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Photographing Oregon’s Bandon Beach in Black and White with Gold-N-Blue Polarizer

In Black & White, Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, ND Filters, Polarizing Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Alec Johnson

What an incredible landscape; the sea stacks are of course the highlight, but I had a 7-foot high tide to contend with and… you guessed it… plenty of clouds. Two of the most popular sea stacks on the beach are known as ‘Wizard’s Hat’ and ‘Face Rock’ seen in the image above. Beaches can be beautiful places to sunbathe, but they can also be visually mundane. Bandon’s unusual sea stacks provide plenty of visual interest and story for a landscape …

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How to use long exposures to create mystical black and white images

In Black & White, Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, ND Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Cole Thompson

I have always been intrigued by monoliths, first by the statues on Easter Island, then by the monolith in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and most recently by Stonehenge in England. In each case, seeing these monoliths prompts the question; Who built them and for what purpose? I’ve always loved visiting Bandon Beach in Oregon because of the natural monoliths strewn along the coastline. Randomly placed, it is as though the earth were God’s chessboard and the monoliths the …

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Polarizers, how they work, when and how to use them…

In Black & White, Equipment & Technique, Polarizing Filters by E.J. Peiker

Editor’s note: This is an updated article on polarization that E.J. originally wrote for the Singh-Ray blog several years ago. The spring and summer are definitely times you want to have your polarizer with you, so we thought this might be helpful. Polarizing filters are one of the most misunderstood areas of photography that I encounter while teaching and moderating online technical forums on photography. It seems that only flash photography is more misunderstood in my classes and workshops. There …

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Photoshop and six tools… with a video demonstration

In Black & White, Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, ND Filters, Post-Processing, Scenes & Scenarios by Cole Thompson

Editor’s note: We are huge admirers of Cole’s work and have always wondered how he processed his memorable B&W images. Here Cole describes his process – and illustrates it with the video included in this article. Cole uses the Singh-Ray Vari-ND variable neutral density filter and our Mor-Slo 5-, 10-, 15- and 20-stop solid neutral density filters to help create many of his images. A friend and I were recently discussing how I process my images. I was trying to …

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Black & white photography… it’s more than just color photography minus the color

In Black & White, Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, Polarizing Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Alec Johnson

Bay Bridge, San Francisco. Canon 5D MkIII, Canon 24-70mm @24mm, ISO100, f/16, Singh Ray Gold-N-Blue polarizer and Singh Ray 10 stop Mor Slo solid ND, WB 7600, 92 seconds All joking aside, I believe black & white photography is making a resurgence, with the development of better digital files and advanced software. But don’t expect an “Auto Awesome B&W” button in Lightroom or Photoshop any time soon! Color in a photograph is its own subject and the absence of color …

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Oregon – Five “Before” and “After” Long Exposure Images

In Black & White, Equipment & Technique, Landscapes, ND Filters, Scenes & Scenarios by Cole Thompson

Editor’s note: We’ve been huge fans of Cole’s tremendous black & white work for years – and have often wondered what his images looked like out of the camera, before he applied his unique conversion and processing vision. So we were delighted when Cole sent us this post. I’ve had a number of people ask if I’d do some more “before” and “after” shots. So here are five from my recent Oregon trip. All are long exposures created with my …

Shoot Better Black & White with Singh-Ray Filters

In by admin

More and more digital shooters are discovering how they can create dramatic, impactful black & white images with a variety of Singh-Ray filters, including the Mor-Slo, Vari-ND, Color Intensifier, Gold-N-Blue Polarizer, ColorCombo Polarizer and Graduated NDs. Here’s what some pro photographers have said regarding the use of Singh-Ray Filters for black & white photography…   Cole Thompson Black & White Photography w/ Vari-ND & Mor-Slo “To create my long exposure images, I use a Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter and stack a second …