For Love of B&W: 5 Examples of Nature Images
TweetI have always enjoyed black and white photography. There are many masters of the medium who have created phenomenal photography from Ansel Adams to John Sexton and Bruce Barnbaum. And there are many more than I could name here or even know of.
When I attended Brooks Institute in the 1970′s, we spent the first year doing nothing but B&W and I often joked that I bathed in B&W chemicals and slept on the drying racks.
I guess it was no joke when later I found I was allergic to something in the B&W chemicals and that ended my days in the darkroom.
My appreciation for B&W never ended but I never really created B&W fine art nature photography until I began dabbling with Photoshop B&W Adjustment Layers. Still I was not that enamored.
Last month Topaz announced B&W Effects and I am hooked finding myself digging up RAW file in Lightroom to process in B&W and here are 5 recent examples.
The other reason for this post besides showing some of my work is to invite you, our readers to submit your ideas for our ProFolio feature showing portfolios of B&W imagery. If you have some phenomenal B&W imagery let us know where we can view it and consider featuring you.
Redwood NP, CA
This image was processed in Topaz and then brought back into Photoshop where the original was added to the layer stack, masked, and the green leaves brushed back in.
North Rim Grand Canyon
Straight B&W conversion.
Alvord Desert, Oregon
Straight B&W conversion
Rusty winch from fishing trawler
Normal processing with extra contrast added due to the flat lighting.
Nipple Bench, AZ
Normal processing with the blue color darkened.
If you have any thoughts please leave a comment. We are looking for portfolios to show. If you shoot B&W and would have an interest in showing a portfolio, please email us at pronaturephotographer@gmail.com and direct us to your website.
If you have interest in Topaz B&W Effects plugin just click here. It is still on sale until tomorrow at $29.99. Use code: bwandbeyond
Books:
Great images Charlie! Here’s a link to some of my B&W’s, I’d be interested in any feedback.
Thanks,
Adam
I have yet to see a “digital” B&W that I think looks good. I have seen some digital prints made from scanned B&W negs that look much better. To make a good B&W you have to start wit a a real B&W neg. But I am a older photographer and I have my roots deep in dektol.
Very nice images.
My first love in photography was black and white. That made up about 80% of my work. Since going digital, everything I did was in color until last month. I started changing a couple images to black and white, and loved it.
I hope that black and white makes a nice comeback in digital.
Have Fun,
Jeff
I understand your point but also think we need to consider the difference between how images are viewed. I would guess that more digital images are now viewed online than on the wall and thus the processes and subsequent limitations are different. I would think it would be along time before we can see a B&W on a screen and say it looks better than a print on the wall. They are just different.
[...] Posts: Photographing Badlands NP in 4 Hours, For Love of B&W: 5 Nature Examples [...]