Who killed Black & White?

From the days of the Daguerreotype, calotype and even the tintype, a majority of the history of photography was captured in monochrome. The images were a black and white rendering of real life scenes and situations. Even when colour photography first came around, it made more sense to capture in black & white. Colour processing was very expensive, and the images were poor.

The quick expansion and improvements in colour photography made black and white processing a chore to find and develop. Less and less stores carry B&W film, less labs process in B&W, and colour was a breath of fresh air to a tired and worn out hobby.

Good news is ... black and white is back!

In a world where everything is saturated in colour and dominated by pixels, B&W gives off the illusion of "real", and to many ... it seems fresh (we love the retro stuff). The driving force behind this movement is that shooting in B&W allows the photographer to learn more about how highlights, shadows, lines, patterns, exposure all affect the final product. A lot of times, colour assists in hiding the imperfections of the final product e.g. a saturated photo can make a low contrast photo look acceptable. As a result, many photography students learn the basics of photography with B&W Ilford film and darkroom processing.

The image above was taken with my EOS 50D, but I decided I needed a different outlook to a tired and overblogged landscape. Initially it was a 5 photo HDR, but the post crop and monochrome afterwards made the difference.

NB: Need some new locations to shoot, let me know if you have any suggestions

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Why we love panos

Panorama photos have always held a spell over me. When I first saw them, I couldn't see what the big deal is. If anything I thought panos were stupid, they're long, odd shaped, hard to frame, and have no standard in sizing.

Soon after the purchase of my first SLR, the EOS 400D, I realised the limitations of taking a single photo to capture a landscape. When working with lines such as the horizon and the contours of mountains, valleys & coastlines, it is natural to utilise a wide format frame.

This technique in photography have become such widespread that some photographers have dedicated themselves to panoramic photos, Ken Duncan is a well known example. What makes him so well known is not only his dedication to panoramic photos, but his style of image processing after taking the photo. In this day and age, an artist's post processing style is as unique as his signature. All successful photographers have a fine tuned way of processing their images that are instantly recognisable by those in the field.

Post processing has become especially important as almost anybody mildly interested in photography is likely to own an SLR. No longer will resolution and turn around time separate the amateurs and the pros, the market has become much more diverse and it will come down to how well you process your photos that will set you apart.

Me, I'm still working it out :P

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A distant reminder

The first sign of a true winter ... max temps of 14 degrees for the day.

Todays photo will serve as a reminder of what I will be missing out on until winter is over.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D

Lens: Tamron 17-50 f2.8

Settings: Various - 7 photo HDR

And yes, I have continued my recent craze of HDR photos. This photo was taken during a sunrise photoshoot at Long Reef. That day we went beach hopping from one to the other catching different aspects of the sunrise from different angles. The actual sunrise wasn't the greatest, but scenic shots of the beach and the coast turned out quite well. Unfortunately, it is definitely something that I won't be doing this winter.

On a side note, the long awaited Panasonic Lumix LX-3 has arrived. Haven't had a chance to take many photos with it yet, but hopefully I'll have something up tomorrow. I must say, on first handling, it's an impressive camera.

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