[matthew]

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

Two years ago, I thought that going back to the roots of photography would be a good way to start the year. The original black and white assignment has proven to be an enduring one, so it's natural that it's the first one to be revisited.

One of the biggest changes in photography over the past two years has been the introduction of tools like Aperture, Lightroom, and ACR4. These include new ways of converting images to monochrome as well as the ability to add split-tone effects and tinting. For those who prefer not to use raw capture, many new cameras include the ability to create black and white jpegs, and may even be able to simulate the traditional coloured contrast filters. 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.

[Rabid Penguin]

A building at the Queensland Rail workshops in Ipswich.




Q1, Gold Coast.

[Irma]

Time ago, I saw some night photographs in bw. I liked them a lot and I thought one day I would do it too. I got some pictures yesterday and I converted in bw in lightroom. I am very pleased with the result.

[matthew]

RP, I really like the toning in #1. The sky looks molten, but even without that added drama, the building is strong enough to stand on its own. (I would hope! ) I just don't know why people insist on stringing wires in inconvenient places.

Irma, you make night photography and black and white go together beautifully. I never would have thought to try it. I find the second image particularly nice.

For this assignment I've set my camera to capture a B&W jpeg along with the raw image, which is a good thing since I'm currently having an argument with my desktop computer, and can't use Lightroom. These are straight from the camera, just resized and lightly sharpened for posting in Elements 3. On my little 13" MacBook. It's quite a shock after using my 24" iMac with Lightroom and CS3... I can't believe I used to live like this. (I've become such a wimp.)

I haven't looked at the colour photos yet, but I'll also try a B&W conversion in Lightroom and see how they compare.
I call them "She Loves Me" and "She Loves Me Not."

[matthew]

Some subtle differences with the fully processed and colour-to-monochrome conversions:





...but I have to confess that I like them both better in colour.

[Irma]

I love the title of your series Matt...
Very sweet.

I can see some differences in your pictures, specially if you took the second one with the same light conditions.
I see the darks too dark in the first ones. I like very very much the light in the first picture in the second series.

Following your topic Flowers I'll post these two I got recently. Worked this series with my "winter mood bw treatment" in LR....

studio light.


daylight.

[Wedding Shooter]

Wonderful work here everyone - I particularly like the night series Irma.

[matthew]

Irma, I really like the two flowers, especially the processing on the second one. I like seeing photos of imperfect flowers.

The lighting did change between the two sets of images that I posted earlier. I picked my favourites from the straight-from-camera and then picked different favourites for the Lightroom conversion. I'll admit that it never even occurred to me that I'd choose different ones.

Here's a LR conversion of the first droopy-leaf photo. To avoid complete duplication, I added a toning effect to this one.

[smarti77]

Beautiful images by everyone. I wanted to add my favourite mono. My sons hand in mine.

[matthew]

Smati, that's a fantastic photo. I can't tell for sure because of my laptop screen, but have you added a slight tint to it? It has a nice copper tone.

Inspired by Guerito, I took my lensbaby for a walk last night. At iso3200, at least the noise is sharp.

crosswalk:


high-impact:

[wulinka]

smarti, that looks like the national geographic shot of the year! awsome!

matthew, I like the movement in those pictures, isn't it cool how some of the lights in the second one took the shape of arrows?
they feel very movie-like.

uli

[smarti77]

Thanks Matthew and Uli.
Matthew - The final image does have just a touch of sepia. I've found this subtle change can add interest to a black and white.

[Keith Alan]

This idea has been rattling around in my head all day, and I just spent the last hour setting it up, shooting and processing it.

[Irma]

Thanks so much for your comments in my night pictures in this post. I am very happy with the treatment, and I look forward to more night photography opportunities...

The other day that we went to the sea I tried again a long exposure picture. I love the technique so I looked for a place in the beach where I could simulate a landscape (kind of cliff ) and some rocks in the foreground... The effect in the water is not so smooth, but I like the texture. and it has some composition... All in all I thought it was worth to work with it.

I post this picture here, because my first idea was to make a colorful picture. I tried many different treatments but I didn't like any. There were too many colors so I tried a bw treatment and it was even more difficult, but at the end I think it was the best treatment I got from all. In my bw treatment I tried different techniques, but at the end the one I like the most was my always trusty desaturation and selective color underneath treatment.

[aine-caitlin]

These are all great shots, each so unique. My favorites:

Rabid’s Queensland Rail workshops – love the texture and angles and that awesome sky.
Matthew’s “droopy leaf” (LR conversion) – I like the simplicity of the composition.
Smarti’s hands – outstanding.

The weather here was so nice Sunday and I was able to get out for the first time in awhile to do some shooting. Here are a couple of my shots for this theme. These are from the William B. Clark Conservation Area in Rossville, Tennessee.

[matthew]

I recognize the path from your earlier posts; I enjoy the angles and -- this is rare for me -- don't want to straighten it. I was enjoying the monochrome conversion before scrolling down.

The second photo is just fantastic. The combination of trees, reflections, and the lines is just amazing. The movement and alignments of the trees at the right third/quarter is worth a great big photo all on their own. Really nice.

[aine-caitlin]

Thank you Matthew. Actually, this is not the same path as in the picture I posted before, but one of several very similar such boardwalks around my area. There was a very mystical feeling to the woods that day, and I wanted to try to capture that. I’m also glad you feel the first one doesn’t need straightening, because I was very conscious of that when taking the shot.

[Zig]

Stunners aplenty; I'm blown away by some of the processing touches throughout; aine-caitlin, I love your eye and reckon(my opinion only) that if you restricted yourself to mono for a while, your whole gift would really increase: some lovely line and texture, really nice indeed.

[Irma]

Aine you posted very beautiful pictures. I personally like a lot #2. The light and shadow in the water is amazing.

Reading one of the many articles about bw conversion, one was saying that to get a nice conversion with right mid tones the best is to get the true colors and get rid of color cast in your picture. I think I had posted this picture already in color, and I liked it. So I did my treatment and I think my contrast worked well here.

[Rabid Penguin]

Awesome. It looks IR.

[NT73]

Smarti's hands, Aine's trees in the water, and Irma's farm and tree in blossom, are the ones that stand out for me, but it is not a competition is it? They all have something going for them.

[Irma]

Thanks RP NT...

Well, still practicing and working on my craft.

Here is a picture I took in Michoacan in my last trip to Mexico. I took it from the car, unfortunately, no time to stop and make any other composition, or try again.

[Irma]

A detail in the beach I found yesterday. I liked the shadows from the poles.

[aine-caitlin]

I like this shot of the beach a lot Irma.

[Rabid Penguin]

I did a black & white conversion of this photo:



cf sepia: