The Challenge
Black and white photography. What a thing. This project honestly didn't really give me much insight into what this field of photography is all about, but it is a start. The thing about black and white pictures is that there's no colour. I may sound foolish making that observation, but when you have a collection pixels on a screen, compiled to create something we mentally register to be a form of art, it needs to be interesting, and without color that field of creativity definitely shifts. Pictures start to become something more than colours on a screen.Without different hues, something else in the picture is forced to be present. This is composition. This is content. This is symbolizing something through your photo. Black and white photography causes us to stop and consider all those other elements of the picture that are not colour. In this way, circumstantially, monochrome images can speak louder than polychrome images; interesting isn't it?
The biggest challenge I faced in this module was the need for something more than nice colours. I started thinking about the other aspects of the image, such as lighting and composition. I've done a lot of nature photography because it's the most passive photography, and yes, I do have pictures of branches and plants that aligned so beautifully. But most of my pictures were based off of color; the rich saturation of natural earth. All of a sudden I was lacking this main aspect of my photography, causing a forced change from passive to active photography. I needed to put something in front of my lens instead of going to the content. This improved everything about the images.
As a photographer I must consider each detail of an scene before I capture it. The more the scene is created by me, the more intention there is to the image. This causes the quality of my images to rocket. More than a challenge, it was a stepping stone to becoming a better photographer, because imagine what could happen when I combine this thought out method of designing my picture and colour! It's wonderful what this activity can do, expanding your borders and leading your mind all around. You'll start to notice beauty in the everyday; the world will come to life and you'll never be the same.
Photos
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/80 second
I chose these settings because I wanted a strong picture. To do this I had to isolate both the light and the shadow enough that you could tell them apart. This blew the colors through the roof. In a black and white conversion the high contrast, that is mostly natural, allows for an interesting photograph.
A Window to the World |
The Skeleton of a Peanut |
Aperture: f/5.6
"Lights will guide you home And ignite your bones" |
Recycling Bodyparts |
Metadata
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1600
Shutter Speed: 1/125 second
Here I wanted lots of light, obviously, but because I was holding my camera, and I had enough light to compensate for a quicker shutter speed, allowing a crisp picture without darkness.
Lights won't guide me home this time because I took this in my house.. |
Metadata
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/40 second
So here we see some values I don't usually use. This picture was taken with specifically chosen settings. I wanted light from the candles, but not much interference from the room's light. To do this I had to get close to the candles and darken the picture. My aperture was still pretty high but I wanted a strong blur, which I wouldn't have gotten with a higher aperture. I considered heavy post-processing but decided on a naturally contrasted photo. I did still edit this, but not as much as if the picture had been much brighter.
Mmmmm pretzel sticks |
Metadata
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 1600
Shutter Speed: 1/125 second
The shutter speed was quick because I was hovering over the mug. The ISO was high because I wanted lots of directional light. My aperture was low because I really wanted the intentional field of view you can see here. It's VERY shallow.
ONE LAST POINT. Remember when I said I was hovering over the mug? Well I positioned the lamp so I could be like, standing on the mug, and my shadow wouldn't be seen. That's really critical, and I usually mess up on that. Expectation = Succeeded.
This is the last. I'm probably the happiest with this, as it's a provoking picture. The black background with white smoke really brought this home. I actually had a pretty cool setup. I didn't have any black foam or anything actually technically used for photography, so I draped a black t-shirt over my sister's music stand and that became my background! As for the smoke, I took my lamp (trusty lamp) and put it just outside the picture to catch the smoke. The challenge here is that I didn't want the background illuminated. Just looking at this now, I realize it actually came out really well. I did process it pretty heavily, but I didn't have to replace anything. This is an original with contrast and hues changed. I'm pretty proud.
Another challenge I had was putting out the flame while preserving the smoke (we don't have a snuffer for some reason). I had my sister put out the flame with her breath, but she'd blow the smoke away no matter how hard she tried not to. Eventually we got a socket wrench with a larger socket and used it as a makeshift snuffer. This is pretty lame, but it can be cleaned and it really worked! I used my camera's continuous shoot ability to capture each stage of the candle's smoke drifting away. I could make a stop motion video. That'd be cool.
Metadata
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 3200
Shutter Speed: 1/200 second
I needed a quick shutter to catch the smoke in mid drift but an incredibly high ISO to keep the light up. I kept my aperture low to help with brightness. The focus didn't matter here because of the miniscule amounts of detail (smoke excluded). I just needed the smoke and candle in focus. All in all I am very happy with this photo. The next time I attempt this I will have more directional light to specifically lighten the smoke. I'll put my camera closer to the smoke, because I don't need to see the candle and the closer I am to the smoke, the more detailed it will be! I met my expectation although now seeing a fully finished product I can set my sets higher!
Conclusion
This is it. The black and white module was a very good project and I have improved by looking into a different field. There is always more to learn, but I am making progress. This is the end of my photography course. I'm alone here in the classroom, just writing my last words because I wanted to be here. I chose to try my best, to give my all. That probably doesn't sound like much when referring to photography, but it does mean I tried. This class really did help my photography capabilities. I will leave this course knowing more, and wanting more; wishing to achieve the once unachievable. I do give a big thanks to Mrs. Stoyko for all her work. No student can excel without an excellent teacher. I think this is all I have to say.David, out.