Photography Article Black and White Book Club: week 3 (Feb. 10-16)|Photography Artist Statement

We have reached the mid-point of the month for our Black and White Book Club study of Michael Freeman's The Complete Guide to Black and White Digital Photography (or the Black and White Photography Field Guide). Be sure to read the overview,week 1, and week 2 posts if you are just joining in. Everyone is welcome to participate, even without a copy of either book, but if you do have the book, you will have more to draw on during the month.

Week 3 (Feb. 10-16th) will focus on Elements of Visual Design in Photography – thinking about shape, structure, tone, volume, form, and texture. We will be covering pgs. 46-61/44-59 (optional processing pages: 82-103/80-103).

* For those participating via 365project.org and want to also add the "Flash of Color" element, Feb. 13th will be the day for Flash of Color – an image processed with selective color to bring out only a specific color. Last year was flash of red, but you are free to choose any color. This will create one color image in the precise center of your 365project calendar.

Elements of Visual Design in Photography

This week's chapters cover some of the elements of visual design in photography: shape, structure, tonal nuance, volume, form, and texture. (For the curious, I am borrowing the cohesive term "elements of visual design" from last August's Photography Book Club of Freeman Patterson's Photography and the Art of Seeing.)

I will admit to being a little pissed off at Freeman's brevity in these chapters. While he alludes to the various elements within the chapter titles, he does now not do much to outline or explain them for the reader. So, for the curious, I can be borrowing extra from Patterson to put out some basis.

Shape: "All shapes are two-dimensional, such as a square, a circle, the silhouette of a tree, or the outline of a cup … In real life every three-dimensional object has as many shapes as there are positions from which it can be viewed" (Photography and the Art of Seeing, pg. 106). Freeman focuses on the idea of shape as silhouette that "depends heavily on outline … defined by edge contrast" (pg. 46/44). Think about edges and silhouettes and how to see shapes this week.

Tone: Tone includes the range of hues or colors in an image, which is simplified when shooting in black and white to the tones from pure black to pure white and all the grays in between. "What this allows is a clearer, purer concentration on the subtleties of transition between shades of gray" (pg. 50/46). Think about which tones are present or featured in your image.

Volume and Form: While a two-dimensional photograph does not have actual depth, "the illusion of depth or perspective is easily created. In fact, it occurs naturally, owing to the ways that the intensity, quality, direction, and colour of light illuminate the subject matter" (Ibid, pg. 107).  Freeman shows in his example the impact of side lighting in highlighting the volume and form of a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional photograph. Think about lighting and the angles of your lighting this week. See how side lighting or backlighting or front lighting changes your image.

Texture: "Texture is the visual weave or fabric-like nature of surfaces … As much as anything else, the direction from which light falls on the subject matter influences the photographic representation of texture" (Ibid, pg. 107). Freeman stresses that "almost any relief texture looks stronger under a point-source light that casts hard shadows, and in particular under raking light, from a low angle" (pg. 54/52). Try to search out some interesting textures this week or fill the frame with a single texture or a combination of textures.

There are quite a few methods to use those thoughts this week, as the subjects are as much as you. Think about shapes and angles; consider lights and timing; and consider what you want to reap: shape vs. Quantity, texture vs. Smooth tones, or ?

Delving in to "Digital Monochrome" chapters

This week's optional section on digital processing takes a look at some unusual processing options as well as a basic processing workflow (pages 82-103/80-103). The infrared spectrum, while outside our normal visual range, is not necessarily outside the range that can be capture by your camera's sensor. Freeman details how cameras are created to filter out IR and how you could use infrared for photography.

The processing workflow chapters are certainly at the heart of the "digital darkroom" idea. Freeman presents an overview of what a number of the options and panels appear like in diverse RAW conversion packages, and he devotes an entire chapter to Silver Efex Pro.

Example of an Adobe Camera Raw workspace

"Reduced to the handiest, there are simply three basic picture features for monochrome photography: brightness, contrast, and tonal variety. When you shoot ? You can affect just the first of these ? In relation to processing, but, each of these is adjustable" (pg. Ninety six). Freeman then walks through a few basic definitions of each of these three terms and covers a few common ways to alter them in publish-processing, frequently inclusive of numerous editions to perform the equal intention. He shows adjusting the quit factors of the histogram first (tonal variety), then adjusting the brightness, and finally running at the comparison, and he gives several comparative (although frequently pretty subtle) examples of such changes.

Does his system suit your workflow for black and white photography? Do you watched there are steps that he's lacking, that you could re-arrange, or that seem like they need more explanation? Consider sharing to your descriptions a few detail approximately your workflow system this week.

Multiple Ways to Join the Book Club

Want to participate? Post a comment with your thoughts or a link to a picture you have taken for the Book Club and an explanation of how the book influenced your image. Or, you can post pictures and contribute to the discussion by joining the Photography Book Club Group on Flickr.

Parting words for the week, "It makes it feasible to reap nearly any doable distribution of tones, with nearly an excessive amount of choice. It absolutely demands a clear idea of what you need to reap, preferably before you start the procedure" (pg. 50/46).

Anyone else locating precisely this aspect a struggle?

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