In these images I started by exploring the dynamics of ‘grungy’ Black and White and what can be achieved in Silver FX. In Assignment 5 I then take these for animation in After Effects.
Crowden
This first set of images was a set of experiments to see what could be done in SilverFX to rescue very low resolution jpg images from 2011. I actually find these quite atmospheric, and the images submitted to Shutterstock so far were accepted.
The path
Annotated Slideshow
Lightroom Landscape BW1b with readjusted colour balance on sky to bring back gloom and reduced clarity and contrast in bottom right corner to lead the eye in to lightened sharpened gate at the end of the path. 
Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversions 
Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversion. Spred blacks. Gradtauted filters to slightly darklen and increase contrast on bottom left and top of the image. Clarity adjustment filter on the rock to draw eye up the river. Add grain to mask remaining jpg artefacts. 
Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversion. Spred blacks. Gradtauted filters to slightly darklen and increase contrast on bottom left and top of the image. Clarity adjustment filter on the rock to draw eye up the river. Add grain to mask remaining jpg artefacts. 
Lightroom add grain in foreground. Edit in SFX wet rocks filter. Sharpens and increases contrast for more impact. The texture of the grain is similar to the texture of the heather on the hills. 
Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversion. Uses Dfine to remove some of the jpgartefacts, then SilverFX high structureBW with lighten and sharpen points on the horizon line to accentuate man and gate, and reduce structure and darken in forground to bring the eye in. Removing contrast in sky. No vignette. This retains the dull emptiness. But blurry artefacts still there. 
Colour image processed in Dfine to removes artefacts. Black and White classic conversion in Analogue FX pro gives a vintage feel and artefacting a bit more acceptable. Just dull emptiness.
Landscape textures
Annotated slideshow
Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversions 
Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversions 
The interest here is in the contrasting textures of the rocks and the grasses and lichens. No real focul point, but allow the eye to explore. Edited in Suilver FX Pro with control points dotted over the image to increase or decrease contrast, structure and brightness to increase the variation and interest. Jpg artefacts are not really a problem because of the short focal length and amount of detail. 
Remove some of the artefacts with Photoshop noise reduction – works better for this image than Dfine. But image quality remains a problem. 
The interest here is in the moevement of the water, and ther flow over the rocks. Edit in Silver FX high contrast High structure and control points on water and rocks to increase contrast and structure and lithen. Then control points on bottom corener to darken and reduce structure so the eye is not diectracted.
Water, rocks and flowers
Annotated slideshow
Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversions Lightroom Landscape Black and White Conversions The interest here is in the contrasting textures of the rocks and the grasses and lichens. No real focul point, but allow the eye to explore. Edited in Suilver FX Pro with control points dotted over the image to increase or decrease contrast, structure and brightness to increase the variation and interest. Jpg artefacts are not really a problem because of the short focal length and amount of detail. Remove some of the artefacts with Photoshop noise reduction – works better for this image than Dfine. But image quality remains a problem. The interest here is in the moevement of the water, and ther flow over the rocks. Edit in Silver FX high contrast High structure and control points on water and rocks to increase contrast and structure and lithen. Then control points on bottom corener to darken and reduce structure so the eye is not diectracted.
