I photograph a lot Art ( paintings ). Had interesting conversation, told her about you setting the preview screen to black & week for viewing. The Artist told me before she puts paint pallet away, take a photo of her colored painting in black & white to check tonal values. Went on to explain how important that all the tonal values need to be seen. Thought I would share because what you taught us, Professional Artist do the same black/white for tonal values. Thank You for sharing!
I’ve just completed a monochrome course here in Australia. It taught me to use the monochrome setting in the camera. I use an Olympus, and it includes various filters, orange, red, blue, and you can also set it in sepia or normal B/W. I love using these settings and often go from B/W to colour, then back again. As a result it’s made my colour images much better! Thanks for your videos, Alister. Very informative.
I like the mentality a lot. I may not shoot my landscapes in black and white, but I have been finding my liminalistic style of street photography inviting the switch to black and white in most instances. I just love the contrast and emotion of it.
I was out the other day in a nearby national cemetery in my usual color mode. The skies were darl and cloudy and I struggled to push each shot. Once I returned home, something possessed me to click on the B&W button and then it all came together. Wow!!! I had forgotten the power for drama which B&W litteraly brings to the scene. Your timing with this topic is almost serendipitous. As always, thanks. Bill
The swirling water around the green rocks! Beautiful image Alister. Tried your recommended technique some time ago then forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder and inspiration.
George DeWolf was fond of viewing a scene with a kodak written 90 filter so he could easily visualize a good luminosity range to start with. quote: “luminosity is the key to controlling many important things in an image.”
Really appreciate that you are about leaving the expected behind and pursuing freedom in photography. Excellent video as always no matter whether I agree or not.
@@a.keithclarke7975 meant whether or not I agree in general with a video, not b/w specifically. I appreciate the work and thought that go into videos even if there might be something I don’t agree with.
I grew up on b&w photography shooting 35mm film stock for two reasons; the cost of b&w film and darkroom necessities were more cost effective since I processed my own, and then being a photojournalist in training it was the medium of the time for publishing. Since then I have accepted color photography in the digital age but have always seen my subjects in B&w. I too practice with a b&w preview but also shoot in Raw + Jpeg fine just in case I change my mind later which is the beauty of digital photography now. For those who have not experienced the b&w film days this process will take some time to get used to but I agree, it will help your compositions and seeing light and tones in a unique way and how they work together.
I learned to shoot 35mm using the zone system with a huge external spot meter. This method reminds me of how I initially trained my eye, always looking to compress the DR in the composition while still evaluating it's structure for contrast and interest. Shooting B&W jpeg + RAW makes so much of that old process easier and no less effective. Great episode 👍
Thanks Alister. Invariably I leave my screen on mono for seascapes during the day and as you say this is usually far more enjoyable and inspiring. Something I often do when processing colour images is to convert them to mono to see the areas of luminosity more easily and experiment with these first…a tip which I am pretty sure came from you!
Really good ideas Alister. When I started being involved with filmmaking at the BBC shooting colour film the only preview we had was a black and white monitor. The composition in the frame was the primary thing. For the colour aspects it forced you to really look at the actual scene and see what was there.
I agree Alister, the ability to pre-visualise a scene in monochrome before we shoot is without doubt one of the best features of modern cameras. I also love the partial colour modes in the Olympus/OM System cameras. I am not sure these are a feature in other cameras, but they are a powerful tool. I would say more than 80% of my images are taken in the monochrome or partial colour modes. By the way, I just loved your example images and yes, I found the black and white versions much more compelling. Colour too often takes away from the composition rather than adding to it.
I definitely have to shoot more b&w. I've always been in that same crowd that only shoots when the light is good during sunrise or sunset but this video really opened my eyes to shoot more during the day with b&w. There has been many times where I felt uninspired and went home just because there was dull light or not enough color. Going to give it a shot today! Really informative video thanks for all the amazing content.
Agree completely. I have been using B/W preview for some time and find I have more "keepers." I have been wondering if the relative simplicity of B/W, in contrast to the complexity of adding color. It is difficult to visually isolate color and form when composing.
