This year I wanted to take a break and not make any calendars. It turned out differently. The motifs are compiled on the theme of black & white and without a consistent picture theme.
4 bars of chocolate were meant as a reward for a calendar of the year 2023. To eat, of course. However, it is a special pleasure to subject them to an X-ray examination with the mammography before opening them. After three attempts, I placed them on top of each other, which is why their penetration with radiation required 20% more energy so that the image was not underexposed.
Theresultwascleartome beforehand. Ihadfoundsuch an idea in the images of AnselAdams.
Less subtle is the following motif with a wooden bench for tired hikers. In this image the fern, the bench and the stone marker are the brightest objects.
Different hues of green lead to different levels of brightness in the black and white cosmos. Our destination for the day was Lake Buhlbach, which unfortunately could no longer be circumnavigated on foot in the newly opened national park.
Infact, theconstructionofamountainstationonthe Schilthorn beforeit becamethelocationforthe4th James BondmoviestarringGeorgeLazenbywascertainly controversialandeconomicallyquestionable. After themovie, everythingwasclear. Todayyou canadmiremanyscenesand theirmakingofonaseparatefloor, aswellas10minutesof impressivefilmsaboutthelocallandscapeandthefilm.
ItwasonlywhileprocessingtheimagesthatInoticedthemany airplanetracksintheskythathadnot been thereforsolong.
ThemountainrangeofEiger (left), MönchandJungfrau also looks betterin black-and-whitetechnique. The imminent changeoftheweatherisalreadyclearlyvisibleontheimage.
Readinghis book“TheNegative”notonly givesmeinsightinto thetechnicalprocessesthatthe“analogue”photographers hadtostrugglewith. Hisoften shortsentencesorcomments ontheimageevaluationareaninspiringsource, whichalways evokeinmethe imageofaqualifiedmusicianfromAnsel Adams. He didn’t loose the spirit of music when photographing or processing.
Hiscommentsoninfraredphotographyinspiredmetorework acolorimageofthenorthernpartoftheislandof Syltandto studytheeffectofdifferentcolorfiltersoncontrasts and tonality.
I am feeling rewardedthatthispicturewaschosenforthegroupin explorebyFlickrthismorning.
Thecontrastsinthecolorimageareweaker, thecoloralso distractsalittlefromthemoodofanimpending thunderstorm. A bitofluminosity or radiancecomesout betterinthecloudsinthe black andwhiteimage.
The basicquestionofthecreativephotographeris, wether the representation of a photograph is literal or a departure from reality as projected in his „mind’s eye“. An expressive image is photographer’s goal. Whentheinteractionofthedifferentfactorsofexposure, apertureandcameracharacteristicsis well understood, creative freedomknowsnolimits. Positively speaking: the sky is the limit.
Thescenarioofanalmostthreateningthunderstormcloud, which, however, isstillinaprotectivedistance, is sometimes surprisingonthe beach. The tetrapods on my image will protect the island from flooding, but not us from rain.
Acoloredpicture blursthisimpressioncompletely. Blackand white rendering clearlyshowstheenergyinherentina thundercloud. WecameacrossthiscloudatHörnumanditaccompanied us all alongthe beach.
Justashorttime before, Imanagedtocapturetheimpression ofaconstantly beautifulweatherwithacoolwind andgentle waves. Astrongsunpushesawayalldarkthoughts. On the horizon, the clouds are raining a bit.
Many times we are waiting. Weliketodrawstrengthfromcontemplation. Timeispassing byimperceptibly, almostalittletoofast.
Withcolorphotosexpressiveimagescan also becreated. The true brightnessvaluesofacolorimageliketo deceiveoureyes. Quantitativeestimationwiththehelpof Lab color displayisa greathelpintheaccurate determinationof brightnessvalues. TomakeanimagelooklikeIhaditin my „mind’s eye“.
