Gosh. More please. How refreshing - a no frills, no expectations but otherwise wonderful presentation delivered in such a way as to inspire and encourage. Extraordinarily rare.
Why I shoot B&W? Simply because I love it. It's the looks, the mechanical feel of my old SLRs and my approach to make it look perfect from the very beginning without post processing. It's a wonderfully slow way of taking pictures...
Great job JB! At 80, I've decided to shoot 2024 with B/W only to rev up my creative juices! I've been shooting since I was 10 and I'm trying to get back to my initial love of photography with included a lot of B/W with a first dark room course while in school at Carnegie Mellon in 1967-69. You address so much of what my senior mind is confronting. Thanks! Looking forward to more from you. Dan
I love the B&W video presentation, and your honest delivery style ; and I agree completely with your explanation of why B&W photography is such a great format. More insights from you please.
This is the way a presentation should be done: no begging for likes, subscribes, etc. (though for this guy I did because I want to hear and see more as a novice just starting to shoot pictures with film).
I love black and white particularly for portraits. When you use B&W for portraits it is as if you can look into the soul of the subject. This clip was superb, you expressed how I feel about B&W.
Do not subscribe, do not like ! You didn't expect my contradictory spirit, I suppose ? Well, I'm glad to see that another person thinks the same way as I do. And when I see what you do I'm stunned. That's beautiful pictures, pictures you can stay a while, just looking at them, not pictures you just look for 2 or 3 seconds and scroll to the next one. Amazing.
I subscribed purely because you have the knowledge, unlike 90% of RUclipsr photographers all claiming to be the next epic photographer of the century. You so are what new generation photographers need to listen to and to learn from your knowledge and skill you have attained over the years is worth more.
I love shooting in B&W, both film and digital. My favorite film stocks are Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP 5 plus, both 35 mm and 120. I also love shooting the Actos film simi,action on my Fuji cameras. I also like pushing my film sticks to get a grainy, high contrast look. Lots of fun!
Awesome. I've started using the Fujifilm X100F Ilford HP5 Plus Film Simulation Recipe by Fuji X Weekly. Highly recommend trying it with Acros or its filtererd variants.
Great video! Recently I dusted off my old film camera from my college days (Olympus OM-2n), and I only shoot B&W with it. It’s been fun. I’ve been trying different film stocks and reliving my photography experience from 35 years ago! Btw, minor point. I know you talked a lot about our vision, and I learned some things from your perspective. But one thing I want to mention is that even though our field of view with our eyes is very wide, our eyes can only focus on a very small portion of it at a time. So to me at least, portrait photography or telephoto sports photography with a blurred background seems like an attempt to recreate how our eyes actually see things. Just an additional thought. Please keep making videos. I’m sure folks can learn a lot from you.
I would add a second good reason, one that many others have espoused, and that is removal of the distraction of color. Focussing mainly on texture, contrast, form, etc., helps us to train our eyes to look for more graphical means of contracting an image. For me, I think my feeble mind gets overloaded with the color information and I lose sight of the more graphical elements, and then miss opportunities. My all time favorites of all my images captured over 50+ years of dabbling in this are of a nephew and later a niece when very young - both on film in B&W. Have recently returned to B&W film and use it along side digital regularly. After all this time I am still learning and enjoying the process.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply and I agree with you. One of the joys of photography is learning to see things very differently than might otherwise be the case.
Your video resonates so clearly. The more i hear people discuss their monochromatic motivations, the clearer my own reasons for choosing it become. Thank you for sharing your insight, both about black and white, and about the 50mm lens. I hadn't quite understood the "50 is normal" until you explained it in terms of the distance between objects. Brilliant insight.
I've just recently "discovered" your RUclips channel. Great fun! Without insulting you, I'll bet you and I are similar age; I even have a pair of Minolta SRT-101's that my wife and I used for years. I now occasionally mount the old Rokkor lenses on my Lumix G9. With the G9's excellent manual focus assist settings, experimenting with the same lenses I used in the 70's is a real kick. Thanks so much for taking the time to produce such inspiring presentations.
This is maybe the first black and white movie I see on youtube...apart from the ones made a long time ago. I've always liked B&W and used a lot of ILFORD film for it before going digital. Film had its charm and people were thoughtful and more economical with the number of images. But it was quite time-consuming to work in the darkroom and do your post processing there. The digital era offers fantastic opportunities and some small shortcomings. I was recently at an exhibition looking at pictures of photographer Kary H. Lasch active in the 1950's onwards, mostly in B&W, I am incredibly touched and impressed when I see the content and quality of some of the pictures from that time. Thanks for your nice youtube post!
Now, contrary to your advice, and only because i enjoyed your presentation and content, i'm doing both the 'Like' and 'Subscribe' things. I was also slightly influenced by the Minolta... the first camera i purchased new was an XD-7 ('11' in the US). Nice touch doing the video in B&W too - very easy on the eye. All the best from a cabin in a swamp in a rainforest in New Zealand.
Minolta 2nd hand SR-mount gear has been my way in photography on a budget when autofocus was the standard and digital begun to kick in. Great content indeed.
My life is in black and white. I have mostly shot in black and white. My drawings are done in black and white. And my favorite dog of all time was black and white. Yet I can look at the world in gray tones.
Excellent presentation. I particularly like the idea of “pre-visualization,” which I learned in my photography classes back in the late 1970s. It defines the difference between “taking” a picture and “making” a picture. Hope to see more wise insights from you.
A man after my own heart. I started photography on a cheap film camera back in the seventies. Always black and white and processed and printed by myself. Great way to start learning. I then went on to become a professional for for over 30 years. Now retired and digging out my old film cameras to get back into simple black and white. What perfect timing to find your video. Man, there are some stupid comments! They just don’t get it. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
On switching to digital, I immediately started experimenting with INFRARED as I liked the dark-sky effect. I had shot a lot in the past using infrared film, but it was frustrating. With digital, I had the mirrorless camera modified by removal of the "hot mirror" which blocks infrared. It is so much easier working with digital. PS: some cameras do not need modifying, but they are generally from the early 2000s.
