Outdoor Photography

28 Outdoor Photography February 2018

The majority of photographers work exclusively in colour to capture realistic images of the landscape, but Lee Frost

reckons that black & white can be just as eff ective when it comes to showing the drama and beauty of a scene

In the digital age, many photographers see black &

white as old fashioned and unnecessary. However, as

wonderful as colour photography is, it can also be too

‘familiar’. It shows us what things look like, which

leaves us feeling reassured and comfortable, but that

doesn’t necessarily encourage us to look beyond what

is being represented. Our emotional response to a colour

landscape image can therefore be quite superfi cial. But as

soon as you remove colour from an image things change.

Light, shade, texture and shape take centre stage and

what’s actually in the scene become less relevant – it’s the

impact and eff ect the image has on you that counts more.

Black & white landscapes

Above

Monterey cypress, California,

USA: a long exposure.

Canon EOS 5Ds with 16-35mm

f/4 L lens, ISO 200, 2 minutes

at f/10, Lee Proglass IRND 10,

0.6 soft ND grad

28_34_Technique_227_SW.indd 28 18/12/2017 15:04