The Theme For March 2011

Creativity or Drama

In Black and White

Being Dramatic or Creative Means:

1.Choosing to create a dramatic or creative image in the first place. You make the image, what do you intend to say with your image? Then … imagine what “it” might look like .

2. Deliberately choosing how you want to expose the subject. Use some of those program buttons or artistic filters on your “point and shoot” or experiment with a variety of different ISO, F-stop & Shutter Speed combinations.

The Infinite by Marc Adamus

3.Changing your perspective – what if you made things fuzzy instead of pin sharp? Etc.

5. Adding movement through panning, or playing with shutter speed, or choosing a situation that already has action or drama in it (spend an hour on a street corner and pan with … and even against … the traffic)

5.Don’t worry about what your image doesn’t look like, look at what you have and figure out what that photo does do … learn from that, write it down and then move on to try something else.

1.Look at lots of B&W photos - this is a great way to change the perspective/ impact/ mood of an image. Right now, there’s a really interesting B&W photo display at the Fort Langley Museum (and video about the artist’s life)

5 Tips For Shooting Better Black and White Images

From: Darren Rose at www.digital-photography-school.com/5-black-

and-white-photography-tips)

Photo by Shirley Cross

2. In-camera - should you shoot in Black and White (or in color)?

• If you shoot jpegs then shoot in color and

convert it to black and white later.

• If you shoot RAW then you have a choice. Using your camera to shoot B&W will let you see what you have shot in B&W. Is it coming out the way you intended? But the RAW file is always a color file. It will likely show up on your computer as a color image and you will have to convert it anyway.

And … from the Feb 17th meeting:

If you choose the B&W feature on a DSLR, some cameras (Nikon) will create 2 files for each picture you take … a black and white jpg … and a RAW file too. You’ll need to make sure they both get downloaded so you can see them both and decide which one is working best for you.

Joy’s Advice: shoot Raw and convert later!

3. Shoot with the lowest ISO possible - Black and white images often have more noise/grain in them because of contrast, it’s easier to take noise out later than to add it back in.

4. When To Shoot - Many digital photographers actually prefer to shoot images for Black and White in low contrast situations. So a dark or overcast day can be a great time to shoot outdoor shots.

5. Composition - the main obvious difference for B&W photography is that you’re unable to use color to lead the eye into or around your shot. This means you need to train yourself to look at shapes, tones and textures in your frame as points of interest.

Pay particularly attention to shadows and highlights which will become a feature of your shot.

Read more on Black and White Photography: Key Ingredients for Black and White Photography.Darren Rowse is the editor and founder of Digital Photography School. He lives in Melbourne Australia and is also the editor of the ProBlogger Blog Tips and TwiTip Twitter Tips blogs.

1. Look for Contrast

Because you can’t use color to distinguish one element of your image from another the tonal variances become all the more important.

This doesn’t mean you need to look for stark contrasts in every shot you want to convert to black and white – the subject matter will come into play here – but you should ponder how the contrast will come into play when composing your shot. Photo by Bob Evans

2. Wait for the Right Light

For example backlit or direct lighting will often add to contrast. Side lighting will reveal any texture that a subject might have (and in portraits will accentuate features) and light from any one direction will create shadows.

Photo by Nathan Kern

3. Shapes and Patterns

Patterns or shapes that can sometimes almost go unseen in color (due to the color itself drawing attention) can come alive in a black and white shot. Black and White shots that rely upon pattern can often take on an abstract quality.

Photo by Bob Snell

4. Capture Texture

Revealing the texture of a subject can add a new dimension to an image. The sidelight does this by creating shadows.

Photo by Rob Gardiner

A Tip For Better B&W Landscapes

When shooting black and white landscapes look for ‘active skies’.

Having skies with so much ‘action’ in them adds mood and a really dynamic look and feel to images. Without this active element the images looked rather empty and dull.

I think the same principle could be applied to most types of black and white images that have large parts of them dominated by any one thing. If a large part of your image is all the same tone the image can look quite lifeless (unless of course you’re going for a more minimalist look.

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/key-ingredients-for-black-and-white-images#ixzz1E4CgswDZ