Outdoor Photography

30 Outdoor Photography February 2018

LEARNING TO SEE IN BLACK & WHITE

CAPTURE MOTION

Ultra-long exposures work

esp ecially well in black & white,

and can help you create minimal

compositions.

Coast al landscapes can be

particularly st riking: look for

st ruct ures such as piers, jett ies,

groynes and rocks to add

foreground interest against

a blurred sky and smooth sea.

Minimal long exposures lend

themselves to fl at, grey days

when the light is soft and

contrast is low.

Use an extreme ND fi lter so you

can make super-long exposures

in the middle of the day. You will

need to mount your camera on

a st urdy tripod, frame the shot,

focus manually and take a test

exposure before sliding the ND

fi lter into your fi lter holder. Use

your test shot to determine the

act ual exposure needed with

the fi lter in place.

Purist s insist that in order to produce meaningful

black & white landscapes you must be able to

‘see’ in black & white; to st ep beyond the realism

of colour, st rip your subject down to its bare bones

and pre-visualise how the fi nal image will look as

a monochrome print at the time it’s taken.

There is some truth in this, but it doesn’t have

to be the Holy Grail. If you shoot exclusively in

black & white you are naturally going to become

att uned to seeing the world in shades of grey.

Looking at any combination of colours you will

inst inct ively know how they’re going to translate

into black & white and soon be able to set out with

the intention of fi nding subject s that appeal to

your monochrome vision. However, the reality is

that few of us fall into that category – at least to

st art with. It is an obst acle that can be overcome

quite easily, though. Set your camera to its

Monochrome mode and shoot Raw and JPEG

fi les simultaneously. The image you see on your

camera’s preview screen will be black & white and

you can adjust the contrast to give yourself a good

idea of how the scene translates, but your Raw fi le

will be in colour and ripe for conversion.

Above (left) Laig Bay, Isle of Eigg.

Canon EOS 5Ds with Zeiss Dist agon

T* 21mm lens, ISO 100, 142sec at f/16,

Lee Big Stopper, Lee 0.6 hard ND grad

Above (right) Amble, Northumberland.

Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII with 24-70mm

lens, ISO 100, 4min at f/16, Lee Big

Stopper, Lee 0.6 hard ND grad, tripod

Below Croft ers cott age, Isle of Harris.

Canon EOS 5D MkII with 17-40mm

f/4 L lens, ISO 400, 1/100sec at f/11,

0.6 hard ND grad, handheld

28_34_Technique_227_SW.indd 30 18/12/2017 15:04