@@uncunvenchunalwisdom No rigid schedules at my age, Haha! The 35mm Minolta SRT 101 and B&W title drew me to this video. The rest was great. Tks again!
Excellent presentation and explanation. Short, sweet, and to the point. Thank-you for taking the time to make this short video. Learning the art of BW photography is exhilarating. Playing with light and shadow, line form, texture, etc. is a blast. Both good,and not so good, BW photos draw you in instantly. To my photography it is a bonus that BW is already abstract. I still shoot color depending on the situation
Seeing in 3D is a great point! The reason I still shoot with a 0:41 camera or my medium format cameras is that I love the 3D look in the view finder and the slide on my light table. For us old guys it's like looking at images with the old ViewMaster. I struggle after scanning to a digital image because the image is converted to a 2D image. And, I love shooting with b&w film and in b&w mode when I shoot w with my digital camera.
Good video. B&W like drawing is to painting is an amazing way of seeing something. Ansel Adams. The Zone system worked for him to produce a negative from the real world that compressed enough of the >15+ stops range of most outdoor sunny day views we can see with our eyes into something that when printed in the darkroom resulted in a contrasty image that didn't 'blow out' the whites or have large black areas of shadows. aka Pumped up. I knew Adams's printer Dave Gardner. He did a test with Unsharp Masking and showed it to Adams worried that he'd hate it. Sharper edges is also a way of enhancing contrast. Adams loved it, said he wished he could do that in the darkroom to all his images. (Of course he could, but it's really involved. I've done, once or twice just to try it). With digital anyone can go out and shoot an Ansel Adams level image. As your images here show, just because it's easier doesn't make it any less terrific. And while it's easy, doing it well still takes a developed eye and effort. Your tip on previsualization is a good one. Younger photographers take note. What's great about digital is that you don't need to put color filters on your digital camera, just use the color channels. What's good about previsualization is that even if you end up shooting only color you will be better at it because you'll have learned to understand 'value' better. So the process of learning what Adams did is now within anyone's reach. The best lessons are not to later make your vacation photos into B&W, but to go out and shoot with that intent, process them digitally. Making prints is always a terrific step (if you're not spending 80% of your time getting the printer to work while the cartridges bleed you into poverty.) I would call this Deliberate Practice. (A good example for me is from sailing. I can almost always tie a bowline faster and better than any more experienced sailor I've crewed with because I specifically sat down and repeatedly practiced all the best ways to do this. And did it every day until it was automatic. Doing it on the job for many more years wasn't as effective.) Tint/toning. This is more powerful than most people realize. In my B&W darkroom printing I made a lot of RC prints for handing out to the press for upcoming art exhibitions. These prints look okay, but if you slightly tone yours with selenium, they look a little more neutral and 'better.' If my artist wasn't up against David Hockney that week, almost always they'd run my print. Most of my prints I'd partially sepia tone which I think improved them. Another thing I almost always did was wiggle a clear piece of plastic sleeve with a little grease on it for part of the exposure. This blurred out the grain and instead of looking at a surface, you'd be looking at the image. Not sure this can be effectively done printing digitally. (Maybe with the higher resolutions that I haven't done it can be.) A lot of the attraction of B&W, toning and my blur trick is, as photographers we see thousands of images. I was really sick of 4 color magazine printing and even most of the high quality photo books. With color I knew I was looking at the limits of photo mechanical reproduction, which constrained the photographer's intentions. By eliminating color images are unified (maybe those bikers were all wearing mismatched colors that would've distracted from seeing their faces and expressions), viewers don't think, 'So that's what that town by the mountain looked like.' They know their looking at an artistic interpretation. Personally, I wouldn't shoot digitally in B&W. I'd want those color channels I could manipulate later. (But I can still Visualize B&W looking at a color scene. Maybe if you want to learn that.) Film...? I've shot a lot of film. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you do: use a compensating developer. (Weston used one, never owned a light meter.) I wouldn't set up a darkroom, I'd find some school or group and set one up that could be shared. No one is likely to spend the rest of their career shooting only film. Darkrooms take hundreds of hours to do what you can do digitally in a few hours. Digital is also easier to do well. (I've still got most of my darkroom stuff. Be happy if there was a group or school in Southern California who wanted to set it all back up so many people could get film out of their system. My set up was like Hurrell's but I only learned this later speaking with someone who knew him. Adams printed very large from 8x10 negatives so his set up was different.)
Wow...your reply is far more thought provoking than my video. Thanks for taking the time to write such an interesting comment. I live in northern Utah and we had this breaking news just recently. www.ksl.com/article/50965996/orem-film-lab-to-open-accessible-creative-hub-with-community-dark-room At $15 per hour, I will do some darkroom work, even if it is primarily to share the experience with my grandchildren. Doing it all in a home based darkroom, as I did in my teens, just doesn't interest me at this point. I would much rather continue to develop my digital workflow and use that knowledge and skill for previsualization when shooting. Thanks again for your comment.
My First DSLR. A Minolta SR 1 with a 50mm 1.8 lens or 1.7 forgotten now but the great camera I had next was the SRT 101 with the 58/1.4 It travelled the world over many times with me in the mid 1966s onward. I agree with your comments on B&W. I have always maintained that mostly, colour images are carried by the colour over the composition, mostly that is, not always though. With B&W one has to work harder, there is no WOW look at the colour. There is also never a WOW look at the shading, well very rarely, It is usually a WOW for the overall effect. The ambience. The tonality, the balance of objects combined, and actually the shading is often silently critical. I also have a full suit of Topaz AI applications and all their older programs as well. I use ACDSee Ultimate as my main digital process now using Olympus and Panasonic M43 systems. The need to work harder for B&W is still true though.
My first reason for shooting B&W was that it was all I could afford when I started (with a Praktica FX2, giving you an idea of when that was!). Developing and printing I did myself. I still like processing appropriate subjects in B&W.
