The Black & White Landscape

Many people I know–including a significant number of serious photographers–describe themselves as “not getting” black and white imagery or being “black and white challenged.”  At some level, this is understandable.  Only the most severely color blind individuals see in anything approaching shades of gray with their own eyes and when it comes to photography today–given the now long-standing prevalence and acceptance of color photography–many individuals see black & white photography as something alien.

It wasn’t always so, of course.  I won’t bore everyone with a long soliloquy about the historic position of black & white as the predominant–if not only–“serious” form of nature photography, but that’s how it was until Eliot Porter came along and things gradually changed.  We now live in a world turned more or less upside down–color is king and black and white is closer to being a curiosity.  But black and white photography has never disappeared completely and has experienced something of a renaissance in the last decade or more.

One of the greatest challenges to a digital photographer is that the best way–from the point of view of pure image quality–to create black and white photographs is to capture images in color and convert them to b/w in the digital darkroom.  There are black and white modes of capture endemic to many DSLRs, but you’re almost always throwing away data by using them.  Looking through the viewfinder (or Live View), you’re still seeing a scene in color; imagining what it will look like in black and white is a comparatively difficult thing to do, at least initially, for just about everyone.  It remains difficult, in perpetuity, for many.

I’ve been asked whether I shoot with black and white images in mind at the point of capture or whether it’s just a lucky happenstance after the fact that an image seems to “work” in monochrome.  The truth is, sometimes I shoot fully anticipating converting an image to black and white while in the field and sometimes an image I shot fully intending to process it as a color photo just seems to work in black and white.  It’s more the former than the latter, however.  (The images accompanying this entry are a mix of both types.)

What makes an image work in black and white?  That’s very much a matter of opinion…so here’s mine.  Among the criteria–not necessarily mutually exclusive–that I’m looking for in a scene with the notion of converting to black and white post-capture are:

1. A natural lack of color in the scene
2. Strong graphic appeal
3. Patterns
4. An emphasis on lines, shapes and textures
5. A scene where color seems to be detracting from the primary elements of the scene

There’s more to it than that, but beyond the above points it becomes increasingly intangible–more subject to the inexplicable “gut feel” that a scene may work as well (or better) in black and white as in color.  Monochromatic presentations can enhance moodiness if it’s already evident in a scene, but in other instances they also lend themselves to added dynamism by allowing contrast to be pushed to the edge in a way that color does not.

I’ve heard it said that images either work in color or black and white, but never both.  I don’t agree ; I think that some images work both ways.  I almost always prefer one rendition to the other, but occasionally I feel as though I’m splitting hairs trying to choose.  It should be noted, however, that I almost always have a different feel from an image in black and white than I do in color.  It may not necessarily be better or worse, but it’s almost always distinct.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve seen black and white images scattered among the color offerings, but I’ve typically included monochromatic images to illustrate some other point.  The photos, in these instances, just happened to fit the focus of the entry; that they were black and white was superfluous to the main theme.  The following nine images were selected specifically to make a point related to the monochromatic presentation and/or to demonstrate the breadth of landscape scenes that arguably work as black and white images.

Madison Falls, Olympic National Park, Washington

I thought about converting the Madison Falls image to b/w when I was shooting it, as I frequently do when I’m working with waterfall sectionals.  There’s usually not a lot of color (as was the case here–just a bit of green moss on the rocks) and the textures and patterned nature of images like this often are better revealed in monochrome.  I do think the shot works in color as well, but is considerably less graphic.

Surging Surf, Monument Cove, Acadia National Park, Maine

There was never a consideration not to convert this image to b/w.  The only color present was the brown of the rocks which was, I felt, a massive distraction from the tonal patterns of the dark rocks and bright surf, which serve as a kind of yin-yang here.

Bayocean Spit, Oregon

I gave heavy consideration to b/w when I was shooting this image, in a heavy morning fog that blanked out any background distractions.  Again, there was little color of interest–just the dull brown of the muddy/sandy mix at my feet.  The shot is all about the sinewy, snaking water channel and the less there is to pull the eye from that shape, the better.

McConnells Mill, McConnells Mill State Park, Pennsylvania

This was kind of a fluke.  I was hanging around the mill, waiting for the light to improve, and was messing around with different compositions.  This image, shot with an ultra-wide angle lens (14-24 mm on a full-frame camera), was in fairly contrasty light and the intention was to use the leading lines of the iron fence and stone wall.  It simply processed better in black and white than color, but had the light been softer, that might not have been the case.

Heart of the Dunes, White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

One of the advantages of b/w relative to color is that it’s possible to push the contrast on monochrome images much further than one otherwise would because the viewer has already had to suspend his/her sense of reality to accept the lack of color in the first place.  In color photography, high contrast often makes an image look bad.  With b/w, it’s often a requirement to push contrast to retain interest.  The above image is an example of a shot that I think works in both formats, but the b/w version is more dynamic.  Added contrast really makes the clouds in the sky pop and fully brings out the lines and texture in the rippled sand.

West Side Trees in Winter, Morton Arboretum, Illinois

B/W was very much on my mind–as it frequently is–when I’m shooting Midwest winter scenes.  There was essentially no natural color in this shot.  Going full b/w helps bring out the patterns of the tree trunks and the tonal contrast provided by the bright snow and the dark trunks.

Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park, Washington

If I stated that I was thinking b/w when I shot this, I’d be lying through my teeth.  This was an incredibly lush scene, and I think it works very well in color, but something about working with the shot in the digital darkroom caused me to try a black and white conversion and I was surprised by the result.  While the lush feel of the scene requires the ferns and trees to be seen in color, the patterned details of the fronds are far more emphatic in this monochromatic presentation.

Prairie Dawn, Nachusa Grasslands Preserve, Illinois

I did not consider a b/w conversion when I was in the field sizing up this image.  This shot, I believe, works very well in color; it was shot facing west at dawn, and the soft light is very calming.  But the ability to really push the contrast, particularly in the sky, makes for a much more dynamic image, and provides an entirely different feel in b/w.  I like both versions and really can’t pick a favorite.

Pilings in Morning Fog, Tillamook Bay, Oregon

Shot the same morning as the Bayocean Spit image above.  The only color here was a slight blue cast, which I don’t think added anything.  In b/w, the moodiness of the foggy scene and the patterns of the pilings themselves are the stars of the show, completely unimpeded by the distractions of color.

Note the breadth of scenes rendered in black and white, some expected, others happy accidents.  I like to think that my eye for the black and white image is always improving, but I undoubtedly still have a very long road to travel.