I admit the title of this little write-up is surely a little provocating but today I would like to share a very intense, if not game changing experience for me that I had a few days ago.
As a little background information you should know, that for the longest time I always admired the beauty of black and white landscape photography. I always enjoyed Richards and Andrews work for example. I tried a few myself but never got a nearly satisfying and artistic result. Richard already tipped me off to the Silver Efex Pro plugin which he is using but somehow I never got around playing with it.
Back to the real story...
I went to meet my friend and photographer Kai Tikkonen to make a few prints of mine in his studio. When I arrived he was working on an image using the exact same plugin. Of course I immediately had to try it myself. With his darkroom experience and his exquisite taste Kai showed how to achieve a good B&W conversion. And man what could say...the print blew my mind! We printed it on a very thick Tecco high-quality paper and framed it nicely with a beautiful paasepartout. Couldn't be more beautiful. I was amazed how much bigger the impact of the B&W print was. I had it at home a few days and couldn't stop looking at it. Did I mention I would also sell those?
Afferwards we converted a few more images of mine (which I intended as a colour image) and printed them. When comparing the the colour and B&W versions of the images, I enjoyed much more the depth of the B&W's.
At home I immediately downloaded the plugin myself and started to learn how to use it. While I'm still learning on how to get more familar with the software, I have more and more the feeling, that I start to prefer the B&W versions of my images the more I work with it. I enjoy their depth, the timelessness and their sheer elegance.
Will I now abandon colour completely? Of course not, but I have the feeling you are going to see a lot, lot more B&W's here on my blog as I dig deeper into that.
So, please stay tuned for upcoming updates on my blog. The first shot should be up during this week.
PS: This post is also a little experiment, as we are trying some changes in Pixyblog's API and this post is entirely made on the iPhone using WriteRoom and iBlogger.
As a little background information you should know, that for the longest time I always admired the beauty of black and white landscape photography. I always enjoyed Richards and Andrews work for example. I tried a few myself but never got a nearly satisfying and artistic result. Richard already tipped me off to the Silver Efex Pro plugin which he is using but somehow I never got around playing with it.
Back to the real story...
I went to meet my friend and photographer Kai Tikkonen to make a few prints of mine in his studio. When I arrived he was working on an image using the exact same plugin. Of course I immediately had to try it myself. With his darkroom experience and his exquisite taste Kai showed how to achieve a good B&W conversion. And man what could say...the print blew my mind! We printed it on a very thick Tecco high-quality paper and framed it nicely with a beautiful paasepartout. Couldn't be more beautiful. I was amazed how much bigger the impact of the B&W print was. I had it at home a few days and couldn't stop looking at it. Did I mention I would also sell those?
Afferwards we converted a few more images of mine (which I intended as a colour image) and printed them. When comparing the the colour and B&W versions of the images, I enjoyed much more the depth of the B&W's.
At home I immediately downloaded the plugin myself and started to learn how to use it. While I'm still learning on how to get more familar with the software, I have more and more the feeling, that I start to prefer the B&W versions of my images the more I work with it. I enjoy their depth, the timelessness and their sheer elegance.
Will I now abandon colour completely? Of course not, but I have the feeling you are going to see a lot, lot more B&W's here on my blog as I dig deeper into that.
So, please stay tuned for upcoming updates on my blog. The first shot should be up during this week.
PS: This post is also a little experiment, as we are trying some changes in Pixyblog's API and this post is entirely made on the iPhone using WriteRoom and iBlogger.
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Comments
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Here on this blog I will post some news about my work or my website. Also from time to time you will find some articles or polls. I'm not that much of a writer, but maybe that changes. In the "Links" (will be up soon) you will find some of my favorite sites. Some of my favorite photoblogs you find in the "About" page.
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Posted by rj on September 08, 2009 at 03:15 PM EEST #
Posted by Jamie on September 08, 2009 at 03:28 PM EEST #
Posted by Thatch on September 08, 2009 at 05:05 PM EEST #
Posted by stefan on September 13, 2009 at 11:32 AM EEST #
@Stefan: Could be a good idea. Would like to know how to use it better first myself. But maybe in the future.
Posted by Sven on September 13, 2009 at 05:34 PM EEST #
Posted by laanba on September 15, 2009 at 02:16 PM EEST #
I just love how the B&W adds so much more atmosphere to an image, and somehow draws more focus on the scene due to the absence of colour. Also interesting is that it forces someone to different composition or shooting style. I already noticed/learned that not every image is suitable for a B&W conversion. At least it feels like it.
Hopefully I find some time to shoot soon again.
Posted by Sven on September 17, 2009 at 05:41 PM EEST #