Oregon’s rugged upper Salmon River valley, an amazing place to photograph in cold wintry weather. 70 mm., 1/6 sec. @ f/16, ISO 100; tripod; converted to B&W in Nik Silver Effex 2.
This continues the mini-series on black and white (B&W) photography. Check out Part I for tips on what types of images lend themselves to B&W. I really like trying monochrome processing with any shot, because you never know until you see the image. A few things to keep in mind while shooting B&W:
- See in B&W: This can be tough to do, since we see all day everyday in color. One thing to try is setting up your camera to display in black and white while shooting. If you’re shooting in RAW (which you should be), the image is still recorded in color. It just displays in B&W on the LCD. Also try going out and shooting only B&W, as an exercise. Shoot Jpegs and deliberately limit yourself to B&W. I don’t recommend doing this regularly though; give yourself options by shooting RAW.
Sunset on the Olympic Coast, Washington. 50 mm., 1/80 sec. @ f/10, ISO 200; hand-held.
B&W conversion in Silver Effex 2.
- Look for Texture: As mentioned in the last post, textures are just made for B&W. That’s because color often distracts us from the underlying texture of a scene. Remove it and voila! Interesting textural patterns are revealed. Many people have too limited a view of texture. They think of peeling paint, tree bark, or a patterned rock wall. That is texture at one scale. In reality texture comes in all sizes, from the very fine to much larger patterns. Try to get used to looking for texture in all its forms.
Ancient sand dunes near Page, Arizona. 32 mm., 1/60 sec. @ f/16, ISO 200; hand-held w/polarizer.
Bringing out the texture: converted & processed in Silver Effex.
- Don’t Forget the Basics: The same principles of composition that make color images work apply to B&Ws as well. Limit the “junk” in your comps., and seek balanced scenes that are interesting and pleasing to the eye.
The foot bridge at Ramona Falls, Oregon. 50 mm., 4 sec. @ f/13, ISO 50; tripod; processed in Lightroom.
- Go for Monochrome Scenes: These are situations where the light and your subject are already monochrome, either nearly or completely so. Often it’s when the light is quite low, since light begets color. When things are already nearly monochrome, it’s quite easy to see and shoot monochrome images (funny how that works!).
Zooming in on Faery Falls in Oregon’s Columbia Gorge, the image became nearly monochrome. 50 mm., 0.4 sec. @ f/11, ISO 50; tripod; Processed in Silver Effex.
This wider composition of Faery Falls is a panorama of 6 shots combined & includes the surrounding green lushness.
- Get in the Mood: Finally, try to feel the mood of a scene and shoot it accordingly. Foggy and mysterious is the obvious one, but there are many other moods, including bright, contrasty and optimistic. Try to mentally impose different post-processing looks, such as toned to sepia, high-key, low-key, and so on. For example, with a monochrome scene that is already a bit dim, I’ll try to imagine what it might look like even darker and toned with a subtle sepia or cyan.
Okay that’s it for today. Stay tuned for more on black and white. Have a great weekend and get out there!
Beacon Rock on the Columbia River, a landmark that Lewis & Clark mentioned in their journals in 1803. 106 mm., 1/200 sec. @ f/10, ISO 200; hand-held; processed in Nik Color Effex, then given antique sepia tone in Lightroom.
Rich is right. It’s fascinating how different the images are in color and b&w.
And your b&w photos are very fine 🙂
Thanks so much Truels
Nice set of images. It is really fascinating how the mood of a photograph can completely change with it is converted to black and white. I look at the two versions of the Olympic beach and see two completely different photographs even though they were made from the same RAW images.
Thanks Rich, yes that one in particular is striking in its contrast. Some are almost monochrome before you touch them and some take on a totally different character, as you say.