That was great!! Gave you a like anyway, so TAKE IT! That question and your use of it for B&W output never occurred to me, but it is so natural. Yes, you are right that the casual observer would be thinking of the color rendition first even though there are other variables. And to have only tones just removes that issue from the get-go. Love your photos, especially the birch trees at 0:38 and the town with the towering mountain behind it at 4:30. AWESOME! And I have to comment that I started with a silver SRT 101 and 50 f1.7 on mostly Kodachrome. Seeing yours just warmed my heart.
I certainly like this video. "What is one big reason to shoot B&W?" -> Answer: "...when people view your work they will never ask you 'Is that the way it REALLY looked?'" Simple and wise rationale for B&W photography. Noticed a number of photographs [3:03, 5:06, 5:41, 6:20, 6:41] that had a black 'edge' (of unexposed film) around them - showing exactly what 'cut out' of the world in front of the photographer was showing in his/her viewfinder. This printing practice was used by my photography teacher (back in the eightees) to teach me how to precisely and carefully compose one's images. [a.o. the Leitz Focotar V35 allowes for a slightly wider projection of 35mm expoures].
Thanks. My vertical photos didn't really come out properly in this video even though I scaled them to 2160 pixels vertical. I think I will stick with horizontal photos mostly.
Well done, straight up, black & white presentation! One thing you didn't cover, you must be brave to shoot and share b/w! Color is easy and catches the eye and clicks. B/W takes time to appreciate. I have my Lumix LX7 and ZS200 set for b/w in the PASM MODES with standard color in Intelligent Auto (IA) When shooting, I alternate between b/w and color just by turning the dial. It's been really eye opening to see the same scene/composition in color and b/w! By the way, Lumix now has L(eica)monochrome which I really like! Looking forward to seeing your other videos. 👍
Advertising executives and top professional photographers in Australia emphasised to me the benefits of photography students first learning to master black and white images. Tonal contrast, textures and surface finishes, the power of silhouettes, shadows and composing images tonally provided a strong grounding in photography. While colour may add another dimension, often the monochrome image had greater power.
Hello; Your channel just happened to be a random popup on my computer this morning and I found it enjoyable and informative. I'm looking forward to viewing more of your videos.
Wow JB. Thanks for posting. Great vid. I am on a one year project to shoot ONLY B&W. Back in the early days we had MF 120 roll film and the D76 process. That's what I learned on. A "Modern" camera was a 126 cartridge film camera with a fixed focus and aperture. Now century's later we have Fujifilm that is a champion in digital B&W. I hope I live long enough to see what the next generation brings. Great work. I appreciate your authenticity. Oh yeah... my one great reason? It's always a challenge!
I just ordered a Mamiya C330 system off EBAY from Japan. I started my photo business with that camera when I was 15 years old in the 60s. I going to give it another try for old time sake.
@@uncunvenchunalwisdom that is so excellent. My first whirl was with a Yashimat 120 TLR, later in High School I went with a Kodak 126 cartridge film - box camera. I am really stoked for you and your beautiful Mamiya C330.
after the 50 tunes … will there be something like a conclusion video? How the experience was … what did you learn … etc? Because I can imagine you put a lot of effort into the project and did also have expectations. Do they match up with the result? Sharing this would be very interesting for us followers.
Incredibly refreshing! I feel like I'm sitting at your table with you and absorbing decades of photographic wisdom. PLEASE keep up the great work. PS: The shot at 4:27 is sublime! SUBBED!
Thanks so much. Actually, the shot at 4:27 got cutoff on the top and bottom for some reason even though I thought I scaled it correctly for the video. That happened to several of the others as well. I am going to have to figure that out.
I have been taking photographs for well over half a century and with the purchase of a mirrorless camera I have begun to shoot in black & white. My camera has two card slots: one for RAW, and the other for my monochrome jpegs. I rarely refer to the RAW files these days and have fallen in love with the monochrome images. By the way, I have liked and subscribed - because I liked what I saw and want to see more of it. Best wishes.
What a great video. I miss my wet darkroom days and processing and printing in black and white. Thank you for the wonderful video. Are you aware of any editing software that has a film emulation setting for Kodak Kodalith film? Thanks again.
One of the first cameras a shot with was a speed graphic. Used 4 x 5 tri x sheet film. Did my own developing and printing, I always felt you take the picture with the camera and make it a photo in the darkroom.
Good thoughts. In the past, I would shoot color and then convert afterwards, sometimes I still do, but seeing the BW image in the viewfinder helps visualize more easily. In the real world, sometimes the colors are not that great, or they distract from the form--BW guides the viewer to see shape and texture.
Thank you for you insight. I prefer black and white to colour photography, as I also prefer film to digital. The way I see it is based on the things you want show. The elements of design. I like shape and form but mostly textures and when shooting with colour texture gets lost. Texture in the materials the movement or the grain of the film itself. That’s why I prefer black and white film.
Fortunately we don't have to make an all or nothing decision between black and white or color. But if I could only do one, I would choose black and white.
Good one - I spent so many years visualizing my b&w with film, that I found with mirrorless cameras setting it to view in monochrome to be a frustration. Over 50 years of b&w only here. For those new to b&w, maybe programming a button to allow a quick peek and back out again?
This is an interesting point. I shoot raw, so if I choose a b&w mode, the raw file is still color, which sometimes weird. I believe previsualization is very import in photography and many other things as well.
Fortunately RAW mimics the way I used to work with film, shoot/process a little flat and add my adjustments later. On revisualization - all the factors that go into good b&w are so difficult to consider (values, geometry, composition, etc.) without being able to completely dismiss color (I call it noise).@@uncunvenchunalwisdom
Thank you for this very interesting video. This is my first time on your channel and I subscribed. Looking forward for next ones. Cheers from Poland :)
I seldom shoot for black and white, but I like b&w as an aesthetic choice. I don't care when people ask about how much processing my photos have or which camera I use. Those who ask questions like these usually have no idea of what photography is, so I take the opportunity to engage with them in a conversation explaining what a camera does and what an artist's intention is.
@@uncunvenchunalwisdomAnd I thank you for sharing your thoughts. It is great when experienced photographers take the time to share their knowledge and understanding with others. Looking forward to your new videos. Cheers!
