B&W (black & white) photography offers a fantastic opportunity to intrigue your viewer.
By removing color from your capture, you remove a lot of the cues that would, in a sense, spoon-feed the viewer what it is you are trying to say. This way, the viewer is encouraged to experience a stronger emotional reaction, as he/she observes a scene that is so much more open to interpretation.
The weather has been a bit naughty the last few days. However, if you’re not afraid of getting a little wet, it can present some truly wonderful opportunities for expression.
Water can be a wonderful plaything. It is ever changing, always moving. It catches light in a wonderful manner. Because of this quality, it offers a great opportunity for creative post processing, where you can give your entire image a surreal feel.
As any of you that have shot in low light know, the use of a flash can save you out of a dark and/or blurry photograph. In fact, you may have even used your flash during the day, if you are trying to equalise a strongly backlit subject.
However, a flash can be used to do a lot more. You can actually point it away from whatever you’re shooting, and watch what happens…
Some ideas for you to try are to point it to a wall next to your subject, or the ceiling. Things become more interesting when you have some coloured surface to bounce your light off, such as a wooden table (yes, you can also bounce the flash from the bottom up).
Note : You cannot do this with a built-in flash unit. Be it a P&S (Point and Shoot, ie pocket), or DSLR, camera, that flash is built to always point the same way as your lens. You need an articulated flash unit, ie a flash that can, at least, change elevation (and, in better units, rotation).
Here are some picks of the crop from a shoot we did at a wonderful garden. You may notice how sepia tone, among other adjustments, has been used to warm up these shots and complement both the rose, and the model.
