Ever since I bought my M10M camera....I see the world in a different way. I've also been now shooting B&W medium format film...and oh goodness.....I love photography!!! Paul Simon got it WRONG....the world looks better in black and white!! ;)
@@valdiskrebs566 The Exposure warning tool in software is a great help for blown highlights. Saying that, I did deliberately let the sky go overblown on a B&W image I took late last year in the fog at a local park. Correcting the exposure just made the sky look a dull grey that wasn't at all pleasing and took away any contrasting white colour from the image. There was nothing to see in the sky anyway, thanks to the fog.
It is so good that you mention FILM, I started out in the nineteen seventies shooting transparencies "Ektachrome" that's where I learned about contrast, B&W film and printing it can be very rewarding.
You hit on the one word that should be employed when photographing in B&W, and that is to 'play.' Yep, you will come up with some interesting stuff if you ignore all the rules and just play around. This should also be a cue to those interested in B&W photography to buy a good used film camera and film. Get a tank, chemicals and go the whole route in developing film to printing pictures, or as I do now, made high-res scans of my negatives. Have to preserve as much of the grain effect and not let the digital image degrade the picture. Years ago I did the whole thing with others at a hobby shop darkroom. Talk about fun. Of course, study the pictures of as many photographers as possible to get ideas. We all borrow, so why not borrow the techniques of the greats of yesteryear and start making masterpieces of your work. To those interested in B&W photography using film instead of digital, the camera is the least of your problems. But you will get the results better using film, not trying to replicate the image in digital. As they are two different mediums, they look different. Grain is more random with all those dots on film. Digital is linear, pixels all in a row. Plus, using a film camera will give you a feel of how the process works. Advance the film, focus, adjust exposure, then press the shutter button. Up goes the mirror, the shutter opens and closes and down goes the mirror. Suggestions for cameras in the old SLR world would include the Pentax Spotmatic F, Nikon F2 or FM or FE, Canon FTB or F1, Olympus OM-1 or it's variants. But the idea is to get to the root of B&W photography, and that was film. What is great about these cameras is that you have total control over its operation. They are simple and that is why they are magic.
I recently started to shoot film again and I decided to go for black and white exclusively. There’s something special about the look of b/w photographs. The process of loading the film, taking the photographs, developing the film and printing the photographs in the darkroom, all by myself, is another, very important and highly rewarding aspect.
Great stuff Alex, thanks. My suggestion to students (long retired from teaching) would be if you are using a mirrorless camera for a B&W assignment, don't set the viewfinder to monochrome. Maybe set a custom button to switch to B&W, but try and visualize the color scene as B&W in your mind. Only then take a peek at the monochrome screen and see how your interpretation was. No doubt a much quicker way to learn to "see" in B&W than the way us older photographers learned with film. Of course, you can use this same comparison process with a RAW image in post, but I believe it would be a more effective learning tool if applied first in the field.
All I can say is I love my Q2mono. True black and white photography in digital form. Can only use light for adjusting, not color. Wonderful. Great video - thanks!
after years of shooting digital, which I still do, I have gotten back into film photography and I have gravitated towards black and white with film. I have always loved B&W. When it is done well it is unbeatable. Thanks for the video!
I cut my photographic teeth on black and white photography in high school photography class. I still have an affinity for it. I truly enjoy your videos.
It took a digital camera to get me in to monochrome photography, its electronic viewfinder gave me an idea of what I would get. Until then I saw colour in a viewfinder and could not concieve what a monochrome immage would be. Now I shoot lots of monochrome. My favourite monochrome camera is an early Canon Sure Shot with exposure control via the iso dial. I use its 38mm lens to make intimate and environmental portraits of my family. I would love a video on black and wite development and printing.
I completely agree. Black and White photography is inherently abstract as we don't really see with the absence of color. I shoot 90% BW and therefor i went the route of the Leica M10 monochrom, and love the experience. Great video 😃👍🏻👍🏻
I started to photopraph one year ago with a mirrorless camera and luckily i´m still into it (which isn´t normal for me). I definitely had a lot of fun so far trying new things out and just learning without really studying much and so far i´ve invested a bit into the system. However... half a year into it i had the idea of buying an old mechanical film camera and now i ended up in a situation, where i barely even touch my modern expensive camera and just go out with my screwmount leica in the pocket and shoot blurry images. But somehow it just feels right to me. I´ve watched several photography youtubers at the beginning (mainly technical stuff) , but today this channel is pretty much the only one i keep watching. I just wanted to say "Thank You!" for the great and interesting videos. Right now i´m on my first b/w film so this video came perfectly.
Screw mount Leicas are getting more expensive too. You can make very sharp pics with them, just see what Henri Cartier-Bresson did. He used them and a 50mm lens. And developing film and print is so much fun!
I started enjoying black and white photograph through going back to film photography. Brought myself a Nikon F4S and started selecting the stocks I like most. It's such a challenge and joy deal with this way of doing what I like most. Still sending my films to develop but I hope doing all the process myself soon.
Since I started taking photos in 2019 I never shot anything in black and white ( maybe I just added a BNW filter to a photo now and then) until last summer a friend of mine came to see me and we went out shooting, and he was shooting in BNW directly , so he convinced me to try it and I kind of fell in love with it. So many photos that didn't look good in color look so so good in black and white.
