Black and White Photography

From - http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/


Black and white photography is nice right, but color is so much better! Well, hmmm.

These days we all shoot color. There's no "film" in the digital world anymore, and they don't make "black and white cameras" - so that's just how it is. Color.

But really, black and white can be even stronger than color. In a way it is like the power of still over motion pictures. Movies convey more info, but a still image is less and therefore more refined, the data is more concentrated on the message or specific moment, or mood captured.

I am new to thinking in black and white. I did shoot black and white film in school and did the development myself, but that was forever ago.

A handful of times I've found B&W images or digital conversions to be the way to go. Often it is for Gorillas or Giant Pandas at the zoo.










A week ago I was listening to a podcast or something and I decided to make a change to my camera, to how I shoot and maybe how I see.

On my D300s I enabled monochromatic mode, while set to RAW+JPG. This has a couple of nice benefits. Shooting RAW still allows for everything I've been used to - full color images, RAW processing, etc. But it also makes the back of the camera images all visible in black and white. And it saves a copy of the black and white iamge as a JPG.

I think I'm going to leave it like this for a while. Maybe even try to turn it in to a project. The going vertical project from a number of months ago was fun and helped kick me in a different direction, and helped me to think and see just a little differently. I shoot both ways, but restricted my posting for about 50 shots in a row to vertical only.

The effects of trying to see and shoot in black and white might be even more beneficial. Good color can make an ok image better, but if it were better to begin with the color might set it over the top. Black and white. I'm hoping it raises my composition skills, and gives me a better eye.

We'll see. Stay tuned.

-Jon

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

Nikographer.com / Jon

Black and White Photography