Assignment #2: Black and White

[matthew]

"Color tends to corrupt photography, and absolute color corrupts absolutely."
- Walker Evans

Photography started with black and white images, so it's a good place for us to start the new year. And despite its historical roots and its being overshadowed by the ease and attractiveness of digital colour photography, producing high-quality monochrome images has never been easier.

For this assignment, look at the world without colour. Look for the shape, line, and form that's revealed when the 'vulgar color' (Evans) is stripped away, and experiment with the effects of artificial toning added to a black and white image. A good monochrome image may be harder to create than a colour one, but ultimately it may also be more satisfying.

[hobbified]

Okay, this is an experiment... and I'm not sure whether or not I'm happy with the result. I went out Saturday and took some photos of one of the most cliched subjects out there, sunset on water. Really, it's all about the colors. But I wanted to see how one would work without the color. So here's one of the more "interesting" ones I got Saturday, adjusted for contrast, and very very gently toned by Bibble's "Tony" plugin.

There's some very fine detail in the foreground, so you may want to click through and view the image big.

[camon crow]

I have not gone many black and white photos but when I took this one of our black and white cats it made me think it is a good subject for black and white. Suggestions comments welcome.

[halfwright]

Here is one of the over-done subjects for black and white. Old trucks and houses seem to lend themselves well to B&W. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

halfwright

[matthew]

hobbified, thanks for posting the experiment. I have to admit that it's not really doing it for me, but others would probably disagree.

camon crow, I can imagine that the cat would get "lost" in a colour shot, so I can see that it's a good choice for black and white. My only suggestion would be to crop it a little differently so that the cat's not quite as central.

halfwright, in this case I'd say that it works. It would be interesting to build on this and create a series... (yes, I promote other assignments every chance I get.)

For this assignment I've set my camera to capture a B&W jpeg along with the raw image. Unfortunately it means I lose the multi-channel histogram, but it also means that the Live View image is monochrome. Life's a barter.

I haven't had a chance to look at the colour photos yet, but I'll also try a B&W conversion in Lightroom and see how they compare. These are straight from the camera, just resized and lightly sharpened for posting. I call them "She Loves Me" and "She Loves Me Not."

[constable]

"Swan Lake"...actually I was driving along a rural road and saw these swans on the ice. Since I'm finally learning to always take my E-510 with me, I was able to take this shot with the 70-300 OLY.

[madmax40]

While I was resting in my sitting room last weekend, I noticed this abstract shadow pattern on the walls and ceiling. Sunlight reflecting off a car windscreen through the blinds produced this result.

[refiningman]

My brother-in-law's farm tool shed...

Attachment 7300

..in sepia

Peter

[Will in Tejas]

Whitetail doe with two fawns. Taken with the Bigma on the E-510.

Attachment 7301

[Jim M]

Spiral Stair Study...

[Bill_Turner]

[Viperman500]

This one was taken at a friends house. I like the contrast in this picture : an ancient method of photography (B&W) vs. new high def technology! Hope you all like it.

[anwmn1]

I love b&w photos of all subjects and routinly make a copy of every photo I take so I can do a conversion to b&w or sepia.

I think b&w photography is 100% dependent on 'the light'- and there is no forgiveness. When doing B&W photography- you either get the shot- or you don't.


A few recent ones:

[Henk Peter]

You do'nt have to go outdoors:

[JohnM]

Here's my effort:
"All tied up"

[Dara]

"Under Shade"
Basically I love B&W photo.
But to impress them out with a good result there is not easy.
This photo I took when I was under the very big tree.
Yes with color there is not nice at all.
I’m not saying that this photo is good but at least looks a bit better with my skill.
> >


Regard to all

Dara

[jforkner]

Here's a few from my collection... Yosemite, the day after a snowfall.

Jack

[snaarman]

I was test driving the 11-22 Zuiko in light rain under a grey sky today when I saw this combination. "That looks like a potential B+W shot" I said to myself..

"Go away" said the swan...

Pete

[nomix]

Wonderful assignment.

Here's mine:


Hope you like it.

[doubleM]

My first try to convert a color photo to b/w and my first photo showing to the public. Hope you like it and the conversion works out.

Attachment 7361

(Processed with Lightroom)

Michael

[pjphoto59]

How about this.

Couple walking towards a giant Banyan Tree.
E500 with 14-54

PP in CS2 using Optikverve plug-in - I never used this before and some tips would be useful.

Peter

[matthew]

Fantastic results -- I love the swan and the landscapes, but it's amazing to see the breadth of subject matter.

Here are a couple more of mine:

crosswalk


high impact advertising


new and old, a similar idea to Viperman's TV:

[Luke]

#1 free



#2 not free



Luc

[gepall]

Some of mine

..

[mostlypixels]

Here is one from today...a few others posted in review section...