learn photography – 10 – black & white

I’ve had a bit of a problem with my computer so my submission for Raj’s black & white lesson was on the back burner for the past week.  I decided to challenge myself during this lesson by using a 50 mm lens and manual focus during a rain storm.  The outcome of my exploration with various f-stops was hampered by the – sigh – a very limited experience and trust with manual focus.

Nikon D750  f/5.6  1/30s  50mm  200 ISO  manual focus

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Nikon D750  f/5.6  1/30s  50mm 200 ISO  manual focus

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Before the rain, I decided to explore the interactions of the histogram and shutter speed in the Nikon D750 while photographing the arrival of autumn.

f/7.1  1/6s  300mm  ISO 200

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15 thoughts on “learn photography – 10 – black & white”

  1. Great that you show the comparisons; to me color is better on the leaves, and monochrome rocks are really interesting. Nice post, thanks.

    1. Carto, thank you for taking the time to visit and especially for sharing your perspective. I agree about the leaves…red is not a common fall color here.

  4. Remarkable capture of the rain drops; I have never seen them this way before. Motion, dynamism, and composition are all there. Wonderful work.

  5. First of I am very sorry for not responding to your post Brenda. I was travelling last week and must have missed your post.

    Set 1: Perfect example to show the merits of B&W shooting. Even though the colour version also a beautiful picture, but the B&W conveys the story better which is quite evident from water splashes. 1/30 secs helped a lot. As an improvement, you could have tried when there were more water splashes. You could try still slower shutter speeds too, but you have to use a tripod for that shot.

    Set 2: Again similar shot only difference is not able to see more of that streaks. The issue here is the background which is white which hides these tracks. I liked the first set.

    Set 3: I feel here colour makes more sense. There is a lot of noise in the colour output, and I believe picture loses the quality here. The lens is also to be blamed as you are using the zoom lens.
    Great to see you are using your prime lens, nothing can match the quality of the prime lens. Please do more photography on that lens. It’s very rewarding.

    This critical review is part of the XDrive’s photography learning session. Thank you for being here.
    Raj

    1. Raj, thank you for taking the time to respond to my posting. It is interesting to learn how my eyes see images differently after your comments and how manual focus is like driving a stick-shift as opposed to an automatic drive. I find that I was “blind” to the white background of the second image as my attention was “captured” by the raindrops. Thanks again for these challenges and especially for your supportive feedback.

      1. True, often we tend to only think about our own idea and perspective, not just in photography but even in our life too. Only when you “attempt” to think from others angle, you will grow. even if others were wrong! 🙂 Its a win win situation. Yes manual focus and a prime lens, that is a beast combination…!! It will open up lot more opportunities in photography.

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