"when people ask about how much processing my photos have or which camera I use".. That does not mean they don't have no idea of what photography is... There are a number of reasons for that question.. take it as an appreciation of your work and not a time to feel uppity to lecture them. They might just be aesthete.
@@joshmcdzz6925 You didn't read correctly what I wrote. I said that 'they "usually" have no idea of what photography is'. I don't lecture anybody as you suggested. I take the doubt of someone about my work as an opportunity to talk about photography, that's all. If they don't know anything about photography, I might enlighten them a bit. If they are better photographers or artists than I am (which is not difficult), I explain my aesthetic choices to them, so that I can also learn from the others.
It is a cool looking camera. It is a bit difficult for me to use as I shoot with my left I and winding lever, which is kind of sharp, can hit my forehead. But it does look cool and I love the Minolta font on the logo.
I do miss the time of darkroom using ilford mate paper for my black and white films... I like to shoot BW (jpg) using a picture profile I am developing, just to see how it will look like when printing on modern mate paper. (I use canon brand) I love the 50´s 60´s BW look. thanks for this video..
I was just taking to my 40 year old daughter today and she remembered the magic of the print appearing in the tray. There isn't anything quite like that with digital.
As another 50+ year photography veteran (i.e. silverback) I have diverging opinions on some of your points, but overall I love this low-key summary. It does a great job of exposing a lot of the usually-unexamined assumptions that people make when creating photos. Looking forward to more of your thoughts. (One quibble: If you're going to continue presenting your videos in black-and-white - and I hope you do! - might I respectfully suggest you give a nod to the great traditions of black-and-white cinematography and fancy up your lighting just a bit? Watch a few re-runs of the old “Perry Mason” TV show and notice how the key-plus-fill-plus-rim lighting makes Perry look wise and acute. Hey, we all want to look wise and acute, don't we? It's not hard to do this without messing up your living room, either, just takes a little planning…)
I appreciate the lighting tip very much. I think I will be heading outdoors for my next efforts. The dining room is already getting old, although it does have pretty nice ambient light. I didn't know if anyone would watch any of videos, let alone make thoughtful comments like yours. So I am processing all of this while I decide on next steps. It has been a fun journey thus far.
been shooting and developing negatives & prints in B&W for forty something yrs. Yes, to successfully do this artistically over such a long period of time, I began to think and see in B&W. By this, colors in light become shades in monochrome where I can anticipate highlights and shadows in what i intended in the actual print. I imagine this was a sort of skill that I developed over time working with countless negatives and prints, but quite curious nonetheless
clap👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 the world needs older people with experience to make these videos ... kids have enthusiasm but not knowledge or experience , calling all older photographers with decades of experience share your knowledge , especially for film and printing
Curious to know what you think about shooting in infrared to get dramatic B&W. I've been told by a very good B&W photographer that that is the best way to shoot, especially snowy mountains in fog for instance. Thanks for your video!
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You brought it to the point and to the true meaning of photography, which is not 'recording reality' but 'drawing with light'.
Best description of “normal” view I’ve heard. It’s not field of view but front to back relationship.
Thanks. Much appreciated.
Gosh. More please. How refreshing - a no frills, no expectations but otherwise wonderful presentation delivered in such a way as to inspire and encourage. Extraordinarily rare.
More are in my mind and will make there way onto the channel as time and circumstance allow. Thanks for your heart warming comment.
No pressure to subscribe. Subscription earned.
Reverse psychology 😂 it happened to me too
Refreshing to hear that I subscribed too ❤
@@lancechinnian4043 me too.
Me four !!!
JB I’m 76 & I’ve been taking b&w photos since my father handed me a brownie in the late 1950’s. Great video keep it up Howie G.
Thanks and keep at it!
Why I shoot B&W? Simply because I love it. It's the looks, the mechanical feel of my old SLRs and my approach to make it look perfect from the very beginning without post processing. It's a wonderfully slow way of taking pictures...
Great job JB! At 80, I've decided to shoot 2024 with B/W only to rev up my creative juices! I've been shooting since I was 10 and I'm trying to get back to my initial love of photography with included a lot of B/W with a first dark room course while in school at Carnegie Mellon in 1967-69. You address so much of what my senior mind is confronting. Thanks! Looking forward to more from you. Dan
Supposedly a rental darkroom is coming to our area. Can't wait!
… wonderful to hear someone speaking because of love - and not for money. Thank you. I have subscribed anyway 😊
Awesome! Thank you!
My career began in the mid 1950s, when it was primarily large format bw. Now long retired, I have been enjoying bw again, including film!
I love the B&W video presentation, and your honest delivery style ; and I agree completely with your explanation of why B&W photography is such a great format. More insights from you please.
This is the way a presentation should be done: no begging for likes, subscribes, etc. (though for this guy I did because I want to hear and see more as a novice just starting to shoot pictures with film).
I love black and white particularly for portraits. When you use B&W for portraits it is as if you can look into the soul of the subject. This clip was superb, you expressed how I feel about B&W.
Quite true. Often times clothing is distracting in color...
Nevertheless subscribed and liked just because it is nice video
B&W is to photography as Haiku is to poetry.
Do not subscribe, do not like !
You didn't expect my contradictory spirit, I suppose ?
Well, I'm glad to see that another person thinks the same way as I do. And when I see what you do I'm stunned. That's beautiful pictures, pictures you can stay a while, just looking at them, not pictures you just look for 2 or 3 seconds and scroll to the next one.
Amazing.
I subscribed purely because you have the knowledge, unlike 90% of RUclipsr photographers all claiming to be the next epic photographer of the century. You so are what new generation photographers need to listen to and to learn from your knowledge and skill you have attained over the years is worth more.
Thanks. That is very kind of you. I have been in a lull as far as making videos. You have inspired me to do more.
Wonderful video. Thank you.
RS. Canada
I love shooting in B&W, both film and digital. My favorite film stocks are Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP 5 plus, both 35 mm and 120. I also love shooting the Actos film simi,action on my Fuji cameras. I also like pushing my film sticks to get a grainy, high contrast look. Lots of fun!