AnideaofAnselAdamsregardingtherealityofaphotokeeps mecaptive. His bestphotos, ashewritesinhisbook“The Negative”, areoftendescribedbyviewersastrulyrealistic. But they’renot. Onthecontrary. These wouldoftenhave beenthe mostintensivelyworkedonbyhim.
Herepeatedlyinsistsinthis bookthatthe bestimageswould have beenthoseinwhichheleftrealityinthe processingto showwhathewantedtoshoworfelt.
Iamoftenimpressedbytheclouds passing byortheplayofcloudsin thesky. Inacoloredpicture, Idon’tquitesucceedindirectingthe weightofthepicturetothecloudsinthesky. Despite the use offilterswithandwithoutgradients, thecolorimageis beautifullycoloredand bright, butthedesired focusislost. With blackandwhitepictures, itseemstobeeasier.
Ansel Adams suggested in his book „The Negative“ a plan for practice in awareness and visualization to improve skills in black and white photography (Chapter 1, p. 3). „Take nothing for granted“: Black isn’t pitch black, but consists of many dark gray values, white isn’t pure white, but consists of many light gray tones.
One of his further suggestions to improve learning visualization of a subject could be the use of Polaroid Land black-and-white films. He made this suggestion 1981, long before LCD monitor and live view. With these tools our learning curve on each subject and imaging situation is steep.
Using Slow Shutter app I’m able to compose an image in live view mode and integrate a period of time to a single image. The app tends to capture the bright whites first, and doesn’t change them very much while integrating the whole image e.g. for 8 seconds. Therefore, I start my exposure at a moment, where the bright values come close to my visualization of the composition – and then I enjoy the completion. I believe, this feeling is close to the moment, when a print came out in the darkroom.
Ansel Adams didn’t have an electronic optical system. Hisrecommendationswereaimedathavingatrainedeyeand withafewmeasuringpointsanideaof whatthe distributionofgrayvalueswould be inreality, inthe negativeandintheprint (thepositive).
Thisdistributionisnowadaysgivenbyourcamerasasa histogram. Eachpixel of a capture isincluded. Thus, the distribution of gray valuesis notestimated by some 3 to 10measurementpoints. With each pixel of a photo included and millions of them in a single capture we get a quasi-continuousfunctionfromthe lowesttothehighest brightness values: a histogram.
Let’slookatthe following photographofachessboardfromacommon gamecollection and its histogram. (The chessboard was already old and slightly bent.) The chessboard consists of mainly two gray levels: the black and the white chess fields. Each individual chess field consists of slightly differing gray levels. The two peaks in the histogram represent this inhomogeneity of the photographed „black“ and „white“ chess fields.
Departure from realism is a significant contribution to creative imagery if you know to influence your result.
Thedarkroomwasthecentreofanaloguephotography. In a darkroom were created thecopiesofapictureonphoto paper, which had beenplannedwhenshootingwithcameraandfilm. The“digitaldarkroom”isinawaythecontinuationofthe darkroomfromanaloguetimes. Nowadays, theroleof the filmistakenoverbytheRAWimage. Thedevelopment ofthefilmwaslinkedtochemistry, intentionallight and shadow effects andfine feeling. Eachprintwas unique. The“digitaldevelopment”orpostprocessingisnon-destructive, repeatableanddeliversaresult, whichat least theoreticallycanbeprintedasoftenasdesired. In the digital workflow no printis uniqueanymore.
Withadark backgroundandsystematicshadingof daylight, myphotostudio becameadarkroomwhereI could photographflowers. Exposuretimes becamelonger, almostlikealong-termexposureatnightoutside. The saturation of the colors came out surprisingly strong.
Thecreationofafloatingcloudwiththehelpofwhitetulle didnotrequireshading to achieve the effect of a darkroom. As my friend Lorenz mentioned, looking closer you can see nice interference patterns (Newtonian rings). I’m happy with this image idea: the image got two days later a Flickr in explore.
The soft variations of light and shadow fit well to a soft vetch.