Bosco The Lab & Jill (Click to enlarge)
Bosco The Lab & Jill With Sepia Treatment (Click to enlarge)
Meet Bosco, the Labrador Retriever, and his person. I posted Bosco before in Planning For Bosco The Lab. Today I want to talk about your shooting and processing options.
Most digital SLRs have an in-camera option for black and white images. You can toggle this on the fly. However, the only reason I can think of to shoot in black and white is if you do not have access to a post processing program which will do this for you. I like to make these decisions after I see the image.
Sepia filters can be applied in post processing as well. Depending upon the program you use for post processing, you will have a couple of different methods to do this. I work in Photoshop. If you’re serious about improving your pet photography, I suggest you get a copy. Photoshop Elements comes bundled with many peripherals and other software. You may have it already and don’t know it.
I often like to see what an image looks like in black and white and in sepia. In this case I really liked it both ways. These two subjects are so summery in their coloring I loved the color image. In black and white it was good as well, but the sepia filter had the hint of their coloring while muting the backdrop and placing the emphasis on the subjects.
There are two methods to use the sepia filter (there may be more, but I know of two). Try both before you decide which you like better. Image->Adjustments->Photo Filter, will give you different filter options. Choose Sepia and use the Density slider to play with the percentages. If you do not Preserve Luminosity you will see a more muted tone. If you are trying to warm it up, leave the check mark in Preserve Luminosity. In my opinion that just cooks it, but you might want this for certain images.
The other method is to convert to black and white (Image->Adjustments->Black & White), play with the sliders until you get it looking the way you like, then lay a sepia filter on it. Try it all. See how you like it best. Post or talk about your tests or questions here.
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