Welcome New Subscribers. Here's something on Black & White Landscapes

Can converting a color photo to black and white improve it?  What type of photos work better as black and white?  How is shooting for black and white different?

I've been writing this blog for several years.  Sometimes I write a new post almost weekly.  Other times, I'm not so diligent.  Recently there have been several new people subscribe to the blog and that has motivated me to try to do better.  Here's my first post of 2019.

Winter in East Tennessee can be challenging for nature/landscape photographers.  The trees are bare, there are no flowers. In fact, there is very little color to be found during the winter months.  When blessed with a nice snowfall we have abundant opportunities to make some beautiful photos of snow scenes, but that doesn't happen very often.  Except for sunrise rise and sunset, most days are grey and blah.

Some of the best color in the winter is around streams where moss grows on the rocks, like in this photo from Rocky Fork State Park.

Rocky Fork

Streams and waterfalls are some of my favorite subjects to photograph.  I try to capture the movement of the water using a longer exposure of around 1 second.  This can result in a photo with bright white water and darker surrounding objects.  I've found high contrast scenes like this can be dramatic when converted to black and white.

Converted to Black & White

When color is removed the composition and the tonal range of light in the photo become more important.  The tonal range of your landscape is basically the amount of highlights, darks, and every shade of grey in between. Highlights are your brightest whites, darks are your dark blacks.

When you are shooting a black and white photo, you should shoot in color and convert to black and white in post-processing.  That will give you the most control of the tonal values when editing the photo later.  If you shoot in black and white you will not be able to change the tonal values of different colors, such as making the green moss brighter in the example above.

You have to think differently when composing a black and white photo.  Without color, you’re dealing strictly with light tones now.  You should try to use that to your advantage when composing your shot. Instead of relying on color to separate your subject or draw the viewer's eye, look for light to create a dramatic photograph.  Shapes and lines can be important compositional elements in a black and white photo.  Often a high contrast photo will work great as a black and white.  Things such as texture become more important when color is removed.

Glacier National Park

The photo from Glacier National Park is one of my favorite black and white landscapes.  There is dramatic light, high tonal range, interesting clouds, and plenty of detailed texture in the trees and mountains.

Visualizing a scene in black and white is a skill that can take some time to develop.  Setting your camera to black and white can be a helpful tool when trying to visualize the black and white shot.  Just remember to take a color shot as well.

Below are a few examples from a recent trip to Rocky Fork State Park near Flag Pond, Tennessee. 

Making black and white photos can be fun.  Give it a try and let me know what you come up with.

There's Bad and Good Light?

I'm preparing to teach a basic photography class.  This is a first for me and I'm trying to put some effort into preparing.   In the very first class I'm going to touch on light and how there can be good light and bad. 

Light in itself is not good or bad and it can not create a good photograph, but depending on the characteristics of the light it can make our photographs better or worse.   I've gone through my photo library and have picked out a few photos to show how light can change a photo.   Here's one example I came up with.

Both shots are the same creek taken from the same spot using all the same equipment.  The difference is the time of day and the direction of the sunlight.

Morning Shot

The morning was a bright sunny day and that sun was shining down on the little cascade.  The bright clear sunlight made the scene very contrasty.  The brights were too bright and blown out (no details in the brightest parts).  I could have compensated for that bright light by turning down my exposure but then the shadows would be dark and there would be little details to be seen there either.   Typically I'll walk right by a scene like this but that little cascade was just too pretty to pass up.  I was hoping I could do something with it in post-processing.

Afternoon Shot

Lucky for me we came back by this same spot in the late afternoon and the light conditions had changed dramatically.  Now there was only soft indirect light illuminating the scene.  No harsh , shadows to deal with.  The soft light also created less glare on the water, rocks and foliage. 

One reason I'm talking about light in the very first class is it is the single most important part to photography.   When shooting landscapes and nature you have to take the light God gives you and either work with it or pass.  There is no amount of camera gear or post-processing editing that would make the first shot look like the second. 

Understanding light is foundational.   Everything else is secondary.

Calendar Chronicals - The End of 2013

Christmas is behind us and there are just a few days left in 2013.   I have one more photo to share from the 2013 calendar and that's The Joy Boat on the back.