Awesome. I've started using the Fujifilm X100F Ilford HP5 Plus Film Simulation Recipe by Fuji X Weekly. Highly recommend trying it with Acros or its filtererd variants.
Great video! Recently I dusted off my old film camera from my college days (Olympus OM-2n), and I only shoot B&W with it. It’s been fun. I’ve been trying different film stocks and reliving my photography experience from 35 years ago! Btw, minor point. I know you talked a lot about our vision, and I learned some things from your perspective. But one thing I want to mention is that even though our field of view with our eyes is very wide, our eyes can only focus on a very small portion of it at a time. So to me at least, portrait photography or telephoto sports photography with a blurred background seems like an attempt to recreate how our eyes actually see things. Just an additional thought. Please keep making videos. I’m sure folks can learn a lot from you.
Point well taken. Thanks for the comment!
I 😍 my OM2. Olympus for the win!
I would add a second good reason, one that many others have espoused, and that is removal of the distraction of color. Focussing mainly on texture, contrast, form, etc., helps us to train our eyes to look for more graphical means of contracting an image. For me, I think my feeble mind gets overloaded with the color information and I lose sight of the more graphical elements, and then miss opportunities. My all time favorites of all my images captured over 50+ years of dabbling in this are of a nephew and later a niece when very young - both on film in B&W. Have recently returned to B&W film and use it along side digital regularly. After all this time I am still learning and enjoying the process.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply and I agree with you. One of the joys of photography is learning to see things very differently than might otherwise be the case.
Totally agree. Sometimes when I need or want to edit past what looks natural I make it black and white. Not the only reason but it’s one
Your video resonates so clearly. The more i hear people discuss their monochromatic motivations, the clearer my own reasons for choosing it become. Thank you for sharing your insight, both about black and white, and about the 50mm lens. I hadn't quite understood the "50 is normal" until you explained it in terms of the distance between objects. Brilliant insight.
Thanks for your positive feedback. I hope I can provide more insight in forthcoming videos.
Yes, shooting raw but having the previsualisation in B&W helps a lot.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
You are very welcome.
I've just recently "discovered" your RUclips channel. Great fun! Without insulting you, I'll bet you and I are similar age; I even have a pair of Minolta SRT-101's that my wife and I used for years. I now occasionally mount the old Rokkor lenses on my Lumix G9. With the G9's excellent manual focus assist settings, experimenting with the same lenses I used in the 70's is a real kick. Thanks so much for taking the time to produce such inspiring presentations.
Not an insult at all as I am 69 years old. Adapting old lenses on mirrorless cameras is lots of fun and the results can be very surprising.
This is maybe the first black and white movie I see on youtube...apart from the ones made a long time ago. I've always liked B&W and used a lot of ILFORD film for it before going digital. Film had its charm and people were thoughtful and more economical with the number of images. But it was quite time-consuming to work in the darkroom and do your post processing there. The digital era offers fantastic opportunities and some small shortcomings. I was recently at an exhibition looking at pictures of photographer Kary H. Lasch active in the 1950's onwards, mostly in B&W, I am incredibly touched and impressed when I see the content and quality of some of the pictures from that time. Thanks for your nice youtube post!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
Now, contrary to your advice, and only because i enjoyed your presentation and content, i'm doing both the 'Like' and 'Subscribe' things. I was also slightly influenced by the Minolta... the first camera i purchased new was an XD-7 ('11' in the US). Nice touch doing the video in B&W too - very easy on the eye. All the best from a cabin in a swamp in a rainforest in New Zealand.
Minolta 2nd hand SR-mount gear has been my way in photography on a budget when autofocus was the standard and digital begun to kick in. Great content indeed.
I want to come to New Zealand and ride an adventure motorcycle all over the country :)
@@uncunvenchunalwisdom I'm not even sure that's possible... we do have donkeys (awash with them, actually), if that helps?
@@luzr6613 Possibly an adventure sheep?
So refreshing: recording your video on in b&w. And your “one good reason” is excellent. Thank-you.
I've found being able to preview an image in black and white when using mirrorless cameras now tremendously helpful.
It certainly has advantages.
My life is in black and white. I have mostly shot in black and white. My drawings are done in black and white. And my favorite dog of all time was black and white. Yet I can look at the world in gray tones.
Absoluteluy genius! If you really love photography, every word in this vid is gold.
Thanks so much. You are too kind :)
I subscribed within 5 seconds of watching the video.
One great reason is because you can process it in your bathroom
Excellent presentation. I particularly like the idea of “pre-visualization,” which I learned in my photography classes back in the late 1970s. It defines the difference between “taking” a picture and “making” a picture. Hope to see more wise insights from you.
Thanks and I have additional content in mind, just need time :)
Excellent video. Thank you. And let me say, the birch tree photos are exceptional!
I appreciate that. They are aspen trees which look almost the same as birch trees. They are in Utah near Boulder, Utah.
Keep ‘em coming JB. You make us feel right at home.
A man after my own heart. I started photography on a cheap film camera back in the seventies. Always black and white and processed and printed by myself. Great way to start learning. I then went on to become a professional for for over 30 years. Now retired and digging out my old film cameras to get back into simple black and white. What perfect timing to find your video. Man, there are some stupid comments! They just don’t get it. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
I am just now heading out with my Canon A1 and three lenses to shoot my first rolls of film in some time. Thanks for your comment.
On switching to digital, I immediately started experimenting with INFRARED as I liked the dark-sky effect. I had shot a lot in the past using infrared film, but it was frustrating. With digital, I had the mirrorless camera modified by removal of the "hot mirror" which blocks infrared. It is so much easier working with digital. PS: some cameras do not need modifying, but they are generally from the early 2000s.
Very interesting. I haven't ever done any work with infrared.
If you keep telling people not to sub & like while being humble and informative in your videos you will just keep getting more. 🙂
I likied this video and look forward to some more, Thank you JB!
More to come, but not on a rigid schedule.
@@uncunvenchunalwisdom No rigid schedules at my age, Haha! The 35mm Minolta SRT 101 and B&W title drew me to this video. The rest was great. Tks again!
Excellent presentation and explanation. Short, sweet, and to the point. Thank-you for taking the time to make this short video.