Monochrome photography is all about luminosity and contrast. I find I can visualize those factors best by removing my glasses (In very nearsighted) and really squinting. That minimizes the impact of color and details, and emphasizes how I see shapes, light, and shadow. I'm producing many more monochrome images than I used to, and I can get very dramatic images that way.
Min 10:00 it’s the deepest thought about why monochrome photography still has and will continue to have a very important place in art. Alex; Thank you ever so much for the incredibly valuable insights.
Thank you for this video. There are a few Belgian black and white photographers who are definitely worth paying attention to, Dirk Braeckman and Stefan Vanfleteren.
Excellent video, let me start with that. Clearly the classic understanding of B&W white photography is that absent color, the other elements of composition, shapes, lighting, etc must carry the day for the image to be successful. You mention that film photography is more forgiving, but I was a little unclear exactly how you meant that, particularly when my experience with both suggests that the power and technology of today's cameras, particularly with regard to dynamic range allows for improperly exposed images to be salvageable whereas a B&W film exposure can be lost and/or extremely difficult to salvage. That said, there is something else which I feel give B&W film photography an advantage when it comes to achieving what we've come to accept as classically stunning images. And that advantage is greater contrast. I think that an image captured with a modern digital camera, while being able to be converted to monochrome, will have such wonderful (subjective) dynamic range that the drama of higher contrast must be achieved in post more often than not, while a B&W film image starting out with less dynamic range gets to that final higher contrast finish faster...and maybe even straight out of camera. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this?
The Mencher image of the mountain and the fellow in the skif is made, to me, by the burned in vignette that shapes the "window of observation." Without that it becomes an entirely different image much like the too many misty morning images of a scene in nature flooding the internet these days. Having paid my way through school back in the early 70s by doing custom darkroom work (color & b/w) it brought back a lot of memories. IMO, you don't see light until you've worked in b/w.
I shoot a lot fo B/W and I agree about it more forgiving but as i find that as there is 'less to the image' the image itself has to be better or speak to you more. Just like to continue to give praise as I always feel I've learnt something from your lessons. Keep it up (y)
I shoot a lot in black and white. Like you I started in black and white film photography. Black and white still has a drama that color cannot touch. Thank for another inspiring video Alex!
Fascinating topic! Although I haven't always appreciated B&W photography, after many years of color photography, I find myself much more interested in B&W photography, especially for the winter months, where there isn't so much color in nature (which is mainly what I photograph). I find your discourse thought provoking and refreshing as there is no gear conversation, which is a relief, but more discussion about the passion of photography, the art of photography and how to realize on digital film images that are inviting and evocative. When I first began photography, my goal was realism -- to make my images realistically reflect the subject of the image. But when I looked at the results, the images lacked the emotional impact that I felt which inspired me to take the photo. It was then that I realized that my real goal is to make the viewer of my images experience the same emotional impact that I felt when I saw the subjects in my images. That has liberated my view of photography and transformed the images that I create.
amazing video! I love black and white photography, especially on film! that ghost is truly amazing! Love the symmetry and solid blacks in many of them photos. I did have to save this video to rewatch again later.
Yes, a series on black and white film photography processes including developing the film would be much appreciated. I’ve been learning my father’s Nikon F, and this video has inspired me to purchase my first two rolls of B&W film. It is somewhat cheaper too, so may feel more liberties to explore with the film settings. I have been considering buying a tank and accessories to develop my own film, but just hesitant about the process.
Thanks for doing this video. It inspires, reinforces, and enlarges the envelope for what I am pursuing. My work is not going to set the world on fire but I does help deepen my appreciation of other photographers.
I adore B&W but have never been good at seeing in B&W when out in the world. I have been using mirrorless to improve my vision. I look at something and then use the evf to confirm/reject my assessment which has improved my keeper rate. Still room to improve but enjoying the learning curve immensely. Thanks for the video and the ideas to be more experimental/less technical.
Alex, I think you are talking about the figure-to-ground relationship when you are referring to contrast? That can be achieved in color, just as effectively. You need sufficient contrast in tone. Light against dark, or dark against light. With color, you can also play with color contrasts. However, I do agree that black and white gives you greater latitude to play with lights and shadows. I'm a black and white man, myself...btw. I'm just making a case that color photography can fulfill all of the same things.
Dear Alex! Thank you so much for this video! Like many people who watch your channel, I started at the time of film photography. So, I know by my own experience what alchemy of the “wet process” is. And that darkroom atmosphere! Nothing can compare to it. Which does not mean that I’m nostalgic (albeit a little) to the point of rejecting modern technology. Not at all! New tech gives us new ways to achieve results, both pre-planned and unexpected. As for B&W photography, I usually try to imagine how a scene would look in B&W, but shoot full-color RAW. No need to explain what freedom of “processing” this gives. Though shooting deliberately in B&W is a good practice too. We can say, that modern ways to take and make images give different people more opportunities to adjust the whole process to their individual preferences, making it more obvious that key factor in photography as an art is the creative mood and mindset of the photographer. And nothing stimulates our creativity more than watching what other creators are doing. So, my special thanks to you for using the highest class photos for your videos. They are so inspirational! The same for the ideas about photography, here the B&W one, that you share in your videos. They may be something new for some, or well-known for others, but in both cases it is important to discuss things that make photography be an art, and not just a routine of pointing and shooting, as any computerized outdoor cam can do. So, many thanks again both for this video and for all your efforts to maintain creative approach to photography!