AM Shot

As I said in an early post, we found this boat on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake on the way to Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park.   We passed it at 9:42 AM on the way up and again at 5:30 PM on our way back.  Both times we stopped so I could take some shots of the boat with the lake and mountains in the background.  

I've learned to take the shot when I see it and don't count on getting it later.  You never know what the conditions will be later.   The boat might not have been there later, it could have been raining, and the light would be different. 

PM Shot

The conditions for the morning and evening shots were similar.  Other than the direction, the light was pretty much the same.   I composed the shot differently each time.  We were in more of a hurry in the morning and didn't stay long at the boat.  After a day of hiking we were too tired to move quickly in the evening.  After spending some time with our tired feet in the cold lake water we stopped again and I took a little more time composing the shot the second time around.  

The morning shot was taken at 17mm, the widest lens setting I have.  The afternoon was taken at 24mm, which didn't distort the boat as much and brought the trees on the far shore in closer.   I also took the afternoon shot from a lower position to get a better perspective on the boat.  I didn't include the mountain peak in the afternoon shot because it was pretty dark a featureless due to the angle of the sun. 

I have two different shots of the same subject.  I prefer the afternoon because of the sunlight and the camera angle. You may prefer the morning shot with the mountains.  There's no right or wrong answer.

The verse for this photo is Psalm 30:5 - "Joy comes in the morning".  As we wrap up another year we can look forward to God providing joy in our lives.  We will all have trials in 2014 but God promises Joy.  All we have to do is ask and it will be given.  

I hope you have a joyful 2014.   Stay tuned as the Calendar Chronicles continues in 2014.

The Calendar Chronicles - December 2013

The photo for December 2013 was not taken in the middle of winter but in September 2012 just a few days after the November calendar photo and is also from Glacier National Park.   I choose this photo for December because it is a very peaceful scene, perfect for the Luke 2:14 verse.  People have told me that they would love to be sitting in those chairs.  I can't blame them.

"Glory to God in the highest, and or earth peace to men on whom his favor rests"

This is the deck of the Many Glacier Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake in Glacier National Park.  This beautiful hotel sits right on the lake with view of the Grinnell Glacier off in the distance.  This morning was one of the few times there wasn't white caps on the lake. 

Here's the front of this hotel to give you some perspective.

Many Glacier Hotel

The Many Glacier Hotel was completed in 1915 by the Great Northern Railway as part of a series of hotels and back country chalets in the park. The locations were carefully chosen so the distances between hotels was a days ride by horseback.  The foundation of this historic hotel is made of stone, with a wood superstructure. The four-story lobby is surrounded by balconies, whose railings are patterned after Swiss designs.  The massive pillars holding up the roof over the lobby are tree trunks.

Lobby of The Many Glacier Hotel

The photo above was taken around sunrise before most people were up.  Normally the lobby is full of people with laptops and tablets because it was the only place you could get a wifi signal and internet service.

The calendar photo was taken shortly after sunrise and the sun was just lighting up Grinnell Point across the lake.  The night before I had gone out on this same deck to try and get some pictures of the star filled night sky.  The wind was so fierce that those chairs blew across the deck and about knocked me down. 

As with most of my photographs this shot was taken with my camera mounted on a sturdy tripod.   The aperture was a tiny f/22 which allowed me to have the chairs and mountains all in focus.  This meant I had a long shutter speed of 3.2 seconds.  I also used a wide angle 17mm lens to be able to take it all in and emphasize the chairs.

After a hearty breakfast we took off and hiked the six miles to Grinnell Glacier.  Seeing a glacier up close is a special experience.  It's unfortunate that all the glaciers in Glacier National Park may be gone as early as 2030. You can see the glacier in the center of the photo just to the right of Grinnell Point.  It took us all day to hike to the glacier and back.  For some reason it takes us 4 times as long to get anywhere when I have my camera with me.  There must be some correlation there.

The photo of the Joy Boat on the back of the 2013 calendar was taken on our way back to the hotel that afternoon.

I am enjoying reliving the times when the calendar photos were taken.  I hope you are enjoying the photos and maybe getting something out of the stories and descriptions.