you may know that GIF files can be animated using the open source software GIMP.
Concerning colors GIF is very restrictive. Only 256 colors are possible. If used for color images, mostly ugly color banding will be present. But for our JPG or PNG 8 Bit greytone / monochrome images it's perfectly usable, since 8 bit greyscale are only 256 shades of grey! No banding to be expected.
Last weekend I did a photo walk in Munich and wrote the german article Odeonsplatz, Hofgarten, Residenz about it. Then thought a GIF slide show would be a nice addition.
I used Affinity Designer to generate each single slide, since for me work is much easier and more reliable done in this software compared to GIMP. Only one Designer file for all data needed. I chose a square canvas like in the good old times when I projected my analog slides. The images show different aspect ratios in landscape and portrait orientation. Unfortunately Affinity Designer/Photo doesn't support animated GIF.
So after I had created the full set of slides, I imported them as layers into GIMP arranged the slides for correct order in the Layers Tool and then exported the bunch as GIF animation. Really easy and fast done.
I'm happy to present the resulting Monochrome GIF Canvas Slide Show. Hope you enjoy!
A GIF Animation In Addition To The German Article "Odeonsplatz, Hofgarten, Residenz"
The crocuses blossoms show soft lilac gradation to the petals’ tips and pistrils of strong yellow to orange. A dark bug is climbing a petals border.
Preprocessing on location using an optical red filter.
A wideband red filter erases the pistrils’ strong color contrast to low monochrome contrast - optical preprocessing at location. So the dark bug suddenly climbs in a landscape of white to light grey crocus petals. One reality my camera captured. Using color filters can help reduce divertion from our main subject … Viewing color has an effect on our brains. Experience and emotions might change if we look through colored glasses. So an optical color filter used in front of an optical viewfinder might have a different effect on our decisions as if using a monitor already showing the scenery in black and white.
Since a long long time I'm loving black & white photography.
The german Wikipedia article about "Grau" [4] (engl. Grey or Gray) tells us, "Ein Prozent der Deutschen wählt Grau als Lieblingsfarbe. Es sind fast ausschließlich Männer, die von Beruf Steinmetz oder Informatiker sind." ("engl. One percent of Germans choose grey as their favorite color. These are nearly only men with profession mason or computer scientist.") - I studied computer science (Informatik) ...
A kingfisher can look attractive in Monochrome - at least to Computer Scientists and Masons
Finally, I got a digital camera that uses a monochrome sensor. Monochrome means, this camera can only capture brightness as tones of a graytone scale, often referred to as black & white. A toning option is availlable, so it can produce JPG images using a specified color for toning.
Sometimes we create images where some or a lot of space can be white near the borders. In these cases images might not look as pleasant on a white background as supposed. If we don't like that, we can draw a clear border. So the image is seperated from the background.
But how can we do this? How can we add a border or frame to the image? There's Software that we can use to do this task.
The image should be a JPG file in highest quality, TIFF or PNG file. Because JPG is a lossy format an additional JPG creation step will degrade image quality. TIFF and PNG usually are lossless. If Metadata is an important feature I'd suggest using TIFF or JPG.
Framing we can implement using Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer.
In Affinity Photo I performed two steps not mentioned until now:
I exported the basic trichromatic layer structure as a template file and
created an export format template.
In the future using the Trichromatic Affinity Photo Template (Layer Structure) and the icc-profile it will take only a few minutes to get a color optimized image. Precondition: filter setting and lighting conditions fit. Otherwise we need to create another icc profile for the new conditions.
Trichromatic Color Calibration Image in C1Pro Session Folder
generated icc profile at the standard os location
Maybe I could do this step also using Affinity Photo but I prefer Capture One Pro with sessions. So let's see how this test step is done in this raw converter. We start Capture One Pro from scratch. This makes sure that the app will find our icc profile automatically.
As a first test we now want to apply the icc profile to our Trichromatic Color Calibration Image.
Affinity Photo supports layers and using different Blend Modes similar to what Adobe Photoshop offers. The layers can be used to create a trichromatic image from three optically filtered monochrome captures we get from the K3iiiMono.
A whole day I tried different manual approaches in Affinity Photo to get a good color image from three monochrome red, green and blue optically filtered captures with not fully convincing results.
I concluded, I'd need a standardized and more automatic process. Suddenly a groundbreaking but simple idea entered my mind. I needed to implement a process like the one of calibrating and profiling a scanner, printer or camera!
With this perception, I think we could call the combo *K3iiiMono* and *Affinity Photo* a *"Virtual Trichromatic Camera"* that produces trichromatic images. Of course GIMP, Adobe Photoshop and others should also work.
The following image shows my first "real world" trichromatic image.
I love Black & White photographs and so I convert a lot of my photographic color work to Black & White.
In recent years a stronger interest in digtial cameras using monochrome sensors. Not much choice I'd say. Phase One cameras starting at around 60.000,- € and Leica monochromes step-in price around 5.700,- € for the fixed focal length compact Leica 2 monochrom. For Leica M monochrome I'd have to pay body plus one lens around 12.000,- €. Oops.
Suddenly in spring 2023 Pentax announced the Pentax K-3 Mark III Monochrome body at an affordable price. So Pentax is the third of the party! - Best of all, Pentax since tens of years is my brand of choice. So I would be able to use all of my lenses I already own. The base of the Monochrome camera is the Pentax K-3 Mark III, Pentax' Flagship Model of the APS-C line.
When an extremely good price offer came along, I couldn't resist buying this very specialized camera. With this purchase a new journey began ...
When hiking or being in the city I really don't like to heft my heavy Pentax K-1.
Because of it's weight I never hang it around my neck. Instead I always use a Black Rapid Sport Strap. So the camera hangs on my right side. Not always convenient in every situation. I wrote this article on 21.05.2018. After more experience using the Pentax KP I'd like to put in some minor updates and additions.
Since yesterday evening it’s been raining. While rain had a break I thought I could do a stack of a flower with a lot of nice rain drops on the blossom. So I used tripod and macro rail to do the job. Here’s one image of the stack …
Somtimes I hear people say that they produce their images straight out of camera (SOOC). This statement often seems to be accompanied by a proud untertone. As if SOOC would guarantee more realistic, unchanged and truthfull images than post processed ones. Maybe I'm too sensitive at this point. But let me continue as if I'd be right in this observation. I always wonder about such an attitude and therefore like to say some words about it.
At least once a year I am here in this area - sandy high coast at the baltic sea. It doesn’t look that nice and inviting but I like it.
I study the environment. Broken trees skidded down. Wheather beaten. Light with slight yellow tint. I have time. Walkstool with me for relaxed work sitting under the natural studio sky.
Within the german implementation of my Website fotostellwerk.de blog topic filters exist a long time. I now expanded the english representation by this feature and in additon you now can select the Sitemap in the bottom of the website page.
(PentaxForums, 2018-02-14, 09:58) Inspired by my recent flower pictures a few days ago a member asked if I could tell about how I process my pictures of flowers. This article is a copy of what I answered.
(PentaxForums, 2017-11-25, 15:38) Another tree. Photographed in September • K-1 • DA28-105@45 - I didn't realize the slightest movement in the scenery. So made a Pixel Shift Resolution image. When I first inspected the psr dng raw file in RawTherapee I saw this "movement mask".
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