Samstag, 15. Januar 2011

Week 9 - Black & White

Basel
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Before I went out to take the picture today, I had read in my photo book what is important for B&W images. A good B&W image should have a maximum of diffrent gray values between white and black. That means not every motive is suitable for B&W image. I was a little bit disappointed because today the sky was absolutely clear - no clouds anywhere. A clear sky with some clouds would be perfect for a B&W photo. The contrast between clouds and blue sky gives the image a dramatic atmosphere. So I decided to take a picture with wavy water, like a river to bring the diffrent gray colors into my compsition. I took some shot by day and by night. For me the best results gave me the nightshots. The artificial illumination gave a good  contrast to the bridge and the "Basler Münster". I played a little bit with the exposer time and you can see the interesting effect on the bottom of image. The boats are blury and the focus is end on the Basler sight.
Very important is not to reduce the saturation when you bring the color photo into the black and white.
Better is to use a channel mixer for red, green and blue to work out the contrast in the detail you want.
Finally you get a image with a high contrast and the perfect B&W style.
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