 |
| Steam Tractor, Erin Fall Fair |
Yesterday I was invited to participate in a Black and White photo challenge currently circulating on Facebook®; one photo a day along with one new nominee/invitee for five days. I'd been watching for over a week as friends invited friends and the photos mounted up, longing to be invited to join the B&W band. Truth be told, I was feeling a tad miffed at being left out. It's not like I never post any photos!
Anyway, all is now well with my world. One of my writer friends, Corrie Haldane Adams, threw down the gauntlet and I spent most of Wednesday trolling through photos and playing with way too many photo editing tools. Let this be a warning to any other B&W wannabes out there - a single mouse click to convert from colour image to black and white is only the beginning; one mouse click just leads to another and a mouse's favourite food is time! Still it's interesting to see what develops, and what doesn't.
Images I thought would benefit from the conversion, images that lacked a lot of colour to begin with, were often so-so, even with time spent tinkering with editing tools. The eye-opener for me was the re-discovery of that subtle play of shadow and light, form and texture that is the hallmark of B&W photography. Amazing stuff!
 |
| Tower Bridge, Sacramento California |
The other thing that has happened as a result of this challenge is that now when I set up a shot, I think about how a scene might look not only in colour but also in black and white. This is such a full colour in-your-face kind of world, it's a real treat to engage a throwback to black and white, to experience feeling and mood without blush and hue, without reds, greens and blues.
 |
| Pepper, Australian Shepherd (pup) |
I'm having a blast though. I may not be out until Christmas!
Cheers!
©2014 April Hoeller
No comments:
Post a Comment