I took a series of shots from the dome of the Frauenkirche in Dresden that were inspired by the classic Yes song Long Distance Runaround from the 70s – and The Arcanum. Here are some things I have to say about this photo concerning what role The Arcanum played and about a new toy I used to convert this image to black & white.

Inspired by The Arcanum

One of the tasks the Apprentices in my Cohort for The Arcanum is to dig into The Arcanum’s Grand Library, a vast collection on tutorials and inspirational videos, and to share videos that they find particularly useful. My Apprentice Edward Norton shared a great video where street photography Doug Kaye, also known from This Week in Photo’s All About The Gear video podcast, discussed the usefulness of setting up a stage to overcome common problems for street photography beginners. Being a street photography novice myself, I felt inspired to try this, so after I had climbed all the stairs up to the dome of the renowned Frauenkirche in Dresden, I found the view down to the great plaza in front of the church to be the perfect stage. So, playing the Yes song Long Distance Runaround in my head, I shot away.

This is a perfect example for what differentiates The Arcanum from other photography related resources: It combines unique and exclusive knowledge with the power and the fun of a vibrant and helpful community. It combines solid knowledge, feedback, inspiration, motivation, and meaningful conversation all in one place – all for less than the cost of one Café Latte per day.

Inspired by the classic Yes song from the 70s I took a series of shots from the dome of the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Click to enlarge.

Trying a new toy: Perfect B&W 9.5

I did the black & white conversion using On1 Perfect B&W which I decided to get to know a little better. Hence the frame which I generally like in for this image, although I still think the black line is a little heavy. Too bad that Perfect B&W doesn’t have slider to control the thickness of this line. Perfect B&W definitely is an interesting program with some unique tools for impactful black & white conversions. Like every app out there it has its strengths and weaknesses. I am not sure yet whether it will be able to take the place of my monochrome conversion app of choice, Silver Efex Pro 2 by Nik Software, but it is interesting enough for me to take a closer look. What interests me most about the app is whether the “Perfect Brush” feature can live up to Silver Efex Pro 2’s Control Point based content aware masking. I will keep you posted on my findings on that matter as well as on Perfect B&W in general.

The image in the making using On1 Perfect B&W 9.5