near the North Sea) and its cheese market.
I ride (some would call it 'race') a lot on my motorcyle in this area. Especially sunday morning when it is quiet and not many people around. A lot of twisty roads with camber, highspeed and lowspeed corners.
There are also some little old quiet towns nearby (Durgerdam for example), harbours, campings and nature.
Gatorguy wrote: did you smooth it with Neat image?
speedylix wrote: Is there a person fishing beneath this small house or I'm hallucinating
You are not hallucinating, but it is not a person. It is a statue of a fishing kid. :)
Shadowrain wrote: I think it would have been improved with a person somewhere
I agree. One reason is because I believe that most scenes do better with people in it. They make a scene come alive, give scale etc. Another reason is the traditional costume of Marken. Because it was shot on a Sunday (religion) there was nobody around. :(
The traditional costume is the most colorful of the whole region (Voldendam, Edam, Monnickedam, Wieringen). Especially the women look great.
I'll remember the places you adviced me to go to next time I visit the US. :)
connie wrote: IR?
Nope, I just played with the channel mixer (see note). I remembered reading somewhere that using negative values in your channel mix to monochrome can create Ansel Adams or IR like effects.
just-married wrote: Once I notice the leaning tower, it's really hard to pull my eye away from it. Is this lens distortion?
I had to come back and bump this up a little more, just love this shot. This must be Italy from the name given? Breathtaking photograph, excellent work.
This looks more like a painting than a photo - did you smooth it with Neat image? My only major issue is the angle of the church tower. You must have taken this with a very wide lens.
The town looks so perfect that it's bordering on surreal. Was a noise-reducing filter used on this shot? Some of the clouds look a little strange. The left side of the shot is the most interesting to me. I'd like to see it cropped to just include the left 2/3rds.
This is a great photo. But there's something about it that irks me. I almost seems like one of those realistic cartoon movies, where the buildings and such don't nseem to mesh with the background. This is artful, however, I think it would have been improved with a person somewhere. I also don't think this was the best picture to put in B&W. I bet it looks much better with color.
This town reminds me a little but of Mister Roger's negihborhood, without ht etoy cars of course, and also a little town in Maryland called Catonville. A nice mix of urban and rural. Speaking of rural, there are some great apples in Hendersonville, North Carolina this time of year. Go down there to apple country if you want to taker some great shots as well as eat your fill of any type of apple you can imagine. Last time I went I enjoyed cooke apples forr breakfast, apple pies, apple cider, candy apple, carmel apples, caramel apples with walnuts, apple candy canes (Yep, I was as surprised as you are). It's nothing but apple, apple, apple, down there, and it really is a beautiful place. Good mountain shots of the Great Smokies, and the weather is fairly warm all year round. A great travel spot. Then there's Virginia Beach, Virginia. Great fishing spot there, and really good for seascapes and marine shots, but that's a story for another day! :)
Very nice tonal range. The lights and darks really capture me in t his shot. Once I notice the leaning tower, it's really hard to pull my eye away from it. Is this lens distortion? 7
See, this is what this compitition is all about. Even though it is in black and white...you can still imagine all the colors in this photo. I really like it! You get a 10 from me! And so far...the only 10 Ive gave out!
This photo really hit me hard, I can't put a finger on it exactly, but I like it. Like I said I am more an admirer than somebody who knows the mechanics, so I can't tell you what you did right or wrong, but the photo captures a unique feeling. thank you for posting. -J.
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