It's time to hone your black and white skills with Flash of Red February- the month where we dedicate ourselves to taking black and white shots until the 14th when with the help of some selective coloring we inject a little splash of color to the calendar view. Believe it or not, this is year #5 for this month-long challenge and it seems to grow in popularity every year. I'm always excited to see new faces take on the challenge and pleased when "alumni" return.
For those of you who'd like to add in some additional learning, this year the weekly themes will coincide with the book "12 Secrets to Master the Art of Black and White Photography" by James Carren. It's available in Kindle (2.99 US dollars), paperback (9.95) and Audible (3.95) on Amazon.com. It's an easy read (the only drawback being there are no pictures for reference- but not to worry, I'll try to put some of my own examples on the discussion thread for you) but you don't need to have the book to take part in the theme as I will recap the salient points of the reading for you each week.
So here is the general outline for the weeks to come:
Feb. 1-5 Intro, Deciding When to Shoot in Black and White, Tonal Differences and Being Technically Competent
Feb. 6-12 Paying Attention to Light, Texture
Feb. 13-19 Composition, Headshots
Feb. 14- Flash of Red
Feb. 20-28 Post-Processing, If You're Struggling, and Conclusion
Each week I'll draw out several options from the book as "assignments" for you to choose from. I always try to make it as flexible as possible so that whether you're new to black and white or have been doing it for a while, you can adjust the fun to your liking and skill.
New to selective coloring? Here are some step by step ways you can achieve it using 365 and Picmonkey:
Hi Ann, I just popped in to see what was going on and saw this post. Can you believe that I had forgotten about it. I might just join in, as a way to get me back onto the site. I do miss it. Will you add me to your list please.
How are you?
Can you add me to the notification list, please. I'm ready to spend some time with B&W again and would love to follow your tips for better photographs. @houser934
Here you go everyone! I'm hoping to have the first installment up on Monday (to give you a few days advance before the 1st).
PS: Just noticed that my tag is wrong - it should be @kiwinanna with two 'n's. Thanks for your planning and organisation for Flash of Red
How are you?
I'm tagging you here to let you know the first week summary is up:
http://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/29246/flash-of-red-february-week-1
Next week you'll be added on to the master list after the post. Thanks for joining in!
@kiwinanna It's fixed on my master list now Liana. Sorry about that. With almost 100 tags I'm bound to make some typos!
@pandorasecho The tag is flashofred2017