Monday, July 8, 2013

The value of black and white for interpretive imaging

Reviewing my Laurel Mill photos from three days ago, I began to rethink my processing of one of them. What gave the image some interest, I felt, was the streaks of clouds. They mostly radiated from the apparent location of the mill, and functioned as leading lines, drawing the eyes to the subject. I emphasized that by darkening the blue sky, but keeping it within a realistic range of appearance. I'll repost that version here for comparison.


Today, realizing that textures and shapes were far more important elements in this photo than color, I played with monochrome interpretations. This version is much like what I might have done long ago by shooting b&w film with a deep red filter in front of the lens, followed by high contrast printing. This is not intended to be a "photorealistic" depiction of the scene as I saw it. Rather, it's a dramatic interpretation of what I wished to see.


You may have noticed that the changes in the image led me to a decision to crop a little from the right side for better balance.

Permalink: http://jilcp.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-value-of-black-and-white-for.html


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