Digital SLR Photography

“I think David and I must share avery similarvision when itcomestoblack & white, becausethis is pretty much just how I would haveeditedhis image. Thetones are dark,contrasty andbold. The skylooksfantastic, with those brighterpatches breaking up the cloud, the old nets actas alead-in,carrying theeye towards the hut,which is fullofdetail. This imagereally sums upthe desolate,weather-beatenfeel ofDungenessfor me, andconsidering Daviddoesn’t produce alot ofblack & white images,he clearly has a great monochromeeye.”challenge2Proverdictchallenge 2:DRaMaTIcBlacK &WhITe IMageWithhislongexposureshotdoneanddusted,itwastimeforDavidto facehisnextchallenge– to take aphotographthatwouldendupasadramaticblack& whiteimageandcapturethedark,my ster iousmoodofDungeness.Asafishingboathadbeenthemainsubjectinhisfirstchallenge,Isuggest edthathefocu shiseffortsmoretowardsoneoftheoldfisher men’shutsforthischallenge,toavoidrepetiti on.Davidag reed,andwithmorehutsthanboats tochoosefr om,setofftonarrowthefielddown.Hisfirstst opwasatanoldhutwe ’dwalk edpastearlie r, en-routetothefishingboatfeat uredinthefirstchallenge.Iwassurprise dbyhisch oiceasIdidn ’tthinkitwasanythingspecial,butthiswasDavid’schallenge,so Iwashapp ytostandbackandobservetoseewhathecameupwith.Infairness toDavid,hisimagesdidlookprettygood–theskywasniceanddramaticwithth eaidofanNDgradfil ter. Davidal sosethiscame ratoMonochrom emode,sotheimageswe sawonthepreviewscreenwereinblack& white–a handythingtodoifyou’reunsurewhetherascenewillworkinmonoorno t(seebelow).However, weweredoingokayfo rtime,andtheweatherdidn ’tseemlikeitwasgoingtochange,soIsuggest edwetryanotherhuttoo.Theonewe settledon,andwhichendedupbeingthesubjectofDavid’sfinalimage,wasonitslastlegs.OnbothofourpreviousvisitstoDungenesswerememberedthishutasbeinginmuchbettershape, butstormsduri ngthewinterof2015/16hadputpaid tothat. Theroofwaspartiallycaved in,manytimberwallpanelswerestrewnacrosstheshin glealon gwithmost ofthecontentsoftheshed,andwe agreedthatitprob ablywouldn’tbestandinginayear’stime.Thatalon eseemedagoodenoughre asontophotographit–forposter ityasmuchasanything.Itdidmakeagrea tsubjectaswell,withitsscattered contentsprovidingforeground interest.Initially,Davidtrieda landscap eformatcomposition.Itlo okedokay,butI suggest ed``````hetryportraitformataswell,tomakebetteruseofthefore ground andsky– whichwaslookingbetterbytheminu te.Withhiscame rasetupandthescenecomposed,Davidslotteda 0.3NDgradintohisfilterholderandtooktheshot. Italllookedfine,expecttheskywasalittlewashedout,soIsuggest edheuseda 0.6NDgradinstead.WhatI wantedDavidtopre-visualisewasthefinalblack& whiteimagebeingdark,moodyandmy ster ious .Notnecessarilyanythinglikethescenereallylo oked,butthat’sthebeautyofblack& whitephotography; you’renottrying tocapturere alism,you’retrying tocreateamood.Thismeansyoucanpushcontrastandexposurefurtherduri ngproc essingthanyoucanwithacolourim age.DavidgraspedexactlywhatI wassayingandproducedagrea tshot. The0.6NDgrad``````maybedarkenedtheskya littletoomuchforacoloursh ot, butI knewitwouldlookreallystronginblack& white.That’s whypre-visualisationcanbeusefulsometimes,sothecolourRawfileyouproducein-c ameraissh otinsu cha waythatyoucancr eate theblack& whiteimageyouhaveinmindfromitwithouttoomuchtroubl e.``````156 Digital slr PhotographyNove mber2016MonochromemodeIf you’re strugglingtovisualise howa scene mightlook in black&white, allyou needtodo is setyourDSLR’s image qualityto captureboth Raw and JPEG, then selectMonochrome shooting mode inthe menu. Thatway, whenyou takethe shot,you’ll see a black & whiteimage on the preview screen andthe JPEGrecorded on the memorycardwill also be in black & white, butyou’ll still havea colour Raw filetoconvert later- thoughyou may decide the black & white JPEG is good enough.Yourcamera’sMonochrome mode will also haveother settingsworth experimenting with, such ascontrast, sharpness, filter effects andtoning.Byusing these settingsyou can createspecific effects and produce JPEGs that arereadytouse, straight from thecamera.ThePhotoWorkshopcolouR RaW fIle MonoJpeg``````1)David getstowork photographing the next old fisherman’shut.2)After discussing the meritsofdifferent ND grad filterdensities, David aligns an ND gradto tone down the sky.3)David checks his progress on thecamera’sLCD screen.``````2 3