Isn't RAW always colour that should be processed in BW? So you could easily set your display to BW. I am not certain though as I still shoot BW on Film and Colour in Digital C41 (SOOC).
@@arneheeringa96 Yes, it is. I shoot full color to have more choices at when I make B&W conversion. I just like the process of image processing in digital workflow. And there are images that turn out to have more impact in low saturation style, rather than in pure monochrome. In other words, I prefer to reserve more room for improvisation in post.
I find C-41 color negative development even easier than B&W, because there are no variables (other than temperature, and this can be controlled quite easily, just look at what CineStill has to offer), and there's even a B&W film available for C-41 - Ilford XP2 Super. There was Kodak BW400CN, but Kodak has discontinued it a long time ago (I would prefer it to XP2, as it had better "color rendering" and better contrast). Classical B&W is cheaper, though.
If you want to try black and white photography, and don’t want to buy all the equipment just to experiment. Then look around your town for a photo school or a community college that teaches photography and ask to use their equipment. You may have to sign up for a workshop or a class. But you will be able to have a fully working dark room in which to try doing black and white. In the town where I used to live, they had a photo school that would teach these short introductory seminars on weekends. And when the seminar was finished, you were allowed to work in their darkroom for the rest of the day.
I too spent two years shooting solely black and white hand rolled film whilst doing my city and guilds in the late 1980’s … wow that makes me sound really old
Thank you for your videos. You are truly inspiring me. Im doin photography for year and all my followers told me that i've made huge step forward. Its all thanks to you.
I love shooting B&W film but do it far too less, mainly because I'm afraid of developing. I have all the stuff but more often than not I'm scared of trying. I know it's an acquired skill and with doing it I will become more confident I think I have to leave my comfort zone (or keep depending on lab processing which might harm my my will to try out things).
The stark nature of black & white forces the artist and viewer to stop and not just scan through the whole picture but instead implores you to see the parts. Those small parts are then brought to our attention because the minimal dualist nature of the medium. Allows you to see Fan Ho.
I would never use a B&W image as is straight out of camera. I use a Sony and it doesn't even have a decent B&W style preset anyway. The ability to shape the image in the software I use is a hugely important part of my workflow. I really like dramatic B&W images, much like those of Trent Parke and having the ability to deliberately underexpose blacks and overexpose whites where I feel necessary is a great advantage to B&W imagery.
Hi Alex, this is the 2nd video I viewed on your channel and I subscribed immediately. If you would pour this kind and quality of information into a 3 day workshop, I'd signup in a minute. It would be the first workshop where one wouldn't need a camera, yet it would teach people far more than when visiting a week of point 'n shoot workshop. Take care.
Yeah it's in fact photo critique which is indispensable if you want to become a good photographer. All workshops in the old days used to do this after picture taking. Or as Daniel Milnor said working with a photo editor was like this in an extreme way. Unfortunately there aren't many photoeditors left. You could check out Dan's RUclips channel as well if you like .
Thank you Alex. Your presentations are ALL good but as B & W is my favorite medium in photography, I really enjoyed this one. I also think your suggestion to try film was beneficial in that it reminds me to “get back into my photographic roots.” I love digital but at heart, I’m an analog kind of photographer. Thanks again!
Right now I meke my own developers for film and paper. FX-55 and E-72 for paper. Close to nailing my film stock and FX-55 pairing that gives me negatives that I can bend and shape under the enlarger. A challange, oh yes indeedy, but for me great fun.
Seems you have been watching 'The Pictorial Planet' RUclips channel, because he talks about those developers. BTTB Mod is a great film developer too to mix yourself. Check out Rüdiger Hartungs blog about it.
@@arneheeringa96 Watching, Bought Johns book and all the chemicals to make FX-55, BTTB and E-72 at home. Sharing my experience as I travel this path in photography.
"It looks like it's Australian." Probably it is. I stopped and Googled Ray Harris and found "The Blue Bin." The post is dated April two years ago, he's living in Ballarat, Victoria. I note is talks about FRAMES Magazine. I do buildings, regularly black and white. Christian Fletcher also does Buildings. mostly in colour. Not necessarily in the original colour.
Thank you Alex , really enjoy your content and the time and effort put into each video , the images and photographers featured always leaves me with a head full of new ideas
Photographing the prairies in Canadian winter - I start embracing black & white and I love it now. An excellent episode as always, thank you for the tips. Now I am impressed to visit Canadian Rockies famous spots this summer and photograph them in black and white.
Thanks as always, Alex! I'm remembering that some photographers--landscape photographers in particular--resist including people in their pictures because that's immediately where the viewer's eye goes; it becomes, if not the focus, at least the "reference point" for the picture. And I'm wondering if, in some similar way, incorporating color is the same way. It becomes the thing you have to deal with, regardless of whatever else is going on in the image. Just a thought...
Hi Alex, I am just returning to photography after a few years focussed on the day job. Thank you for this it has been a gentle, light bulb moment. Looking forward to exploring organic and inorganic interfaces on my Dartmoor home
Another great video Alex, I tend to edit my photos I like and then copy them into my smartphone, I was having a look at them after watching you video and edited quite a few on the phone into black and white and I was surprised how many were actually a lot stronger image then in colour, and that when I first edited them never gave black and white a thought, or just couldn't see it at the time?
