How do you create mood

I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated from color)
that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are intentionally
underexposed or made that way in a photo editor. Many times mist and fog
was added.

Does anyone know how to do this?

measekite wrote:
I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated from color)
that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are intentionally
underexposed or made that way in a photo editor. Many times mist and fog
was added.

Does anyone know how to do this.

Desaturating a color photo to make a B&W photo is an easily done
common computer practice. I would venture a guess desaturating may
even be the easiest as well as the preferred method that many people
use. Applying mists and fogs to photos can be easily done through the
use of applicable program plug-in filters. I suppose one may be able
to buy plug-in filters that will do just about anything one wants to
do to a photo. However, plug-in filters are not my preferred method of
generally altering a photo. Old habits still drive me towards doing
the most that can be done through the use of the camera. Reasons
being, I wasn't all that great in applying wet darkroom techniques to
enhance my photos and as for applying dry darkroom techniques through
the use of computers, well, I found myself spending a great many hours
doing computer work when I much rather be taking pictures.

measekite wrote:
I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated
from
color) that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are
intentionally underexposed or made that way in a photo editor.
Many
times mist and fog was added.

Does anyone know how to do this?

As for converting color photos to B&W, I use Irfanview almost
exclusively. One can use either "Convert to grayscale" or
desaturating with "Color corrections" (Shift + G). Results
produced by the two methods look the same, but whereas the
greyscale picture is 8-bit (256 shades), the second one is still
technically 24-bit (16.7 million). The ratio of resultant file
sizes in uncompressed format is 1:3.

"measekite" wrote in message
...
I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated from color)
that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are intentionally
underexposed or made that way in a photo editor. Many times mist and fog
was added.

Does anyone know how to do this?


Do you mean like these?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadm/3224186483/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loomax/3165940801/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsgreg/3049211090/

On Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:56:28 +0000, Alan Smithee wrote:

"measekite" wrote in message
...
I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated from color)
that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are intentionally
underexposed or made that way in a photo editor. Many times mist and fog
was added.

Does anyone know how to do this?


Do you mean like these?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadm/3224186483/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loomax/3165940801/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsgreg/3049211090/

In that general direction but much sharper. The question was not so much
how to desaturate but to create mood. And I do know about some plug-ins
to create fog but not mist. But I want to know about how to expose for
this and what to do after.

On 2009-01-31 19:57:37 -0800, measekite said:

I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated from color)
that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are intentionally
underexposed or made that way in a photo editor. Many times mist and fog
was added.

Does anyone know how to do this?

They may be intentionally underexposed. They may be manipulated in
processing. Or the scene might have just looked like that.

I prefer the latter method. Set up the scene and light it to get the
effect I want, then expose it properly.

When I was a kid taking photography classes in college, we were taught
to try to 'see' in black and white -- to think in terms of line, shape,
and light and dark without regard to color.

Even in Photoshop today, I do not merely desaturate an image when
converting it to black and white. I know in advance how I want the
image to look and will manipulate the color channels, burn, dodge, and
even change the color of 'black' to get what I want.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

On Sun, 01 Feb 2009 03:57:37 GMT, measekite
wrote:

I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated from color)
that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are intentionally
underexposed or made that way in a photo editor. Many times mist and fog
was added.

Does anyone know how to do this?


There is no one way to create "mood." First you have to define what
mood it is you want to create and how it would apply to a particular
scene you are photographing. Merely applying techniques to an image
to get some kind of effect usually results in a sterile and
uninteresting picture.

As to the actual techniques, depending on what you want to create
there are usually many, many ways to skin a cat. I'd suggest you
start with some books that deal with previsualization in photography;
most of what Ansel Adams wrote is excellent. Once you understand the
difference between an actual scene and how you want to express it in
the final print, the actual techniques are easy.

"measekite" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:56:28 +0000, Alan Smithee wrote:

"measekite" wrote in message
...
I have seen many photographs (many in BW that was desaturated from color)
that are very dark and moody. I do not know if they are intentionally
underexposed or made that way in a photo editor. Many times mist and
fog
was added.

Does anyone know how to do this?


Do you mean like these?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadm/3224186483/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loomax/3165940801/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsgreg/3049211090/

In that general direction but much sharper. The question was not so much
how to desaturate but to create mood.

in yea olde days I used a yellow, orange or red filter over the lens (with
black & white film)
which increased contrast, darkened the sky and brought out the clouds etc..

And I do know about some plug-ins
to create fog but not mist. But I want to know about how to expose for
this and what to do after.