It is nearly February, which means it is time to start thinking about the Black and White Book Club and our study of Michael Freeman's The Complete Guide to Black and White Digital Photography (or the smallified version, Black and White Photography Field Guide). An overview of the book club and weekly topics can be found here http://www.boostyourphotography.com/2014/01/bookclub.html. If you do not have access to a copy of either book, you can still join in by reading the summaries, below, and participating in the styles for each week. If you do have the book, you will have a lot more material to draw upon and work with each week.
Week 1 (Feb. 1-2nd) will focus on Black and White Photography as Fine Art and the styles of fine art or abstract photography. (For those curious, we are following the British tradition of starting the new week on Mondays, as it fits the monthly calendar views on 365.) For this short week, we will focus on the first three chapters of the book (pgs. 7-23 Complete or 6-21 Field Guide). Below is an overview of the main topics covered and some quotations (the first number will be from the Complete Guide and the second will be from the Field Guide).
The Black and White Tradition
"…black-and-white photography is traditionally more strongly associated with art than is color, and there are lessons to learn also from monochrome painting" (pg. 9/9).
The book begins with an overview of the history of photography and its connections to the primacy of monochrome in early fine art, calligraphy, and finally abstract art. Throughout the discussion, Freeman focuses on two important considerations: the impact of emotion and the importance of tone. He stresses the recognition of emotion-through-monochrome as a recurring theme in photography and of the role of tone: "As we will see time and again in photography, restricting the palette allows the artist to concentrate fully on the subtleties of tone" (pg. 14/15). As you experiment with fine art or abstract photography for these first days, try to keep both emotion and tone in mind.
The second half of this week's readings covers the history of the photographic tradition and the mechanisms behind camera sensors (wavelength and sensitivity). An important take-away from these sections is that "Camera sensors do not match the eye's color response, and need both physical filters and special image processing to come close" (pg. 22/20). While this section might be a bit technical for some, it may be enough to recognize that eyes and sensors interpret scenes differently and that different 'translations' from color to black and white can produce very different versions from the same original image.
Finally, one of the big ideas in this book and an excellent starting point for book club discussion is the question of why, as a photographer, you would choose black and white for your final image. As Freeman argues, "More fundamental than the 'how' of shooting monochrome is why and when" (pg. 9/9). Spend some time this month thinking about why a certain subject appeals to you in black and white and consider sharing those thoughts for a specific image or images.
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Please consider tagging any photographs related to or inspired by the book club with the tag bw-bookclub and/or adding your photographs and thoughts about them to this post for discussion. Please also consider joining in the book club conversation with photographers outside of 365 by posting comments or images on the book club blog posts at http://www.boostyourphotography.com and/or by joining the Photography Book Club Group on Flickr.
If you are commenting on an individual's photograph, please consider clicking on it and then commenting on it directly. If you want to share a comment, thought, or picture with the whole group, then include it on the discussion thread itself.
Parting words for the week: "What sets black and white apart from color is that it is not the way we see the world and it does not pretend to represent reality …. it is a creative choice" (pg. 9/9).
@archaeofrog I ordered from your website, and Amazon responded that I should expect delivery on February 3. I also ordered the book from August's book club, as it looked very interesting. :) Neither book was at my library. :( Thanks so much for hosting. :) I'm looking forward to participating.
I ordered the book through your site, and it arrived promptly. One thing to note, for those of us who are visually challenged, is that the font size of the field guide is about a 9 so I have to remove my glasses to read it. But the content looks great! :) So looking forward to this.
My book has arrived but I haven't had a chance to look at it other than to skim the introduction. Time to start reading it now. Thanks again for doing all the summaries!! It helps when I get a little behind in the reading. I can hardly believe Feb. is just about here!
@archaeofrog@olivetreeann Yes, I'm desperately searching for ways to post all of the paint colors we're using in our home improvement project before the month is up--and I have no clue what to post in b/w. I'm so looking forward to being inspired by everyone's work. :)
Lol to the need for colours - I'm already using two albums with one for challenges and I was going to do this in one album and other photos I wanted in the other - and there's an awful lot of b&w in my albums already.
surprisingly my last three photos have been black and white! i am not sure how I will go doing a whole month of black and white, but that is the challenge right?
Mine came in the post this morning - had a quick skim through and it looks like we're in for a very interesting and educative month. Share others' concerns about how I'm going to get on with using B&W for 28 days.
Woot! I recieved my book and Canon camera yesterday (still need to get a memory card). I'm very excited! I have grown used to the thrills of color photography but, I can remember (long, long ago) when I spent several college semesters working only in black and white. So much of the developing and printing of the photos felt like "doing dishes" (all that sloshing around with chemicals). No more sloshing, but can I handle the techno mystic ways of the digital??