Hi I love this video 📸 I do have a question I shoot with a Canon 90 D and when I open the raw file up it goes to color any ideas why? Keep up the great work🙏
Like barret8 said. Raw only means that it's raw, unprocessed data. When you don't shoot in raw, the camera processes that data for you using it's own software. Raw lets you choose the software and how you would like the data to look, instead of whoever made the camera.
Thank you for this delighting video! It's o.k. with the denotation 'black&white', albeit we are confronted with a widespread range of lightness and shades of grey within a semantic differential between pure black and pure white. Or - at 11:18 (Muse Portraits) in this video - shades of monochrome brown tones which isn't 'black&white'. Therefore we know the tags 'panchromatic' and 'orthochromatic', and we can get panchromatic film and orthochromatic film - the latter enhances much more contrast. For instance I know Agfapan film and Agfaortho film; Agfaortho25 has very fine grain with 25 ASA. Older film cameras like my Pentax Spotmatic show on their dialplate 'COLOR' respectively 'PANCHRO'. With digicams we can create monochrome pictures showing only one colour, such as brown oder blue or green or ... So we get at least effects looking nearly like B&W, but they are monochrome in another colour. Excuse my 'Asperger' way of differentiation;-)))
I spent last year shooting only black and white, I continue to shoot b&w about 75% and started color again : I am a better color photographer now.... also consider FAN HO the great b&w photographer
Another masterful video from you Alex. Thank you so much. Also, thank you for sharing more of your work. No need for imposter syndrome here. Your work is exceptional. Cheers.
Colour? Probably a pro lab. I only used big commercial labs and they deliver shitty scans and shitty prints for like 20 years now. If lab I only let them process colour negatives/slides and nothing else. Keeps costs low too. Everything BW I do myself, which is so much more fun than sitting behind a computer screen.
Great video, thanks! Alex, do you by any chance do Zoom talks to photo clubs? I’m putting together a programme for my club’s next season and it would be great if you could give us a talk please? 😊
I would like to see a vídeo on how to procesos black and white film. A while ago l took a roll of black and white film to be developed and printed but the price was prohivitive compared to digital.
Try searching RUclips. There are many videos out there... Going against my principle of not giving people the answer but encouraging them to seek for themselves 🙂 try this from Ilford: ruclips.net/video/aPQ7OPy8T2w/видео.html You will need some equipment - developing tank, daylight changing bag unless you have a darkroom, measuring cylinders, thermometer, plus the chemicals. Ilford has a very nice starter kit, but I tend to buy larger quantities. I suppose I have been an Ilford fanboy, for much longer than that term has been in use, as I've been using their film and paper, plus chemicals, since the late 60s. With a break of several years, but I have been drawn back. It's a fairly simple and straightforward process and I find it quite rewarding. The biggest problem I have is dust settling on the negatives as they dry! Currently I scan my negatives, but we intend to build a darkroom as a couple of my grandkids are keen to learn more. I'm sorry that that was a long and rambling answer to a simple question, but you triggered one of my passions. And I do have and use a digital camera as well!
I am a fan of bw and colour and use both in my own work. But I sometimes wonder how bw would be regarded if the history of photography had been different. Imagine for example if bw film had never been invented, and the first and only film ever made was colour. Would we now regard bw as profoundly interesting or just a trivial/novelty digital Photo manipulation effect? Of course history is in the bag, so we will never know.
Thank you so much for all you do your channel so good I relate. To you I too have been in photography for so many years professionally assigned in Hollywood staff photographer aero space Honeywell I’ve done so much darkroom Hughes Aircraft I went to Los Angels tech photography If you get chance look up Famous Photographer School I have their books so cool any keep doing what you do please to much to write ✌️
If colour had been invented first would anyone bothered inventing B&W ? would it have been considered a wonderful advancement I think it very doubtful, and why didn't the old masters paint in B&W. I occasionally convert a photo to B&W usually to hide some thing, if you are using film it is of course cheaper
I’m wondering why just monochrome is your favorite? Don’t you think color photography also has its own uniqueness just curious?!… 😂 I like both. But would like to hear what you have to say.
The portrait of the girl that you used at the beginning of the video, is exquisite. You may have gotten bored with portrait photography, but that image anything but boring.
alex I learned that for me is alwais very wise to call up your channel and getting the most out of your themes . Today it was this: black and white images .. fotos .. are so forgiving and the same time so unforgiving... thats ecxacltly what it is... you hit thail on the head here..
I absolutely love black and white but I’ve got this stupid guilt that it feels like cheating, as in, sometime it’s like a way out of the burden of dealing with colours, which can be really hard for a rookie like me, especially since I don’t have the purpose and comfidence of an experienced photographer who’d already know even before the shot what they want and how’s the final image going to be, I just shoot in RAW out of instinct and then decide later on my computer how I’m gonna process the image into it’s final form... I know it’s stupid and probably due to my inexperience but every time I go B&W it kind of feels like giving up on something, it feels like taking the easy path...
Oh no in fact BW is harder. It takes another kind of seeing. So if you look into the colour viewfinder or screen you will have to imagine what it looks in BW. But the advantage of mirrorless cameras is that you can put your screen and EVF to BW and the RAW still keeps the colours and you can postprocess as BW afterwards.
