Posted by JL Morris on January 18, 2008
Posted under
Black & White,
Critiqued,
Landscape
The question has come up, “When should I convert a color photograph to black and white”. My answer is, “Whenever you like”. There was a time not so long ago when most photo judges (experts) said that color photography had to be black and white to be art. They were what I call Ancel Adams purists. When you convert your photograph from color to B&W often you will get an entirely different feeling for the subject. So it is worth doing every so often just to see if you find the new de-saturated image interesting.
Quality black and white images more often than not have detail throughout the gray scale for the deepest blacks to the whitest high lights. The same concepts of graphics, exposure and depth of field all apply. You have to start with a good image to get a good image. And don’t go overboard with the tinting. It can make your photo look soft, and if that is not what you want stick with crisp black and white.
This image taken in the Catalina Mountains was originally photographed in color and because the photo-artist thought the late afternoon light was to yellow he elected to convert it to B&W with sepia ton. The end result looks like a 1950’s post card with plenty of room at the top to print “Howdy form Tucson Arizona”.
As a framed image I would like to see less sky making this a mini panorama. And don’t be afraid to take off a little of the tallest cactus.
Click on Image 
Color 
Post Card 
Cropped 
Share This
Color 
Cropped 
January 19th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I have to agree that it does look rather postcard-esque, not that its a bad thing. After alternating between the color and b/w variants of the photos I noticed that while a strong picture in black and white, it wasn’t anything special in color. I think the photographer made an EXCELLENT decision in converting this into black and white. He/She changed a rather normal photo into a photo that is whatever you are thinking at the moment.