Learning the art of BW photography is exhilarating. Playing with light and shadow, line form, texture, etc. is a blast.
Both good,and not so good, BW photos draw you in instantly. To my photography it is a bonus that BW is already abstract.
I still shoot color depending on the situation
Thanks for your heart warming comments and enjoy your photographic journey. It has been a really meaningful part of my life.
JB! You are very funny, love your responses to the wacky questions!
😁
Thank you sir, for very good video. I shoot mostly film b&w and now thinking to start shoot ing also digital, starting with cellphone.
Seeing in 3D is a great point! The reason I still shoot with a 0:41 camera or my medium format cameras is that I love the 3D look in the view finder and the slide on my light table. For us old guys it's like looking at images with the old ViewMaster. I struggle after scanning to a digital image because the image is converted to a 2D image.
And, I love shooting with b&w film and in b&w mode when I shoot w with my digital camera.
THank you for this very interesting video
My pleasure
Good video. B&W like drawing is to painting is an amazing way of seeing something.
Ansel Adams. The Zone system worked for him to produce a negative from the real world that compressed enough of the >15+ stops range of most outdoor sunny day views we can see with our eyes into something that when printed in the darkroom resulted in a contrasty image that didn't 'blow out' the whites or have large black areas of shadows. aka Pumped up.
I knew Adams's printer Dave Gardner. He did a test with Unsharp Masking and showed it to Adams worried that he'd hate it. Sharper edges is also a way of enhancing contrast. Adams loved it, said he wished he could do that in the darkroom to all his images. (Of course he could, but it's really involved. I've done, once or twice just to try it). With digital anyone can go out and shoot an Ansel Adams level image. As your images here show, just because it's easier doesn't make it any less terrific. And while it's easy, doing it well still takes a developed eye and effort.
Your tip on previsualization is a good one. Younger photographers take note. What's great about digital is that you don't need to put color filters on your digital camera, just use the color channels. What's good about previsualization is that even if you end up shooting only color you will be better at it because you'll have learned to understand 'value' better.
So the process of learning what Adams did is now within anyone's reach. The best lessons are not to later make your vacation photos into B&W, but to go out and shoot with that intent, process them digitally. Making prints is always a terrific step (if you're not spending 80% of your time getting the printer to work while the cartridges bleed you into poverty.)
I would call this Deliberate Practice. (A good example for me is from sailing. I can almost always tie a bowline faster and better than any more experienced sailor I've crewed with because I specifically sat down and repeatedly practiced all the best ways to do this. And did it every day until it was automatic. Doing it on the job for many more years wasn't as effective.)
Tint/toning. This is more powerful than most people realize. In my B&W darkroom printing I made a lot of RC prints for handing out to the press for upcoming art exhibitions. These prints look okay, but if you slightly tone yours with selenium, they look a little more neutral and 'better.' If my artist wasn't up against David Hockney that week, almost always they'd run my print. Most of my prints I'd partially sepia tone which I think improved them. Another thing I almost always did was wiggle a clear piece of plastic sleeve with a little grease on it for part of the exposure. This blurred out the grain and instead of looking at a surface, you'd be looking at the image. Not sure this can be effectively done printing digitally. (Maybe with the higher resolutions that I haven't done it can be.)
A lot of the attraction of B&W, toning and my blur trick is, as photographers we see thousands of images. I was really sick of 4 color magazine printing and even most of the high quality photo books. With color I knew I was looking at the limits of photo mechanical reproduction, which constrained the photographer's intentions. By eliminating color images are unified (maybe those bikers were all wearing mismatched colors that would've distracted from seeing their faces and expressions), viewers don't think, 'So that's what that town by the mountain looked like.' They know their looking at an artistic interpretation.
Personally, I wouldn't shoot digitally in B&W. I'd want those color channels I could manipulate later. (But I can still Visualize B&W looking at a color scene. Maybe if you want to learn that.)
Film...? I've shot a lot of film. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you do: use a compensating developer. (Weston used one, never owned a light meter.) I wouldn't set up a darkroom, I'd find some school or group and set one up that could be shared. No one is likely to spend the rest of their career shooting only film. Darkrooms take hundreds of hours to do what you can do digitally in a few hours. Digital is also easier to do well. (I've still got most of my darkroom stuff. Be happy if there was a group or school in Southern California who wanted to set it all back up so many people could get film out of their system. My set up was like Hurrell's but I only learned this later speaking with someone who knew him. Adams printed very large from 8x10 negatives so his set up was different.)
Wow...your reply is far more thought provoking than my video. Thanks for taking the time to write such an interesting comment. I live in northern Utah and we had this breaking news just recently. www.ksl.com/article/50965996/orem-film-lab-to-open-accessible-creative-hub-with-community-dark-room At $15 per hour, I will do some darkroom work, even if it is primarily to share the experience with my grandchildren. Doing it all in a home based darkroom, as I did in my teens, just doesn't interest me at this point. I would much rather continue to develop my digital workflow and use that knowledge and skill for previsualization when shooting. Thanks again for your comment.
Thank you for great message! I get asked these same questions all the time. Really love the insight about human vision being panoramic.
Glad it was helpful!
My First DSLR. A Minolta SR 1 with a 50mm 1.8 lens or 1.7 forgotten now but the great camera I had next was the SRT 101 with the 58/1.4 It travelled the world over many times with me in the mid 1966s onward.
I agree with your comments on B&W. I have always maintained that mostly, colour images are carried by the colour over the composition, mostly that is, not always though. With B&W one has to work harder, there is no WOW look at the colour. There is also never a WOW look at the shading, well very rarely, It is usually a WOW for the overall effect. The ambience. The tonality, the balance of objects combined, and actually the shading is often silently critical.
I also have a full suit of Topaz AI applications and all their older programs as well. I use ACDSee Ultimate as my main digital process now using Olympus and Panasonic M43 systems. The need to work harder for B&W is still true though.
My first reason for shooting B&W was that it was all I could afford when I started (with a Praktica FX2, giving you an idea of when that was!). Developing and printing I did myself. I still like processing appropriate subjects in B&W.
