Week 28 - The Challenge of B&W

Finding Light

After last week's abstract, a comfortable return to one of my favorite subjects. Though at 112F (44.4C), comfortable applies only to the subject and not the moment. Trees and tall grass often catch my eye. The other necessary ingredients are shadow and low-raking light.

That formula works well in color. However, I have found these scenes challenging in black and white. But, of course, that is one of the goals of a year-long project. To be challenged and apply solutions.

How we process photos is a matter of taste - but there should be a known objective. In this case, the conversion to black and white resulted in everything merging into disarray. There needed to be more tonal separation between the tree, the grasses, and the earth.

Even with the processing, it is still a cluttered scene. In color, this is less of an obstacle. The complementary green of the tree and the grass's gold work well together. However, in black and white, the tonal values are too similar.

Without using flash photography, only natural light is available. Though, in post-processing, we can manipulate the light. The subjects emerge from a sea of grey by deepening the shadows while isolating the light in the tree, path, and grass.

f8 1/500 sec ISO 200 July 17, 2022