As you might have guessed from the previous post, I’ve been messing around with an Olympus EPL5 lately, having sold my EPL3 earlier in the year. What I really missed was the ‘Dramatic Tone’ art filter, which is proving useful in dragging some useful images out of an otherwise overcast few days (it’s quite useful when used on video too).
A walk up on the downland on a dull day – the filter really pulls detail out of flat cloud and the pseudo ‘HDR’ effect can produce a subtle infra red effect.
It’s not great for every scene, but when the light is just right – mixed overcast when normal photography produces flat uninteresting images – this can produce some intriguing results. These are all straight JPEGs (plus a Raw file as a backup), toned in DXO filmpack.
Sometimes the results are a real surprise – this looked nothing like this to the naked eye, but through the viewfinder (or LCD) the effects can be judged quite accurately. A real transformation of reality!
Shot a few minutes earlier that the first shot – and completely different.
These are shot using the monochrome filter, the colour version produces results which look too artificial for my taste. You could of course argue that these look artificial – however years ago I used to work for hours in a wet darkroom to produce similar effects and it never occurred to me that I was doing any ‘unethical’ post processing. Maybe our negative attitude to computer/camera based post-processing is that the results weren’t produced by traditional darkroom skills? Whatever the reason, the results are good enough for me not to worry about it any more!
In some circumstances the images just look like a lightly dodged/burned print :-
This result was more predictable – the cloud forms were visible to the naked eye and all it needed was something interesting in silhouette.
And on other occasions the dodge/burn effect is less than subtle…
This one is possibly looks too over-processed!
So, whatever your attitude to post-processing images – thanks for looking and hope you like them.
28mmf2 
Great images. Very well done.
Post processing has always existed. What matters is that you have educated your eye to the point that you use it wisely. Post only bothers me when everyone uses the same plug-ins and software with the same defaults so that everything looks the same and then proclaims individual brilliance. It is still about the eye and that comes partly from the passion to understand and pursue the final image.
Thanks KCEames- it’s really good to hear that!
Impressive series of images.
Thanks Simon – appreciated!
Interesting. I really enjoyed your lensbaby shots. Thanks for the visit and the like of my post “Take Cover”.
Thanks Iamcc – ‘Take Cover’ was pretty good!
I like them very much!
I really like these! The effect really seems to suit landscapes 🙂
Thanks for the comment Helen,
Oddly when you might shoot landscapes on a fine day the effect isn’t that good. On a cloudy overcast day it really shines!