@@arneheeringa96 that’s exactly what I do actually. I got the idea from another photographer who suggested shooting in B&W allowed to focus more on composition
Ever since I bought my M10M camera....I see the world in a different way.
I've also been now shooting B&W medium format film...and oh goodness.....I love photography!!!
Paul Simon got it WRONG....the world looks better in black and white!!
;)
This could become the beginning of a series that might help people with their black and white, since I see a lot of gray and white photography 😉
Agree, todays photographers are scared of deep blacks and bright whites, they are taught must have detail on every tone… boring 😂
@@karlbratby4349 Agree, but many people don't know the difference between "bright whites" and "blown highlights"
@@karlbratby4349 I love to use contrast in my B&W images and often use deep black to deliberately remove unimportant detail and for dramatic effect.
@@valdiskrebs566 The Exposure warning tool in software is a great help for blown highlights. Saying that, I did deliberately let the sky go overblown on a B&W image I took late last year in the fog at a local park. Correcting the exposure just made the sky look a dull grey that wasn't at all pleasing and took away any contrasting white colour from the image. There was nothing to see in the sky anyway, thanks to the fog.
It is so good that you mention FILM, I started out in the nineteen seventies shooting transparencies "Ektachrome" that's where I learned about contrast, B&W film and printing it can be very rewarding.
You hit on the one word that should be employed when photographing in B&W, and that is to 'play.' Yep, you will come up with some interesting stuff if you ignore all the rules and just play around.
This should also be a cue to those interested in B&W photography to buy a good used film camera and film. Get a tank, chemicals and go the whole route in developing film to printing pictures, or as I do now, made high-res scans of my negatives. Have to preserve as much of the grain effect and not let the digital image degrade the picture. Years ago I did the whole thing with others at a hobby shop darkroom. Talk about fun.
Of course, study the pictures of as many photographers as possible to get ideas. We all borrow, so why not borrow the techniques of the greats of yesteryear and start making masterpieces of your work.
To those interested in B&W photography using film instead of digital, the camera is the least of your problems. But you will get the results better using film, not trying to replicate the image in digital. As they are two different mediums, they look different. Grain is more random with all those dots on film. Digital is linear, pixels all in a row. Plus, using a film camera will give you a feel of how the process works. Advance the film, focus, adjust exposure, then press the shutter button. Up goes the mirror, the shutter opens and closes and down goes the mirror. Suggestions for cameras in the old SLR world would include the Pentax Spotmatic F, Nikon F2 or FM or FE, Canon FTB or F1, Olympus OM-1 or it's variants. But the idea is to get to the root of B&W photography, and that was film. What is great about these cameras is that you have total control over its operation. They are simple and that is why they are magic.
Thank you very much, Alex.
B&W will stay forever it is too powerful.
Really stunning video, man.
Antoine.
Thanks a lot!
I recently started to shoot film again and I decided to go for black and white exclusively. There’s something special about the look of b/w photographs. The process of loading the film, taking the photographs, developing the film and printing the photographs in the darkroom, all by myself, is another, very important and highly rewarding aspect.
Great stuff Alex, thanks. My suggestion to students (long retired from teaching) would be if you are using a mirrorless camera for a B&W assignment, don't set the viewfinder to monochrome. Maybe set a custom button to switch to B&W, but try and visualize the color scene as B&W in your mind. Only then take a peek at the monochrome screen and see how your interpretation was. No doubt a much quicker way to learn to "see" in B&W than the way us older photographers learned with film. Of course, you can use this same comparison process with a RAW image in post, but I believe it would be a more effective learning tool if applied first in the field.
All I can say is I love my Q2mono. True black and white photography in digital form. Can only use light for adjusting, not color. Wonderful. Great video - thanks!
Enjoying mine so much.
after years of shooting digital, which I still do, I have gotten back into film photography and I have gravitated towards black and white with film. I have always loved B&W. When it is done well it is unbeatable. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching
I cut my photographic teeth on black and white photography in high school photography class. I still have an affinity for it. I truly enjoy your videos.
It took a digital camera to get me in to monochrome photography, its electronic viewfinder gave me an idea of what I would get. Until then I saw colour in a viewfinder and could not concieve what a monochrome immage would be. Now I shoot lots of monochrome. My favourite monochrome camera is an early Canon Sure Shot with exposure control via the iso dial. I use its 38mm lens to make intimate and environmental portraits of my family. I would love a video on black and wite development and printing.
I completely agree. Black and White photography is inherently abstract as we don't really see with the absence of color. I shoot 90% BW and therefor i went the route of the Leica M10 monochrom, and love the experience. Great video 😃👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you
I started to photopraph one year ago with a mirrorless camera and luckily i´m still into it (which isn´t normal for me). I definitely had a lot of fun so far trying new things out and just learning without really studying much and so far i´ve invested a bit into the system. However... half a year into it i had the idea of buying an old mechanical film camera and now i ended up in a situation, where i barely even touch my modern expensive camera and just go out with my screwmount leica in the pocket and shoot blurry images. But somehow it just feels right to me. I´ve watched several photography youtubers at the beginning (mainly technical stuff) , but today this channel is pretty much the only one i keep watching. I just wanted to say "Thank You!" for the great and interesting videos. Right now i´m on my first b/w film so this video came perfectly.
