I have been 'playing around' a bit more with black and white conversions and experimenting with the types of moods that black and white images can convey.
A few years ago I went on an amazing workshop with Nancy Rotenberg, which took place on the Oregon Coast. One of the most surreal places I have ever seen was Bandon Beach, Oregon. In fact, it was so other-worldly that I took one of my images and made the colors somewhat surreal in order to try to convey the 'feeling' of being in that location, rather than just using the image to show what the location looked like. While I liked the image, I always had my doubts as to whether the viewer would understand what I was trying to say and feared they would just see the image as 'hypersaturated'. Of course, if the image doesn't convey what it is that you, as the artist, want it to, it has failed, at least on some level.
Siren's Song
Copyright Howard Grill
However, when I converted the same image to black and white it seemed to immediately convey to me the surreal feel that I was looking for. I believe it may be a more successful rendering of the photograph. What do you think?
Siren's Song
Copyright Howard Grill
Perhaps, if you agree that it is more successful, the reason might be that converting it to monochrome immediately removes it from the realm of a 'normal' representation of place, as we don't normally see things in black and white. I'm not sure if this explains it, but I thought it was an interesting possibility to consider.
10 comments:
Black and White is always worth trying with those "something isn't right" images.
I had a Big Bend picture I stared at for two years, never deleted it but never printed it either.
When I converted it to B&W, it suddenly conveyed what I had intended all along.
I really like your description of feeling that 'something isn't right' with the image because although I liked the color image, that is the exact feeling I had about it.
Do you have your image up on a website? I would love to see it.
A wonderful example of what Ansel Adams always found difficult with color; that is, in color, one has considerably less flexibility to artistically alter the image before its "obvious" nonreality overwhelms the emotion that the artist is trying to convey. There is a great deal more latitude in these "aesthetric dimensions" when using BW, since - by conception - it is already one step removed from reality (being BW), viewers don;t have the same filters in place preventing the real message from coming through. BTW: *Both* images are superb!
Andy, thanks, as always, for your input!
I believe B&W can be a great simplifier. Like already mentioned, sometimes that feeling of something isn't right is the color itself - a distraction from what is really important in the image.
Howard,
Now that I've seen you're comment, I'll put the image up on Facebook, I don't have that one on my website at the moment.
Hey Al, at first I couldn't figure out what alcap meant or who it was...but now I got it figured out. Love to see the shot
Ooops, thats right, to many personas and pseudonyms in the digital world!
Howard,
Although I like both your images, I prefer the color image which seems to leap out and grab me, I find it more striking in terms of the simplicity and the boldness of the rich colors, its more like a painting than a photograph and my guess would be that it would be quite powerful if printed large. To me the black and white seems to be a bit "soft", not in terms of sharpness, just something about the sky being a bit bland, but hey thats me! I have found that conversions are sometimes not easy to do, I tend to shoot pretty well all of my own work in black and white ( film ) and usually know before I have taken the picture that I will have a successful image.
Keep up the good work !
Gary
Gary...thanks for commenting. It really is a talent to be able to pre-visualize in black and white. But I am trying more conversions so maybe with some practice I will improve that sense. I guess that is one of the benefits of digital...that it is not totally necessary to commit before taking the shot.
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