So much for writing...

[cairistiona]

Brain is still fogged, but the sun was at the right angle, so I took the camera out to the garden to play around with black and white photography, something I've not dabbled in much. But I wanted to focus on the shape and form of a flower, in this case a peony, which tends to be my floral muse each year. I can't resist playing with images of them.

Before we get to the b&w images, a color one that I took yesterday. The day was cloudy, with diffuse light that didn't provide enough contrast for good black and white images, though I do love how soft the bloom looks in color:



Today the sunshine was very bright, which, as I hoped, lent itself well to more drama:



This next one is a bloom well past its prime. In color, it's drab, all the pink faded to dull white with brown spots, and overall it looks about as you'd imagine. But I think it gets a new lease on life in black and white:

Comments

[ysilme]

There are terrific! I love black and white photography very much, but I most confess as gorgeous as your shots are, the coloured one is my favourite. ;o)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I tend to waver back and forth about whether I prefer B&W or color. I think in some instances, you just *have* to have color... otherwise you never catch those beautiful shades. But sometimes, like some have mentioned, b&w can bring new life and perspective to a subject. I love it that digital cameras can do both with a simple change in settings. :)

[ysilme]

Have you ever compared shots taken in B&W to shots changed afterwards to a grey scale? That is what I do sometimes; my SLR doesn't have a B&W setting. I could program one of the three custom setting options for it, but so far couldn't be bothered, TBH, since it seems so much easier to do afterwards. But I don't know if this makes a difference.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I've tried the greyscale post-edit, too... it does a good job on some photos but not others, I've found (or at least the "auto convert" feature does an okay job on some but not others... I guess if I were more of a photoshop genius I could convert any photo manually but that's a little beyond my skill set!). If there's good contrast on the original, the greyscale conversion looks better, to my eye. For me, taking the photo to begin with in b&w usually gives me more control over the outcome because I'm taking the shot deliberately for b&w effect--so I'm looking more at shape and light and shadow rather than color. But most definitely, if you don't have the b&w setting on your camera, it's a good alternative. And it's fun to play with converting for creative effect. I just love all the tools digital photography offers!