Screw mount Leicas are getting more expensive too. You can make very sharp pics with them, just see what Henri Cartier-Bresson did. He used them and a 50mm lens. And developing film and print is so much fun!
I started enjoying black and white photograph through going back to film photography. Brought myself a Nikon F4S and started selecting the stocks I like most. It's such a challenge and joy deal with this way of doing what I like most. Still sending my films to develop but I hope doing all the process myself soon.
Developing is so much fun 😊
@@arneheeringa96 Sure!!! Just need to adapt a place to do it.
Since I started taking photos in 2019 I never shot anything in black and white ( maybe I just added a BNW filter to a photo now and then) until last summer a friend of mine came to see me and we went out shooting, and he was shooting in BNW directly , so he convinced me to try it and I kind of fell in love with it. So many photos that didn't look good in color look so so good in black and white.
Clearly I don’t do enough B&W. More of this please.
I enjoyed this video i sometimes shoot Monochrome of old buildings, and with colour old buildings don't look good. Thanks Alex.
Thank you.
Some of my favorite photographs have a slight resemblance to charcoal sketches or oil paintings. I love the abstraction from a real life photograph.
Monochrome photography is all about luminosity and contrast. I find I can visualize those factors best by removing my glasses (In very nearsighted) and really squinting. That minimizes the impact of color and details, and emphasizes how I see shapes, light, and shadow. I'm producing many more monochrome images than I used to, and I can get very dramatic images that way.
Min 10:00 it’s the deepest thought about why monochrome photography still has and will continue to have a very important place in art. Alex; Thank you ever so much for the incredibly valuable insights.
Thank you for watching
Thank you for this video. There are a few Belgian black and white photographers who are definitely worth paying attention to, Dirk Braeckman and Stefan Vanfleteren.
Excellent video, let me start with that. Clearly the classic understanding of B&W white photography is that absent color, the other elements of composition, shapes, lighting, etc must carry the day for the image to be successful. You mention that film photography is more forgiving, but I was a little unclear exactly how you meant that, particularly when my experience with both suggests that the power and technology of today's cameras, particularly with regard to dynamic range allows for improperly exposed images to be salvageable whereas a B&W film exposure can be lost and/or extremely difficult to salvage.
That said, there is something else which I feel give B&W film photography an advantage when it comes to achieving what we've come to accept as classically stunning images. And that advantage is greater contrast. I think that an image captured with a modern digital camera, while being able to be converted to monochrome, will have such wonderful (subjective) dynamic range that the drama of higher contrast must be achieved in post more often than not, while a B&W film image starting out with less dynamic range gets to that final higher contrast finish faster...and maybe even straight out of camera.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on this?
The Mencher image of the mountain and the fellow in the skif is made, to me, by the burned in vignette that shapes the "window of observation." Without that it becomes an entirely different image much like the too many misty morning images of a scene in nature flooding the internet these days. Having paid my way through school back in the early 70s by doing custom darkroom work (color & b/w) it brought back a lot of memories. IMO, you don't see light until you've worked in b/w.
Love black and white. Especially portraits think it brings the emotions out more
Great discussion . . . Black and White has been my favorite since is was in my late teens . . . thanks.
I shoot a lot fo B/W and I agree about it more forgiving but as i find that as there is 'less to the image' the image itself has to be better or speak to you more. Just like to continue to give praise as I always feel I've learnt something from your lessons. Keep it up (y)
I shoot a lot in black and white. Like you I started in black and white film photography. Black and white still has a drama that color cannot touch. Thank for another inspiring video Alex!
Thanks for watching
One line stood out very large for me .......' If this was in color , it would be all about the color and not the shape '. (or form ) ......
Fascinating topic! Although I haven't always appreciated B&W photography, after many years of color photography, I find myself much more interested in B&W photography, especially for the winter months, where there isn't so much color in nature (which is mainly what I photograph). I find your discourse thought provoking and refreshing as there is no gear conversation, which is a relief, but more discussion about the passion of photography, the art of photography and how to realize on digital film images that are inviting and evocative. When I first began photography, my goal was realism -- to make my images realistically reflect the subject of the image. But when I looked at the results, the images lacked the emotional impact that I felt which inspired me to take the photo. It was then that I realized that my real goal is to make the viewer of my images experience the same emotional impact that I felt when I saw the subjects in my images. That has liberated my view of photography and transformed the images that I create.
You are such a good teacher. A very good and talented speaker.
This sounds like an ad for HP5! Love the video as always
amazing video! I love black and white photography, especially on film! that ghost is truly amazing! Love the symmetry and solid blacks in many of them photos. I did have to save this video to rewatch again later.
Awesome, thank you
Yes, a series on black and white film photography processes including developing the film would be much appreciated. I’ve been learning my father’s Nikon F, and this video has inspired me to purchase my first two rolls of B&W film. It is somewhat cheaper too, so may feel more liberties to explore with the film settings.
I have been considering buying a tank and accessories to develop my own film, but just hesitant about the process.
Give it a try. It's very easy but yet it can be as nuanced as you want to make it.
Processing black and white doesn't need much gear or skills. Colour is another story. When you produce a processed roll of negs you'll be hooked.
