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Learning to think in Black and White
On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:30:39 -0700, eNo wrote:
"The question of what makes a good Black and White (B&W) photograph has puzzled me more than any other photography-related issue. Frankly, for some time I operated under the principle that I never saw a B&W image that didn’t look better in color. Then came a trip to Paris this last spring. Following someone’s observation that “Paris was made for B&W photography,” I gave B&W a try, even setting my camera to capture B&W RAW files. I was amazed..." You can read the rest of the write-up at: http://esfotoclix.com/blog1/?p=464 [snip] If you really want to learn to "see" in b&w, take a year off from digital for a total immersion course: shoot nothing but b&w film, develop it yourself, and print with an enlarger on real photographic paper. Shoot lots of different b&w films, do lots of development tests with many different film developers, learn how to use Contrast Filters, and use lots of different photo papers while searching for your "style." And read at least one good book on The Zone System. The entire process will help you immensely with your digital b&w work, and you'll be a much better photographer, too. -- Fotoguy BestInClass.com "Personalized digital camera recommendations" http://www.bestinclass.com/digital-cameras |
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Learning to think in Black and White
On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:14:20 GMT, Fotoguy wrote:
On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:30:39 -0700, eNo wrote: "The question of what makes a good Black and White (B&W) photograph has puzzled me more than any other photography-related issue. Frankly, for some time I operated under the principle that I never saw a B&W image that didnt look better in color. Then came a trip to Paris this last spring. Following someones observation that Paris was made for B&W photography, I gave B&W a try, even setting my camera to capture B&W RAW files. I was amazed..." You can read the rest of the write-up at: http://esfotoclix.com/blog1/?p=464 [snip] If you really want to learn to "see" in b&w, take a year off from digital for a total immersion course: shoot nothing but b&w film, develop it yourself, and print with an enlarger on real photographic paper. Shoot lots of different b&w films, do lots of development tests with many different film developers, learn how to use Contrast Filters, and use lots of different photo papers while searching for your "style." And read at least one good book on The Zone System. The entire process will help you immensely with your digital b&w work, and you'll be a much better photographer, too. Or ... get any P&S camera with an EVF and a built-in B&W mode. Then you directly see and compose in B&W whenever you want at the toggle of a menu option. There's really no substitute for being able to actually see your scene in B&W as you compose it. The wonders and benefits of digital cameras with electronic viewfinders. The better ones do not just desaturate the image data but apply the same luminance values to the color channels as the eye sees them. I tested this in the Canon Powershot cameras. Their B&W mode balances the channels with (approximately) 27% R, 62% G, and 11% B. Really close to the suggested standard of 30% R, 59% G, and 11% B. Shoot in B&W for the JPG and save the RAW for later processing to apply any B&W color-filters that you want by using your Channel Mixer tool in your favorite editor. The one in Photoline is nice because it has a "Fix to 100%" option, as you change one channel it balances the two others to keep luminance levels across all three at 100%. You can also alter them individually from -200% to +200%. Using the 100% ranges allows for some unique faux IR effects when applied to green foliage. It also has a contrast adjustment going from -200% to +200%. More fun is had by doing faux IR effects in full color by applying changes to individual color channels and not just luminance. |
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Learning to think in Black and White
Or ... get any P&S camera with an EVF and a built-in B&W mode. Then you directly see and compose in B&W whenever you want at the toggle of a menu option. There's really no substitute for being able to actually see your scene in B&W as you compose it. The wonders and benefits of digital cameras with electronic viewfinders. The better ones do not just desaturate the snip Or: using a digicam shoot in colour but convert to B&W in PS (or whatever). And compare the colour pic with the B&W ones so you can directly see how the colours look in B&W. And mimic filter affects in PS so you can compare directly how filters affect the image. PDM |
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Learning to think in Black and White
Fotoguy wrote:
If you really want to learn to "see" in b&w, take a year off from digital for a total immersion course: shoot nothing but b&w film, develop it yourself, and print with an enlarger on real photographic paper. Shoot lots of different b&w films, do lots of development tests with many different film developers, learn how to use Contrast Filters, and use lots of different photo papers while searching for your "style." And read at least one good book on The Zone System. The entire process will help you immensely with your digital b&w work, and you'll be a much better photographer, too. Why does this require the use of film? All of what you suggest can be done digitally, and to similar effect. BugBear |
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Learning to think in Black and White
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Learning to think in Black and White
Fotoguy wrote:
If you really want to learn to "see" in b&w, take a year off from digital for a total immersion course: shoot nothing but b&w film, develop it yourself, and print with an enlarger on real photographic paper. Shoot lots of different b&w films, do lots of development tests with many different film developers, learn how to use Contrast Filters, and use lots of different photo papers while searching for your "style." And read at least one good book on The Zone System. The entire process will help you immensely with your digital b&w work, and you'll be a much better photographer, too. Sentimental claptrap. That's all I did for decades, and it bears no relation to the stuff I do now with digital. It's like saying you need to know how to break in a horse in order to ride a motorcycle. -- Jeff R. |
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