DPP Part 3 - Black and White - Exercise 1 Black and White

DPP Part 3 - Black and White - Exercise 1 Black and White

The purpose of this exercise is to choose a subject, lighting condition or picture situation that you think may look better in black and white.

While out on a trip taking images of the wonderful bluebells in the woods I came across this tree, I believe this to be a pine tree of some type. Its very tall and its foliage made for dark conditions in contrast to the sunny day.

What struck me about this tree was the texture of its trunk and these spear like branches growing out of the tree at a complete tangent to the trunk.

The texture and tonal contrast I noted with my eyes suggested that this would be an interesting image to convert to black and white.

Lighting conditions have meant I had to increase the ISO to 500 to correctly expose the scene and using an ultra wide angle lens getting right in close to the tree trunk point upwards I've attempted to create some depth in this image.

This is the colour version:

I've processed the RAW file looking at clipped highlights and exposure and made a small curves adjustment.

I've converted this image to black and white within Silver Efex Pro 2 using the high structure preset to help bring out further the the tree bark's texture and made a small adjustment to brightness to lighten the overall image. I've deliberately kept the adjustments simple.

This is the processed image:

I'm pleased with the conversion and the image in black and white does have great tonal range and texture and the sunlight has lit different elements within the frame adding to the tonal range.

I think the black and white image looks better, what do you think?

Exercise Learning's

a) Unlike creating colour images where colour contrasts, as explained in TAOP, identifying images for conversion to black and white are about judging a scene looking for texture and tonal range. 

b) With colour removed other elements are required to create interest to the viewer.The spear branches geometrically are at a tangent to the trunk which with the camera in close depth to the image is created leading the viewer through the image.

c) Colour filters can help pull out certain tones within an image and darken or lighten them subject to the vision of the photographer

d) Looking at Michael Kenna's images his black and white images have a simplicity to them and can be very effective as a result (see my earlier blog about Kenna's work). Busy images like mine above can instead give the viewers eyes much to travel over and explore the textures and tones in the frame