Great video Alister. I occasionally use the b&w setting for certain subjects but I might use it a bit more often now. I started way back in the days of film too and it’s good to know I wasn’t the only one to score maybe 2 or 3 good shots (or less!) out of a roll of film!
Black and white photos can be beautiful. Still, I liked the coloured version of the water flowing in the sand as the colours were very subtle because not overdone, close to but not B&W
Two things I love about my micro 4/3 the b&w preview and the high contrast b&w jpeg setting. Really helps me work out composition and tonality. Occasionally I keep the jpeg because it happened to be what I wanted. Usually I take the raw into lightroom and use the jpeg as a reference for what i had been thinking
Yeah, I really should start shouting RAW + Fine JPEG. It would save me time exporting what I want quickly for social media after a trip. Great reminder, thanks
Hi, Funnily enough I dived into my menu of my Nikon last Tuesday. I was struggling with the very sunny clear skies in Glencoe. I used the B&W menu along with the red and orange filters to gain a different perspective of the scene. I felt I had a “Eureka” moment.
Hello Alister, thanks again. I saw your video on b/w previewing some time ago and I gladly use it. Makes sense in many situations, in deed. I'm impatiently waiting for your new book - any news?
I remember you doing an earlier video on this subject. I regularly use that feature as well as doing a black & white look in LR. I think that it expands my creativity and thinking as I make choices. OBTW, I had the 500CM with the eye level finder. I now wish that I had held on to it. I still have a couple of bricks of Tri-X in my freezer. When I tore down my darkroom, I saw no purpose in keeping it. I went through the entire scenario of finding my correct film speed and development time. I can't imagine a processor willing to process my Tri-X in HC110 at 5 minutes for standard and 9 minutes for N+1 development....🤣
I need to train myself to do this next time I'm out with a tripod. I'm really bad about using those advanced features of the camera and tend to use it like it's my old 35mm SLR.
I think you can use the picture control settings. Use monochrom > there are settings for sharpness, contrast,... and, best off all, filters! Use the red filter settings and you will see! And, I don´t know if possible with a D5500, you can safe a RAW Image with color and a jpg in BW. Try this way! I don´t know exactly how the menu is in english, I´m sitting here in germany eating sauerkraut and sausages as always...
Nice video. I agree on the impact of black and white and the "do what makes you feel better". After all what photography is if it's not that. I'm very sensitive about b&w even if I love colors. However after watching thousands and thousands of photos, color and black and white, I see a trend in b&w: there's the photographer who like you thinks about his act of photography in b&w, so the whole process is one thought, one goal. And there's those photographers or amateurs who transform a bad or boring or banal photo into b&w thinking it's gonna make it a better picture, a piece of art but the photo stays the same, it stills bad, boring, with no subject. I think this comes from the fact that b&w photos from the master became a synonym of beauty and art and that unconsciously, people think that any b&w photo is that. Is it some kind of romanticism or nostalgia? Maybe.
Great tips as ever - I'm new to your channel and have been binge watching your videos, they are really helpful. I'm at a point in my photography where I'd like to get to the next level from nice scenes and zoo animals to something more meaningful (not that I'll stop making those other photographs...) While I've focused on landscapes a lot I'm actually considering still life photography (in a controlled studio environment) as well. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on how landscape photography compares or relates to other types of photography? In my mind still life photography has parallels with landscape, or at least it's closer related to landscape than say street or news photography. I'd love to hear your thoughts, maybe an idea for a video!
Good idea, but what I don't understand is this; I'm shooting with a Nikon D750, which will show me a b/w preview if I set the mode to Monochrome. However, I have no use for .jpeg files so I use my two card slots for the original RAW and a backup of it. But, setting the Monochrome mode means that the camera is applying 'some' processing to the original file...so is that doing something/anything to the RAW files I am saving or is that processing ONLY applied to the preview I am seeing on the LCD screen? Also, does it mean that when I open those RAW files in Capture One they will show as b/w files, or colour files? Thanks