Developing is so much fun 😊
Thanks for doing this video. It inspires, reinforces, and enlarges the envelope for what I am pursuing. My work is not going to set the world on fire but I does help deepen my appreciation of other photographers.
You are so welcome!
Thanks Alex, another excellent video. It’s very inspirational. Thanks so much.
I adore B&W but have never been good at seeing in B&W when out in the world. I have been using mirrorless to improve my vision. I look at something and then use the evf to confirm/reject my assessment which has improved my keeper rate. Still room to improve but enjoying the learning curve immensely.
Thanks for the video and the ideas to be more experimental/less technical.
Thanks for watching
Alex, I think you are talking about the figure-to-ground relationship when you are referring to contrast? That can be achieved in color, just as effectively. You need sufficient contrast in tone. Light against dark, or dark against light. With color, you can also play with color contrasts. However, I do agree that black and white gives you greater latitude to play with lights and shadows. I'm a black and white man, myself...btw. I'm just making a case that color photography can fulfill all of the same things.
Thank you for your comments
Dear Alex! Thank you so much for this video! Like many people who watch your channel, I started at the time of film photography. So, I know by my own experience what alchemy of the “wet process” is. And that darkroom atmosphere! Nothing can compare to it. Which does not mean that I’m nostalgic (albeit a little) to the point of rejecting modern technology. Not at all! New tech gives us new ways to achieve results, both pre-planned and unexpected. As for B&W photography, I usually try to imagine how a scene would look in B&W, but shoot full-color RAW. No need to explain what freedom of “processing” this gives. Though shooting deliberately in B&W is a good practice too. We can say, that modern ways to take and make images give different people more opportunities to adjust the whole process to their individual preferences, making it more obvious that key factor in photography as an art is the creative mood and mindset of the photographer. And nothing stimulates our creativity more than watching what other creators are doing. So, my special thanks to you for using the highest class photos for your videos. They are so inspirational! The same for the ideas about photography, here the B&W one, that you share in your videos. They may be something new for some, or well-known for others, but in both cases it is important to discuss things that make photography be an art, and not just a routine of pointing and shooting, as any computerized outdoor cam can do. So, many thanks again both for this video and for all your efforts to maintain creative approach to photography!
Isn't RAW always colour that should be processed in BW? So you could easily set your display to BW. I am not certain though as I still shoot BW on Film and Colour in Digital C41 (SOOC).
@@arneheeringa96 Yes, it is. I shoot full color to have more choices at when I make B&W conversion. I just like the process of image processing in digital workflow. And there are images that turn out to have more impact in low saturation style, rather than in pure monochrome. In other words, I prefer to reserve more room for improvisation in post.
@@vedarius Great!
I find C-41 color negative development even easier than B&W, because there are no variables (other than temperature, and this can be controlled quite easily, just look at what CineStill has to offer), and there's even a B&W film available for C-41 - Ilford XP2 Super. There was Kodak BW400CN, but Kodak has discontinued it a long time ago (I would prefer it to XP2, as it had better "color rendering" and better contrast). Classical B&W is cheaper, though.
This is such a great channel. I love the content and your passion for the topics you talk about! Many thanks.
Thank you for watching
I’ve seen many of your RUclips videos that I really liked
very interesting academically rich
Bravo and good luck
Thank you
If you want to try black and white photography, and don’t want to buy all the equipment just to experiment. Then look around your town for a photo school or a community college that teaches photography and ask to use their equipment. You may have to sign up for a workshop or a class. But you will be able to have a fully working dark room in which to try doing black and white. In the town where I used to live, they had a photo school that would teach these short introductory seminars on weekends. And when the seminar was finished, you were allowed to work in their darkroom for the rest of the day.
I too spent two years shooting solely black and white hand rolled film whilst doing my city and guilds in the late 1980’s … wow that makes me sound really old
Thank you for your videos. You are truly inspiring me. Im doin photography for year and all my followers told me that i've made huge step forward. Its all thanks to you.
That is awesome!
@@ThePhotographicEye please check messenger for message 🙏
I love shooting B&W film but do it far too less, mainly because I'm afraid of developing. I have all the stuff but more often than not I'm scared of trying. I know it's an acquired skill and with doing it I will become more confident I think I have to leave my comfort zone (or keep depending on lab processing which might harm my my will to try out things).
The stark nature of black & white forces the artist and viewer to stop and not just scan through the whole picture but instead implores you to see the parts. Those small parts are then brought to our attention because the minimal dualist nature of the medium. Allows you to see Fan Ho.
I would never use a B&W image as is straight out of camera. I use a Sony and it doesn't even have a decent B&W style preset anyway. The ability to shape the image in the software I use is a hugely important part of my workflow. I really like dramatic B&W images, much like those of Trent Parke and having the ability to deliberately underexpose blacks and overexpose whites where I feel necessary is a great advantage to B&W imagery.
Hi Alex, this is the 2nd video I viewed on your channel and I subscribed immediately.
If you would pour this kind and quality of information into a 3 day workshop, I'd signup in a minute.
It would be the first workshop where one wouldn't need a camera, yet it would teach people far more than when visiting a week of point 'n shoot workshop.
Take care.
That’s awesome. Thank you
Yeah it's in fact photo critique which is indispensable if you want to become a good photographer. All workshops in the old days used to do this after picture taking. Or as Daniel Milnor said working with a photo editor was like this in an extreme way. Unfortunately there aren't many photoeditors left. You could check out Dan's RUclips channel as well if you like .
