Some thoughts on monochrome……..

Many photographers that came into the craft in the last dozen years are not “as” acquainted with monochrome as us “old timers”!  Of course many DSLR cameras have offered a monochrome setting to shoot just black and white and it’s many tones, but a lot of people have avoided it.  Shooting monochrome is actually pretty taxing if you are delving into it for the first time.  A successful monochrome image requires a different set of conditions than a color image.  A color image can be carried by the color in the scene alone!!  The illustration below amply demonstrates that!

A succesful monochrome image is more about light, form, line, shapes and designs.  The pair of images below illustrate that while subtle color can work, the same scene with the color absent can be even stronger as it emphasizes the design and  line.

In this example the red floats on the boat scream out that they re the subject and while it works, the subtle design of the monochrome image works too!!

One of the difficulties of shooting monochrome is that it requires a different vision from color photography. With monochrome you need to see the the lines and design and play flight and shadow to see that it will be a successful monochrome image.

When “color” is the image, as in this early morning fog on the coast of Oregon, the color shot trumps monochrome.

I started my career as a monochrome shooter working for newspapers, we couldn’t use color so I shot black  & white film and became pretty adept at seeing in monochrome.  Over the years I’ve principly become a color shooter.  When I started to have a renewed interest in monochrome I found it hard to think both ways, both as a color shooter and monochrome shooter at the same time.

Fuji’s X System to the rescue!!!  In the Fuji X-T1, X-E2 and the new X-T10 you can shoot film simulations and choose the three you want made (processed) every time you push the shutter release.  In other words every time you make an image it is processed as there different film pallates!!!  I set my cameras for Velvia, (punched color), Provia, (more natural color), and Monochrome with a red filter (higher contrast monochrome images), The advantage is that with every shot I get a monochrome!  Sometimes I love the monochrome, sometimes it doesn’t work, but I don’t have to think in both styles, and I have a monochrome of every shot!  This is a big advantage and I’m often shocked at how much I like the monochrome version…

Here are  few below;

From time to time I like the subtle color in a subject and I’m surprised to see the monochrome is equally lovely, giving me a choice of images for different applications!  As in the illustration below;

Then again sometimes color is obviously the ticket!!!!

Getting into monochrome will also help you to develop your visual acuity, and for me deepens the enjoyment of this craft!  If you shoot exclusively in color, consider picking up Googles’s NIK Silver Efex Pro 2.0 as a way to do conversion of your color images to monochrome.  I think it will be enjoyable and eye opening for you, that is, unless you already knew all of this and are way ahead of me!!!

Blessings,

the pilgrim