The Beauty Of Black and White

Sometimes beauty lies in what's not immediately apparent.

Usually, one can see the elegance of a black and white photo but perhaps not it's essence. Color can distract us by telling our brains something is pretty. With the element of color removed, one has to look a little bit deeper to find some kind of connection. Your eyes and brain have to work a little bit harder to see what's really there.

Think about it in terms of music. Certain musical styles (classical comes to mind) are designed primarily to be listened to. Your brain has to actually work to hear the notes, the nuances and the instruments. It stimulates parts of your brain that probably are used to being left alone. You have to work to think and think to work. To an untrained ear, it can be hard to take in. It invokes a sense of emotion…the kind you won't experience listening to techno or auto-tuned pop. 

A black and white photograph forces you to think a little bit longer. There's no color except black and white (and the grays in between), so your brain, which sees color through your eyes, is forced to fill in the blanks. You may look at it just a bit longer than a color photo for that reason. 

The elegance comes from the tonality. When we see dark and light tones carefully balanced and working together, we see what looks like art and we keep flipping through the book. If you put that same black and white photo in the middle of a bunch of vibrantly colored photos, you'll naturally look at it longer and remember it. I don't think the opposite is necessarily true. We see color all of the time through our eyes.

The essence is what the photo is telling us. It becomes more apparent with the distraction of color stripped away. We can feel the photo speaking to us because it's stripped down to it's intrinsic nature. You've undoubtedly heard the term "less is more." That couldn't be more true.

More Portraits from Adriatica

 A couple more from Adriatica in McKinney. These were taken last year, back in the days when my daughter would cooperate anytime I wanted to get a few shots of her. Those days are LONG gone...

Anyway, this is the Northwest corner of the development where there is a long stone wall. I took these with my D80 (also long gone) and added some post-processing later.  

Spot the Adriatic Portrait

The Adriatica (annoying music warning) development in McKinney is quickly becoming the most photographed background for locally made portraits. I'm just as guilty of it as anyone. Go to any photographers web site and the pics taken at Adriatica are easy to spot. The color of the brickwork is the giveaway. There's just so many great spots to get a great photograph and they're still not finished building.

Lately I've been playing around with some of the pictures I've taken out there and trying to make them just a little less recognizable.  The picture above I recropped a little closer to the subject and made black and white. If you had to guess where it was taken you probably could, but at first glance it's a little hard to tell.

But this one is more than obvious. I like it for the composition.

Christmas Pictures / Holiday Photos

Hard to believe it's that time again, and it's always a busy season for photographers. Doing all those family pics with the kids, the dog, Dad wearing that ugly Christmas sweater in front of a fake fireplace or outside in front of an old fence with fake snow and a broken wagon wheel....yawn. 

We send out a card every year to people on our "list" which is really everyone that sent us a card last year. Most of these folks don't see our family pictures throughout the year, so I try to throw them one that will probably be different than any card they get

So one year I made a portrait of the kids with Santa hats...completely in black and white except for the hats. Above you see the result. Now, it's turned into a tradition...when you get a card from the Haberkern's it's going to  have a similar look. Same kids (just a year older) in b&w with color Santa hats...just a different pose. It's become our holiday trademark. Everyone knows to expect it when they get our Christmas card.

I'm working on this years picture but can't disclose what it will be until after the cards are sent out. Don't want to spoil the surprise. 

If it Works in B&W...

The muslin background I used on this shot is mostly a mixture of gray and light brown and not very attractive in color...I'm talking about the background, not the model.

I bought this at a camera show in Grapevine, TX a few years ago. When I saw it for the first time, it looked much darker with the browns being much deeper. But when I got it home and looked at it in natural light, it wasn't at all what I remember it looking like. I blame the florescent lights at the camera show.

But, it does look pretty good when used in a black and white photo which is why I used it for this shot of Kayla from our last session.  You end up with varying shades of gray with some texture. It wasn't what I intended when I bought it, but if it works, it works. 

Backgrounds

Dug this one out recently. Last year I was taking pictures of the different backgrounds I had and was drafting my daughters friends to sit in front of them for an informal portrait. I think I even made a print for this young lady, but it was color and cropped much closer. This time I left the original ratio and converted it to black and white Thought it looked ok, but that background is brighter than what I usually like. Adding the vignette definitely helped.

This paper background is sort of a light bone color. I had originally bought it when I was experimenting with different colored gels. I don't think I ever officially used it for a portrait other than this one time. Maybe I should revisit using it and trying some black and whites with it...if it's still usable. 

Most of my backgrounds are muslin, but I really like the paper backgrounds because they're seamless. The problem is the size. Most paper backgrounds come either 53" or 107." Nothing in between. This is a problem because 53" is almost too small, and definitely too small for groups. AND I can't set up the 107" anywhere in my house. I did try to cut one down once to about 84" but nearly destroyed it. Dull saw I guess. I kept it in my garage during the summer months and when I finally decided to use it, the paper had warped from the heat. 

Canvas backgrounds are really nice, too, but costly. I think the best backgrounds are the ones found outdoors.

Thirds Shmirds: Break Some Rules

Lesson #1 in the Rules Of Composition Bible (I'm sure there is one) is to remember the "rule of thirds." There's actually a Wiki entry:

The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.

In other words you should NEVER put your subject dead center. Well....

Sometimes I do it anyway...sort of. With portraits, especially close ups, I like to recrop so that the image is on a slight angle, and maybe one eye is close to dead center. The image above is a good example and there are a few in the gallery. So while I'm not following the rule of thirds, it still works. 

If you have any books on photography, find any "rule" and purposely break it. You may be surprised at the results.

What's Good?

I tend to steer clear of photographer's forums. 

Sometimes there are some good tips on how to achieve a certain look i.e. what camera settings to use, where to put your strobes, etc. What annoys me are the know-it-alls that critique pictures based on nothing but lighting ratios and lenses. They start picking apart things that nobody cares about unless you only go "by the book." It's annoying to read someone picking apart a beautiful photograph because of where a shadow falls and therefore giving it the title "all wrong." 

Then you look at the photos posted by these critics. They might be lighted correctly, but usually they are booor-ing. They don't say anything.  Are these the people I want to get advice from? Probably not. If someone gives me some critisism, good or bad, I always go back and check their work.  If I really like what they do, I'll give what they say some serious thought. If their photography is garbage, I just ignore it.  

Art comes from breaking rules. I get my best shots when I feel like my work is getting stale and I think, "forget about the flash and the shadows," and just start shooting in ways I usually don't. 

Super Shallow Depth

Still at the Heard, I used a 50mm f1.4 for this one. Not my lens, I'm still mostly working with my 24-200mm f4.0.

Got some great depth of field on this one. I used a little bit of flash just for some fill-in since this was a covered area. It was also about 85 degrees. Kayla was becoming uncomfortable wearing that sweater.

Argyle & Pigtails

The week before last I did a marathon photo shoot with Kayla, who has worked with/for me for a few years now. I also did her senior pics last year. She's getting ready to to move on to some big endeavors so she agreed to squeeze in one more shoot while she's still in town. More on that later.

Our first stop was the Heard Museum where we spent over two hours taking pictures. This was one of the first ones we did. I thought the ripped up jeans and pigtails against the wood screamed for some sepia. The argyle sweater doesn't exactly fit, but we weren't going for any type of theme and I didn't tell Kayla what to wear or what to do with her hair.