Articles on monochrome photography

Cup of Tea in monochrome

 

 

Here are a few links to articles on monochrome photography that explain the concepts much better than I did.

Enjoy.

How to see in black and white

A collection of powerful black and white photo's

Key ingredients for black and white images

Tilley the cat

I came across this note written on a wall a few weeks ago. I though it was amusing.

 

 

 

Black and White Photography, Part 3

 

Its time to wrap up this multipart article. What better way to that than to end it with some monochrome photo's from my last trip to Turkey Run State Park. But first the tea of the day.

 

 

These first two photo's show another example of what did not work well in monochrome. The bule sky behind the birds in the color photo looks very beautiful. But in monochrome it looks very dull.

 

 

 

This set of photo's I like both in monochrome and color, There is enough variance in light, shade and texture to make the monochrome photo look nice. The lose of the bright green from the color does not harm the monochrome photo.

 

 

These next two photo's are equally uninteresting. I was trying to capture the imposing nature of these rock formations. As always when I have tried this I have I failed. I have read somewhere that zoom lens's will "flatten" an image. I have never been sure what this meant. Maybe that is what they were talking about. The depth of the photo has been flattened out making the rocks seem smaller and less imposing than they were in real life. Next time I will try shooting with my 50mm prime lens. That might keep the image from being flattened. Also I recently purchased an adaprer that makes regular len's into Wide Angle lens's. Since it only cost $12.00 I am sure it won't make a big diference but maybe it will help. That adapter and a couple of macro adapters will the subject of a future article.

 

 

 

I will end this article with my two favorite photo's from this trip. I think the monochrome and color photo worked well. The lines of the wooden bridge and the curves of the suspension wires lead the eye down the path. It would have been better if the shadow had not been cast on the wooden part of the bridge and the background foliage is a little too dark. But I still enjoy the photos

 

 

Well what I have learned about monochrome photography is that I need to avoid broad area's of a single color like a blue sky or brown river water. What seems to make a beter monochrome photo is area's of contrasting light levels and textures. These things draw more attention in monochrome photo.

I now have another tool I need to keep in mind during my photograpgy sessions.

Two point five centimeter worm

Not feeling well this weekend so part 3 will have wait a few days. Meanwhile here is a photo I wanted to share.

 

 

Black and White Photography, Part 2 (And as little less talk about about Tea)

(I have had a soar throat for almost a week now, so I have been drinking some Iced Tea made from Ceylon Sonata tea. The ice cold tea helps.)

 

 

In these two photo's of a close up of some deadwood I think the monochrome photo is almost as interesting as the color photo. My original interest in this subject was the redish color in the interior wood and the texture of the bark and interior. The broken and cracked heartwood created multiple levels allowing light and shadow spaces to form.

The interesting color is lost, but the monochrome style highlights the textures.

 

In this next set of photo's the monochrome photo is better than the color photo.In my opinion. The buried tire's color is a sort of a odd bluish black. The plastic water bottle is a uninteresting frosty white, and the sand is an unusual brown color. None of these colors look good together to me.

The monochrome style changed the tire back to black. The water bottle's color and brightness is toned down, the sand's color looks better and it's grainy texture is more prominent.

 

 

This next site was interesting in ways not shown in the photo. As I paused on the trail to decide if there was a shot here to be taken. I noticed a small bird flying around the stump in small circles. There was also another bird sitting on a branch near by. The bird kept circling and circling. I have a few shots with the bird flying in them but it was mostly a blur. It seemed unhappy with either my presents or the other bird presents.

Then a few minutes later two ducks flew past, going up river. They then swam down river towards the stump but changed coarse when they saw me.

On my return trip past this site a large bumble bee was flying around.

I have walked past this site many times and have not noticed any other wildlife. It seemed today that this site was protected. I took only a few pictures and left.

This time I prefer the color photo. Mainly because of the look of the river water. I have noticed that photo's of the river water look very bland in monochrome. And when there is lots of water in the photo, it dulls the whole photo. I do like how the bark looks but it is not enough to save the photo.

The blue reflected sky on the river in the color photo improves this picture greatly.

 

 

I think I will stop here and write a shorter Part Three this weekend. If this topic is getting boring, let me know in the comments, or email me if you know my address.