Fall Black and Whites

[bart 0]

Let's see your fall black and whites!

 

Here's a couple from this weekend (it snowed :-)

 

 

 

I got the DOF all wrong on this one, but I liked the color:

 

[Graham 0]

Spectacular scenery. I think the dof on the bottom shot is excellent, focus is sharp from front to back, and the road leads the eyes in, and up, actually I think it has great depth of field, looks very three dimensional to me. Truly spectacular!

 

Cheers,

Graham

[KVRNut 0]

That last shot is a beaut! You could do a large size print of that one for your wall and not crop a thing!

[chrisfish 0]

Do they make a digital black and white? can photo shop do that?

[chrisfish 0]

i used to love using blk and white film

[KVRNut 0]

chrisfish,

 

Here's an article you can download that may be of interest to you. Hopefully it will answer your questions.

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/content...ital_blkwht.pdf.

 

Have picked up a couple rolls of B&W film to experiment with and see what I can learn with lens filters.

 

Ernie

[bart 0]

Chrisfish,

 

All my photographs are digital, taken with a Canon Rebel EOS and the stock 18-55mm lense that came with it. I've been playing around with black and white's thanks to Peterjay (he's a real artist). I don't use photoshop to convert images, I use The Gimp. It's free, and for my purposes, everybit as good at photoshop. Here's a tutorial using The Gimp if you don't have photoshop: http://gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Color/.

 

Let's see some of your pictures!

 

bart

[majestyja 0]

great picture of the mountians

[chrisfish 0]

hey, thanks guys. I'll mess with some photos today and see what i can come up with. I dont think i can get the Gimp, but i should be able to approach it as in the outdoor article

[Peterjay 0]

Thanks for the compliment Bart - my friends would agree that I'm an artist, but they'd tack on BS as a prefix LOL - the albie fishing in RI really stunk this week, but the fall cormorant migration was well under way - huge flocks everywhere you looked - I snuck up on this guy while I was waiting for a fish to show. (none did) Maybe next time I'll go looking for cormorants and a few fish will show up instead.

 

[Peterjay 0]

Here's where the bird hangs out - Quonochontaug Breachway - tourists' attempts to pronounce Quonochontaug are a great source of amusement among the locals.

 

[bart 0]

OK Peterjay, what's the deal... do you see in black and white? I've taken at least 2 dozen color photos of mine that I like and turned into black and white's and am not all that pleased with them. I'm basically totally confused at this point. Nice color contrast in color clearly does not mean good contrast in black and white. And I'm too much of a rookie to jump into the Adams zone zortex, I need something real. I'd like to find something outdoors that I really enjoy photographing that will come out nice in B&W. What can I start looking for? If all else fails, I'll just keep taking pictures until I like them. I guess that's the way I learned to fly fish... but it took years.

[Peterjay 0]

Bart, I suspect you might have been kidding, but you hit the nail right on the head - you absolutely have to see in B&W in order to make it work - about the only thing color and B&W photography have in common is that they both rely on light capture to create an image. They're as different as oil painting and lithography. Previsualization isn't as important when shooting color, since you're going to get pretty much what you see, but it's vital when shooting B&W. Just think of them as two different media and try to determine which way you want to go before you shoot. It takes time to learn, but with digital capture and today's editing programs, you have the means to experiment without spending a lot of money and countless hours in the darkroom. (You also can do without the zone system, although it pays to understand the basics of it) Also, studying the work of masters like Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, (check out his dunes pics) Andre Kertesz, et al can give you an idea of what to aim for as far as the technical end of it goes. Those guys all had one thing in common, despite their different styles - they all looked for good light, regardless of subject matter. And don't get discouraged, because it isn't easy. Hope this helps. BTW, I liked your mountain shot a lot. PJ

 

 

[Peterjay 0]

Signs of Halloween are everywhere you look right now - here's a neighbor of mine getting ready for the big night.

 

[Graham 0]

What a cool shot! Sure has a mysterious and dark haloween feel to it. I love the composition with the curved black shadow, pair of dark drainage pipes, and piercing eyes, a very artisitic and captivating photo.