PaD Discussion

Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:41 pm

Day 16 - Mono....... well you know

Airstream

Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:44 pm

birsay wrote:
sheils wrote:For my Day 15 an easy one.
Monochrome is growing on me, I wish there was a bit more discussion about how to do it, what to look for before the image is taken etc.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/121104085

Hi Sheila,

Difficult question to answer, and I'm sure everyone will have their opinions, but I'll pitch in with my thoughts, not based on anything more technical or academic than my own taste and perceptions, likes and dislikes, so others may disagree

Since there is no colour (obviously!) in a B&W image, our eyes are dependent on the greyscale representation of each colour channel, and this in turn means that what might seem an ordinary or run-of-the-mill seen in colour can be a dramatic, sinister, contrasty scene when converted to B&W. Conversely, a dramatic, vivid colour scene, one with a real 'Wow!' factor, may not make a good B&W image at all. Sometimes you just have to experiment back at the computer. For me, when I think in B&W I'm looking for strong lighting, maybe from an oblique or side angle and almost certainly never straight on or from above - the latter just kills all the lovely contrasts I'm trying to exploit. I'm also looking for a comprehensive tonal range of white to black tones across an image or scene; B&W shots look best when there is a wide contrast between shadows and highlights, and when there's a lot of detail which can be really worked up in post.

As for subjects, obviously portraits make excellent B&W shots, and minimal or abstract compositions, by their nature, can look more effective in B&W than colour. Landscapes can be more difficult but again, it's the lighting that you've got to look for. It can seem ironic and indeed somewhat sacrilegious to take all of the colour out of a beautiful summer composition and render it in shades of grey, especially since we all get so fed up of the long cold grey winter months, but the results can be wonderful. I've have a number of B&W shots here on PBase; you've welcome to have a look at the following galleries for ideas:

http://www.pbase.com/birsay/black_white1
http://www.pbase.com/birsay/black_white2
http://www.pbase.com/birsay/black_white3

Others may differ of course, but this is my MO. Hope this helps, but from what I've seen of your B&W work so far this month, I don't think you need lessons from anyone!

Doug

agree with Doug, who explains it so well.
I'm not very strong in explaining and theory just what I do:
For me the basic rule is to find somewhere in the picture straight forward black and straight forward white ( this can be very small just a dot or a eye glint) and have a whole scale of grey tones. This is the target, I use, not always succeeding and paying attention to the light, if it is too harsh, it will burn out here and there... High key is another aproach ....

just my 2 cents

cheers
Barbara

Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:46 pm

Late today...been busy

I will catch up with commenting tonight and tomorrow.

http://www.pbase.com/image/121134331

Ann

Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:16 pm

river flow
Corrected, I forgot to remove the mask line after applying filters ... oops

Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:33 pm

for my seventeenth image, "The Tearoom":

http://www.pbase.com/image/121135142

Have a wonderful day and a great weekend wherever you are.

Sat Jan 16, 2010 11:02 pm

LOL

I was busy with work almost non stop for two last days and now I have 10 pages to go through to see the other people's images and comment + post my shots which were not taken in the last two days, but a week ago specifically for challenge :-)

I think we put too much stress this time on commenting. First email discussing challenge rules were mostly about adhering the challenge rules for posting, but for some reason the commenting thing become more important later. IIRC, several years ago when we did challenges, no one was obliged to comment. People did that because they wanted support each others effort, not because it was "must". I do not like the idea of commenting to be the way it's on flickr "Post one comment on five". I think major thing is to have fun with challenge and push creativity. Post into the theme, one image per day (not three or four, unless you missed those days). Commenting.... Each of us see may be hundred or so images per day, some more some less. Comment on what do you like and that's it. If you do not like and don't have constrictive critique, then don't comment. No pressure.

My CAD 0.02. :-)