26 NZPhotographer
We live in a world surrounded by colour and make
many choices based on it every single day. Colour
helps us see, identify and single out objects and
interests within their cluttered surroundings. It can
trigger and change our emotions. Therefore, I find
it curious that so many of us are attracted to the
genre of photography entirely devoid of it. How can
technological limitation from a time gone by be so
often and purposefully chosen as a valid creative
choice?
Is it simple nostalgia, something deeply rooted in our
culture that fills us with spontaneous appreciation
of its aesthetic qualities or the allure of visual
agelessness? Whatever the answer may be, this style
of photography is not going the way of the dodo any
time soon.
Digital photographs are taken in colour and enter
the monochrome world in a process known as
conversion. The resulting image contains only tones
of a single colour, with grey being the most common
choice. Although we call this variation ‘black & white
photography’, a more accurate term would be
‘greyscale’.
Instead of giving you step by step instructions on how
to achieve this effect and the technical intricacies
(there are already so many tutorials over the Internet)
I want to discuss the motivation behind several of
my images, in an effort to inspire some readers to
craft their future ideas using this freshly discovered
expression choice.GIVING MUNDANE SCENES AN AIR OF MYSTERY
You can find many interesting photographic subjects
while walking city streets. Night offers a whole new set
of possibilities giving usually ordinary places a range
of different visual qualities, with mystery being one of
them.
In my image ‘Urban Shadows’ I was relying on a slow
shutter speed of 1/5sec. I had to lean against the wall
for extra stability while trying to keep the ISO as low
as possible. This is not always practical, and giving
your ISO a boost is the most common approach when
combating potential blur due to prolonged exposure
times. Another option is using a tripod which would
aid image quality in terms of sharpness, keeping the
camera’s ISO at a low setting.
My image ‘Urban Shadows’ is also a good example
of a high contrast chiaroscuro situation and adds
to the perception of a scene. It is a classic painting
technique that relies on visual dynamics provided by
the tension between strong highlights and shadows, to
further the illusion of three-dimensional depth within a
frame.MAN-MADE OBJECTS IN MONOCHROME
Monochrome photography is well suited for the
depiction of man-made objects, pretty much a tool
of choice when focusing attention on shapes and
textures. It will give you an opportunity to add volume
to the subjects which have a tendency to look flat,
sculptures for example.
By adding a series of dodging and burning strokes in
post-processing, like painting with an imaginary light
brush, it is possible to add lifelike characteristics to
sculptures as you can see in my images ‘The Struggle’
and ‘Golgotha’ when you turn the page.TURNING NOTHING INTO SOMETHING
It is not always easy to recognise a potentially good
monochrome image, by simply looking at the colour
scene in front of you. There will be many failures as our
ability to visualise this ‘on the fly’ conversion comes
with time and experience. So while working on your
colour photograph, don’t fixate on one outcome in
post processing or give up on an image altogether
before checking out its monochrome alter ego.
The image ‘They Were Here, I Was There’ was rather
uneventful in its original colour form – The large
land area easily consumed the smaller subjects
and diminished its storytelling potential. Striping the
frame of colour, its main distracting feature, left room
for tonal enhancements and focused the viewer’s
interest squarely on the geometry within, resulting in a
dramatic and puzzling image.CONVEYING EMOTIONS
When we lose focus of the important and delicate
moments in our daily lives, our photography may
follow us there. It can become cluttered and lose
its ability to engage. As we know that colour and
contrast provide the most important stimuli, eliminating
one of them will significantly promote the other. With
colour gone, the communication will default to its
building blocks – contrasts, lines and textures. The
simplified visual environment offers a much better
chance of focusing the viewer’s attention to emotion-
inducing visual cues.
The ‘End of the Pilgrimage’ was conceived during
a trip which had great significance for the person
depicted in it, and for that reason came with a
dose of an emotional charge. It was challenging to
take under the relentless Fiordland rain, making it
technically imperfect but visually gripping. In this all-
symbolic composition, a very small silhouette facing
a grandiose setting is imposing itself without difficulty,
being placed in a lighter part of the frame while at
the same time cutting the perceived horizon. This kind
of narrative is much more difficult to conduct with the
presence of colour.