Click HERE to view as a web page

MPS PHOTO TIP OF THE MONTH

 Black and White Photography

This time of year, with the snow and gray skies can be a great time to shoot in Black and White. Here are some things to consider...

    Look for shapes, tones, and textures in your image as points of interest. Pay attention to shadows and highlights... they will become a feature of your shot. Black & white photos really lend themselves to texture... color generally adds another layer of complexity, thus masking the more subtle textures. Look for areas of interesting texture by concentrating on specific surfaces and closely examining them for  patterns and interesting contrast.

    Use the lowest ISO setting possible... something we should do always anyway, but more important in B&W because noise can be more obvious in a B & W image. If you want to add "noise" for an artistic effect, you can always do it later in post production.

    As a personal preference, I  always  shoot in full color and  edit later if necessary. Your SLR may support a Black and White ( or sometimes "sepia") mode, but the problem with shooting in these modes is that you are making all of your creative decisions about your shot at the time of shooting. In most situations shooting in these modes means you cannot recover a full color shot.

      In post production, you can  use "Photoshop" techniques like levels, curves, and layer blends to give you a wide variety of output options. In addition, things like  burning and dodging are highly effective methods of improving contrast. They work well because they allow you to focus the edit on a localized portion of the image without affecting the surrounding areas.

Learning to take compelling B & W images takes a lot of practice. You need to learn to see things in a "monochrome" or gray scale world. A good starting point would be to take some of your favorite images and do some manipulation in the image editor of your choice, After looking at some of your work, go out and practice visualizing in the real world.

SAFARIAN IMAGE GALLERY

Ahh... what a way to feed a spring fever. Our February image of the month was shot by Virginia P. from Albert Lea, MN. This is an area called "Sunken Garden" in Pella, Iowa. Virginia took this picture on our 1st ever  Iowa Special Safari # 9 last August. We spend an entire day in this quaint little town. This park is one of the many great little flower garden areas in Pella, and the windmill is one of many there. Thanks to Virginia for sending this nice image for us to enjoy on a snowy February!