That was great!! Gave you a like anyway, so TAKE IT! That question and your use of it for B&W output never occurred to me, but it is so natural. Yes, you are right that the casual observer would be thinking of the color rendition first even though there are other variables. And to have only tones just removes that issue from the get-go.
Love your photos, especially the birch trees at 0:38 and the town with the towering mountain behind it at 4:30. AWESOME! And I have to comment that I started with a silver SRT 101 and 50 f1.7 on mostly Kodachrome. Seeing yours just warmed my heart.
Thanks Mike. Much appreciated.
Great video. I like that it was shot in black and white, it was a pleasant viewing experience
This was a really good video.
Great video on Black and white photography. Still my favorite media.
Liked your video a lot. Thank you! Pls go on this way ...
Looking forward to learn more. 😊
Minolta SRT-101, my first SLR. Great camera! Later on, I had the 201 and 202. They were built like tanks and produced the best pictures ever!
Very cool!
I'm glad you're doing this for whatever reason, and I've liked and subscribed. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Some good landscape photos.
I certainly like this video.
"What is one big reason to shoot B&W?" -> Answer: "...when people view your work they will never ask you 'Is that the way it REALLY looked?'"
Simple and wise rationale for B&W photography.
Noticed a number of photographs [3:03, 5:06, 5:41, 6:20, 6:41] that had a black 'edge' (of unexposed film) around them - showing exactly what 'cut out' of the world in front of the photographer was showing in his/her viewfinder. This printing practice was used by my photography teacher (back in the eightees) to teach me how to precisely and carefully compose one's images.
[a.o. the Leitz Focotar V35 allowes for a slightly wider projection of 35mm expoures].
Thanks. My vertical photos didn't really come out properly in this video even though I scaled them to 2160 pixels vertical. I think I will stick with horizontal photos mostly.
Great video... It's nice to hear a "fellow" old timer put the facts out there.
Thanks and I hope I can put out additional content that is helpful.
@@uncunvenchunalwisdom You will because you have the experience and wisdom
You tricked me into liking the video!
On a more serious note, of like to thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Well done, straight up, black & white presentation! One thing you didn't cover, you must be brave to shoot and share b/w! Color is easy and catches the eye and clicks. B/W takes time to appreciate. I have my Lumix LX7 and ZS200 set for b/w in the PASM MODES with standard color in Intelligent Auto (IA) When shooting, I alternate between b/w and color just by turning the dial. It's been really eye opening to see the same scene/composition in color and b/w! By the way, Lumix now has L(eica)monochrome which I really like! Looking forward to seeing your other videos. 👍
I shot this video with my Lumix GH6 in the L mode. I didn't know that stood for Leica. Thanks for the insight!
Advertising executives and top professional photographers in Australia emphasised to me the benefits of photography students first learning to master black and white images. Tonal contrast, textures and surface finishes, the power of silhouettes, shadows and composing images tonally provided a strong grounding in photography. While colour may add another dimension, often the monochrome image had greater power.
Hello; Your channel just happened to be a random popup on my computer this morning and I found it enjoyable and informative.
I'm looking forward to viewing more of your videos.
I will be adding more, although not on a particular schedule. Thanks.
Wow JB. Thanks for posting. Great vid. I am on a one year project to shoot ONLY B&W. Back in the early days we had MF 120 roll film and the D76 process. That's what I learned on. A "Modern" camera was a 126 cartridge film camera with a fixed focus and aperture. Now century's later we have Fujifilm that is a champion in digital B&W. I hope I live long enough to see what the next generation brings. Great work. I appreciate your authenticity. Oh yeah... my one great reason? It's always a challenge!
I just ordered a Mamiya C330 system off EBAY from Japan. I started my photo business with that camera when I was 15 years old in the 60s. I going to give it another try for old time sake.
@@uncunvenchunalwisdom that is so excellent. My first whirl was with a Yashimat 120 TLR, later in High School I went with a Kodak 126 cartridge film - box camera. I am really stoked for you and your beautiful Mamiya C330.
Thanks JB, well done!
Thanks JB, great content, relax pacing and delivery, keep up the ggod work; cheers from Montreal !
Much appreciated!
Excellent presentation
after the 50 tunes … will there be something like a conclusion video? How the experience was … what did you learn … etc? Because I can imagine you put a lot of effort into the project and did also have expectations. Do they match up with the result? Sharing this would be very interesting for us followers.
Incredibly refreshing! I feel like I'm sitting at your table with you and absorbing decades of photographic wisdom. PLEASE keep up the great work. PS: The shot at 4:27 is sublime! SUBBED!
Thanks so much. Actually, the shot at 4:27 got cutoff on the top and bottom for some reason even though I thought I scaled it correctly for the video. That happened to several of the others as well. I am going to have to figure that out.
And I too still have my Minolta 101 and an XE7. I have the Rokkor 16mm Fidheye, 28, 58 1.2, 135 2.8. Which I’ve also used on my GFX50r and 100s
Thanks for your time.
I hear smart talk and read smart comments.
This is very rare 😂
Thanks for sharing
You're welcome
Dejligt med en rolig video, uden en masse klip. Ærlig snak.
God forklaring der er til at forstå.
I just shot a roll of Tri X at my daughter’s high school track meet with a manual 135mm lens. We’ll see how they come out!
I hope she didn't run too fast for manual focus :)
I have been taking photographs for well over half a century and with the purchase of a mirrorless camera I have begun to shoot in black & white. My camera has two card slots: one for RAW, and the other for my monochrome jpegs. I rarely refer to the RAW files these days and have fallen in love with the monochrome images. By the way, I have liked and subscribed - because I liked what I saw and want to see more of it. Best wishes.
Sounds like a great approach. Enjoy.
What a great video. I miss my wet darkroom days and processing and printing in black and white. Thank you for the wonderful video. Are you aware of any editing software that has a film emulation setting for Kodak Kodalith film? Thanks again.
Thanks for the compliment. I am not aware of such an emulation.