Has anyone started reading yet? The Wavelength & Sensitivity chapter got me curious so I went to my back yard and shot a picture of this red gas can on mossy wall: http://auf.me/viewer.php?file=49195174135260923697.jpg
Then played around with it: http://auf.me/viewer.php?file=84060494330610313887.jpg
The top two I started in color. The first one I darkened the reds and lightened the greens, and the second one I did the opposite. For the bottom two I started with black and white and then did the same as the top two. I guess it's kind of pointless to adjust the color lightness after desaturating, but there is an obvious difference.
This was taken at Kelsey Creek Farm today. I looked at the side of this farm house and was instantly drawn to the simple shapes and play of shadows. To me it looked like a piece of abstract art. I also thought it would work well in black and white.
@archaeofrog Hi Katie. I ordered the The Complete Guide through Amazon Italy and it should be delivered by 6 February. I hope I can join the group without lagging behind due to the delayed arrival of the text.
For those of you interested in Lightroom/Camera Raw editing, the book examples all use *process 2010* in the basic tone adjustment panel, so you see things like "recovery" and "brightness" rather than "shadows" "highlights" "clarity" and such. If you want to follow along with him in Camera Raw 7.x or higher, you can go to Camera Calibration panel and select 2010 process in the top control. Me, I'll keep what I know in process 2012, it's much more intuitive and probably performs much better and more consistently as folks like Kelby and Evening have pointed out.
I can't find any such option choice in Lightroom 5.x, but it may be lurking somewhere. Anyone know?
Thanks for the link Wendy. I have the book but have been struggling with the font size, and it wasn't available for my kindle. Now I can enlarge it on the I pad.
@stephomy That's a really cool comparison and the kind of thing I'm hoping to learn about in doing this book discussion. I may do a similar thing sometime this week because I learn so much better by applying the changes myself (as opposed to just looking at pictures) so thanks for the idea!
Here's my first submission…not 100% happy with it but it stretched me on trying to turn a monotone subject into an image that is defined by highlighting subtle differences. Great book…highly recommend everyone getting it for on 365!
@photohoot Thanks for checking that out Wendy- my book arrived in time but I know there a quite a few who might not have it so that will be a big help!
Just discovered this! Great, I have the book and need to study it! Just not enough time. I have set my camera to Raw and JPEG/Large, then used the monochrome setting so I see through the viewfinder in B&W @brigette
This is new to me, chance meeting with a photographer who suggested it and it works a treat even if it does use up lots of space. Just in my first week of 365 so am discovering lots!
@archaeofrog Hi Katie, happy 2015 to you. Will you be convening another one of these this year? I so enjoyed it last year even though I didn't have the book. If you are it would be good to know which book as we cannot always get the books quickly here in South Africa.
@dibzgreasley Great question, Debs. Time has been passing so fast, I hadn't much thought about it. Will post a query to see if people are interested / have suggestions.
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Hip, hip, hooray! Is anyone else having a fervent need to find colors in these last few days counting down to February ... ?
Then played around with it: http://auf.me/viewer.php?file=84060494330610313887.jpg
The top two I started in color. The first one I darkened the reds and lightened the greens, and the second one I did the opposite. For the bottom two I started with black and white and then did the same as the top two. I guess it's kind of pointless to adjust the color lightness after desaturating, but there is an obvious difference.
It's especially fascinating how red objects change!
I thought maybe today but the mail has come and it wasn't there
I took a stab at a B&W today though
This was taken at Kelsey Creek Farm today. I looked at the side of this farm house and was instantly drawn to the simple shapes and play of shadows. To me it looked like a piece of abstract art. I also thought it would work well in black and white.
for those of you who don't have the book or are waiting on shipment, I found a copy here. Its free. http://books.google.com/books?id=mTnBKB--WyAC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=download++Michael+Freeman's+The+Complete+Guide+to+Black+and+White+Digital+Photography&source=bl&ots=QaiblqTqWI&sig=ZZV-mm3DkD39NXfsVWRen71D9nA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lUHuUtnBGa6-sQS5koCgDw&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=download%20%20Michael%20Freeman's%20The%20Complete%20Guide%20to%20Black%20and%20White%20Digital%20Photography&f=false
Silhouette at Sunrise
I can't find any such option choice in Lightroom 5.x, but it may be lurking somewhere. Anyone know?
And in my extras is the colour version with the component decompositions (I did explain in better in the description)
This is new to me, chance meeting with a photographer who suggested it and it works a treat even if it does use up lots of space. Just in my first week of 365 so am discovering lots!
I look forward to hearing from you
Cheers Debbie