Black and White

A very photographic theme for this week, which Anne Sandler of Slow Shutter Speed proposes us. The history of photography begins in black and white, it took years to incorporate color.

When I started taking photography more seriously, I wasn’t too interested in black and white. If the world is in color, why remove it?

But little by little, I was taking more black and white photographs. Some there were those photos that maybe in color didn’t tell me anything and yet in black and white they were more interesting, others, the least, are photos intended for black and white.

It was a beautiful scenery, those mountains, those clouds in the sky and then… I removed the color. I thought it was a good idea, to highlight the object of interest that was the wooden bench.

In this I did not need to wait for the development to see it in black and white.

I think black and white is very good for portraits. It is said that they have more strength and more emotional load.

In architecture it gives a good result. Also to give cohesion to a series of photos.

My process is quite simple, I shoot in Raw and develop in Camera Raw. I usually use manual settings. If it’s going to be black and white, it’s the first thing I modify, then trim if necessary, adjust exposure, contrast and some clarity. For black and white, sometimes, I may play a little with the tones, if they can improve the result.

From time to time I also like to use film, like the ones I did with the camera, Agfa Billy Record, that my little son gave me a few years ago. It’s a very different experience, that I would recommend to everyone.

For this shot I used Ilford XP2 Super C41 ISO 400 and I took it to reveal to an establishment in my town, that they still do this kind of work. I even made a comparison, taking the same picture on film and in digital, X100 versus Billy.

Posted as part of Lens-Artists: Black and White

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