One of the first cameras a shot with was a speed graphic. Used 4 x 5 tri x sheet film. Did my own developing and printing, I always felt you take the picture with the camera and make it a photo in the darkroom.
I agree. I just took delivery of a Mamiya C330 yesterday. This is the camera that launched my photo career when I was 15 years old.
I started in high school when they said I was the photographer, the Crown Speed Graphic is not the best camera to start with,
Good thoughts. In the past, I would shoot color and then convert afterwards, sometimes I still do, but seeing the BW image in the viewfinder helps visualize more easily.
In the real world, sometimes the colors are not that great, or they distract from the form--BW guides the viewer to see shape and texture.
Thank you Sir!
Excellent work Sir. Thank you! 🫡
Subscribed and liked, firsty because you didnt beg me to do so and secondly because I really did like the content.
Thanks-very informative.
Thanks a lot ❤
Thank you for you insight. I prefer black and white to colour photography, as I also prefer film to digital. The way I see it is based on the things you want show. The elements of design. I like shape and form but mostly textures and when shooting with colour texture gets lost. Texture in the materials the movement or the grain of the film itself. That’s why I prefer black and white film.
Fortunately we don't have to make an all or nothing decision between black and white or color. But if I could only do one, I would choose black and white.
Good one - I spent so many years visualizing my b&w with film, that I found with mirrorless cameras setting it to view in monochrome to be a frustration. Over 50 years of b&w only here. For those new to b&w, maybe programming a button to allow a quick peek and back out again?
This is an interesting point. I shoot raw, so if I choose a b&w mode, the raw file is still color, which sometimes weird. I believe previsualization is very import in photography and many other things as well.
Fortunately RAW mimics the way I used to work with film, shoot/process a little flat and add my adjustments later. On revisualization - all the factors that go into good b&w are so difficult to consider (values, geometry, composition, etc.) without being able to completely dismiss color (I call it noise).@@uncunvenchunalwisdom
Thanks for sharing )))
Thank you for this very interesting video. This is my first time on your channel and I subscribed. Looking forward for next ones. Cheers from Poland :)
I seldom shoot for black and white, but I like b&w as an aesthetic choice.
I don't care when people ask about how much processing my photos have or which camera I use. Those who ask questions like these usually have no idea of what photography is, so I take the opportunity to engage with them in a conversation explaining what a camera does and what an artist's intention is.
I appreciate your positive approach.
@@uncunvenchunalwisdomAnd I thank you for sharing your thoughts. It is great when experienced photographers take the time to share their knowledge and understanding with others. Looking forward to your new videos. Cheers!
"when people ask about how much processing my photos have or which camera I use".. That does not mean they don't have no idea of what photography is... There are a number of reasons for that question.. take it as an appreciation of your work and not a time to feel uppity to lecture them. They might just be aesthete.
@@joshmcdzz6925 You didn't read correctly what I wrote. I said that 'they "usually" have no idea of what photography is'. I don't lecture anybody as you suggested. I take the doubt of someone about my work as an opportunity to talk about photography, that's all. If they don't know anything about photography, I might enlighten them a bit. If they are better photographers or artists than I am (which is not difficult), I explain my aesthetic choices to them, so that I can also learn from the others.
Great video. The SR-T looks badass in black 😁
It is a cool looking camera. It is a bit difficult for me to use as I shoot with my left I and winding lever, which is kind of sharp, can hit my forehead. But it does look cool and I love the Minolta font on the logo.
I do miss the time of darkroom using ilford mate paper for my black and white films... I like to shoot BW (jpg) using a picture profile I am developing, just to see how it will look like when printing on modern mate paper. (I use canon brand) I love the 50´s 60´s BW look. thanks for this video..
I was just taking to my 40 year old daughter today and she remembered the magic of the print appearing in the tray. There isn't anything quite like that with digital.
Nice and very very good video. Congratulations. From someone that loves B&w fotos
Thank you very much!
As another 50+ year photography veteran (i.e. silverback) I have diverging opinions on some of your points, but overall I love this low-key summary. It does a great job of exposing a lot of the usually-unexamined assumptions that people make when creating photos. Looking forward to more of your thoughts.
(One quibble: If you're going to continue presenting your videos in black-and-white - and I hope you do! - might I respectfully suggest you give a nod to the great traditions of black-and-white cinematography and fancy up your lighting just a bit? Watch a few re-runs of the old “Perry Mason” TV show and notice how the key-plus-fill-plus-rim lighting makes Perry look wise and acute. Hey, we all want to look wise and acute, don't we? It's not hard to do this without messing up your living room, either, just takes a little planning…)
I appreciate the lighting tip very much. I think I will be heading outdoors for my next efforts. The dining room is already getting old, although it does have pretty nice ambient light. I didn't know if anyone would watch any of videos, let alone make thoughtful comments like yours. So I am processing all of this while I decide on next steps. It has been a fun journey thus far.
Great vid, really nice photos, I subscribed. Thanks.
Awesome, thank you!
been shooting and developing negatives & prints in B&W for forty something yrs. Yes, to successfully do this artistically over such a long period of time, I began to think and see in B&W. By this, colors in light become shades in monochrome where I can anticipate highlights and shadows in what i intended in the actual print. I imagine this was a sort of skill that I developed over time working with countless negatives and prints, but quite curious nonetheless
It is nice to see the world in a variety of ways. Congrats on developing this talent.
For me there's no gimmicks, you have to have good compositions, which makes you work for it, no where to hide.
clap👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 the world needs older people with experience to make these videos ... kids have enthusiasm but not knowledge or experience , calling all older photographers with decades of experience share your knowledge , especially for film and printing
Curious to know what you think about shooting in infrared to get dramatic B&W. I've been told by a very good B&W photographer that that is the best way to shoot, especially snowy mountains in fog for instance. Thanks for your video!
I am sorry, but I don't have any experience shooting infrared.
Nice!
I’m colourblind, so when I shoot in black & white I can often say “yes, that’s how it actually looked”.
How refreshing to see someone on RUclips to share their experience rather than just to fuel their greed . Kudos to you, sir.
Thanks. It has been lots of fun thus far. I am interacting with interesting people from around the world.