Eshin Direct

I do like shooting in black and white. Personally, I think it makes things uncomplicated and you can focus on the fundamentals like composition, lighting and to coin a term from Ansel Adams, forces you to “previsualise” the shot¹. Of course it is a little more complicated and there is a whole wealth of learning needed to make some great shots using black and white. Afterall, in the history of photography, most of the techniques and disciplines have all been developed with black and white in mind.

I’ve picked up some books specifically on black and white photography². I’m also back to my 28-80 kit lens from my old N80, shooting it at 35mm with the lowest aperture I can use, which is 3.5. I like grain, so I set the ISO at 1600 for black and whites. At least where possible. I’m trying to develop a discipline with my shooting but it’s hard with so many goodies on the D90 that you just want to play.

Here are some results of my early forays into black and white³ (forgive the lack of post-production⁴ ):

1. While his term entered into the photographic lexicon, he later did say that the pre- was perhaps a little superfluous. [↩]
2. Or grayscale photography, since this is probably a more accurate term. [↩]
3. Not a complete selection mind, since I’m still trying to establish the workflow. A little hard since my computers are in two different flats. [↩]
4. Although, you should really be able to get the photo right without the post-production. [↩]

Tags: black & white, d90, n80, nikon, Photography, photos