Practicing in Black and White
One of the goals I’ve set myself is to practice conversions to Black and White on a regular basis; hopefully every month, but right now around every two. I just finished the latest batch of ten:
The goal of this round was to take images with strong color, or with color being the contrasting item that separates the subject from the background, and to try to create images that still work once that color is removed.
If you’re not sure what I mean by this, consider this example:
When you look at the color image on the left, you can see that the blue color of the water contrasts significantly from the brown Ruddy Duck. Take away the color, and how do you keep the duck from disappearing into the background? In this case, I think it’s an okay job, where I tried to focus on darkening the water and then building in light highlights on the duck. If you look at the top of the head and the rounded back, you can see distinct borders, which is nice. Overall, I think this is a decent conversion, but there’s nothing about the Black and White that suggests it’s the better image. It’s a good practice image, though.
Overall, I think these images are good, competent conversions. I think the sunset image with the dramatic sky (row 2 left) has potential with more work. The eagle pair (row 1 left) might warrant some more experimenting. The American Pipit (row 3 right) is my least favorite, and the other pure landscape is a perfectly acceptable and forgettable conversion. Everything else is a good, solid practice image, none of which make me think they warrant further attention.
But the practice is useful, and working in black and which makes you think in terms of composition and structure rather than using color as a crutch, and integrating that use of composition and structure back into your color work is a way to improve the color work as well.
I’m a firm believer in having ongoing projects designed to improve my photography that aren’t just “let’s go out and click the shutter” days. What kind of ongoing projects are you all working on where the goal is to improve your skills?