Thank you Alex. Your presentations are ALL good but as B & W is my favorite medium in photography, I really enjoyed this one. I also think your suggestion to try film was beneficial in that it reminds me to “get back into my photographic roots.” I love digital but at heart, I’m an analog kind of photographer. Thanks again!
Thanks for watching
Right now I meke my own developers for film and paper. FX-55 and E-72 for paper. Close to nailing my film stock and FX-55 pairing that gives me negatives that I can bend and shape under the enlarger. A challange, oh yes indeedy, but for me great fun.
Seems you have been watching 'The Pictorial Planet' RUclips channel, because he talks about those developers. BTTB Mod is a great film developer too to mix yourself. Check out Rüdiger Hartungs blog about it.
@@arneheeringa96 Watching, Bought Johns book and all the chemicals to make FX-55, BTTB and E-72 at home. Sharing my experience as I travel this path in photography.
@@davecarrera he's doing a great job. I make beer and wine developers from scratch as I kept experimenting after dabbling with Caffenol.
@@arneheeringa96 John is also generous with his offline encouragement also. Top chap.
@@davecarrera yeah I wrote with him a bit. Would be nice to visit him if I ever get the chance.
"It looks like it's Australian." Probably it is. I stopped and Googled Ray Harris and found "The Blue Bin." The post is dated April two years ago, he's living in Ballarat, Victoria. I note is talks about FRAMES Magazine.
I do buildings, regularly black and white. Christian Fletcher also does Buildings. mostly in colour. Not necessarily in the original colour.
Thank you Alex , really enjoy your content and the time and effort put into each video , the images and photographers featured always leaves me with a head full of new ideas
That’s awesome
Photographing the prairies in Canadian winter - I start embracing black & white and I love it now. An excellent episode as always, thank you for the tips. Now I am impressed to visit Canadian Rockies famous spots this summer and photograph them in black and white.
Was a bit late, but will watch it again, since I love b&w (unbunt)
Thank you so much Alex
Shoot film. Magic
I guess we had done similar things in schools… hand processed everything… from expose, develop and print
Thank you. All the best. 👍📷😎
Thanks as always, Alex! I'm remembering that some photographers--landscape photographers in particular--resist including people in their pictures because that's immediately where the viewer's eye goes; it becomes, if not the focus, at least the "reference point" for the picture. And I'm wondering if, in some similar way, incorporating color is the same way. It becomes the thing you have to deal with, regardless of whatever else is going on in the image. Just a thought...
Think you're right. BW is about contrast, shapes and framing. Colour can be distractive, but can also be beautiful when monochromatic or popping.
It's my absolute joy Alex, thank you.
I'm off to watch your recommended video.
Awesome.
This links well with your video about Bob Carlos Clarke. I love his B&W stuff since I saw that.
That’s awesome
I love this channel so much. Always thoughtful and engaging lectures. If you did more on black and white, including analogue, i would love to see it!
Hi Alex, I am just returning to photography after a few years focussed on the day job. Thank you for this it has been a gentle, light bulb moment. Looking forward to exploring organic and inorganic interfaces on my Dartmoor home
Glad it was helpful!
Very informative 14mins (incl the raw side of mirrorless) works for many genres. good mono (Photography experts) sections too.
Thank you Alex, very inspirational as always.
Thanks for watching
Another great video Alex, I tend to edit my photos I like and then copy them into my smartphone, I was having a look at them after watching you video and edited quite a few on the phone into black and white and I was surprised how many were actually a lot stronger image then in colour, and that when I first edited them never gave black and white a thought, or just couldn't see it at the time?
I love listening to you 🙏☀️
It was inspiring as your other videos were. Thanks.
Thanks for watching
Thank you Alex
Thanks for the content! Love your philosophy and approach on the subject..
I could write an essay, Alex. Let me reduce it to three words. Heartfelt thank you.
LOVE ALL OF THIS MR ALEX. KEEP EM COMING.
Thank you
Thanks Alex, great advice and tips 👌
Keep the B&W videos coming please
Best videos ever. Great work, please keep up :)
Thank you
Thanks for this exceptional,video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi I love this video 📸 I do have a question I shoot with a Canon 90 D and when I open the raw file up it goes to color any ideas why? Keep up the great work🙏
it's because raw = raw data from camera sensor = colour image (with exception of leica monochrome maybe)
You need to convert it to black and white in the editing software you use.
Like barret8 said. Raw only means that it's raw, unprocessed data. When you don't shoot in raw, the camera processes that data for you using it's own software. Raw lets you choose the software and how you would like the data to look, instead of whoever made the camera.
Thank you for this delighting video! It's o.k. with the denotation 'black&white', albeit we are confronted with a widespread range of lightness and shades of grey within a semantic differential between pure black and pure white. Or - at 11:18 (Muse Portraits) in this video - shades of monochrome brown tones which isn't 'black&white'. Therefore we know the tags 'panchromatic' and 'orthochromatic', and we can get panchromatic film and orthochromatic film - the latter enhances much more contrast. For instance I know Agfapan film and Agfaortho film; Agfaortho25 has very fine grain with 25 ASA. Older film cameras like my Pentax Spotmatic show on their dialplate 'COLOR' respectively 'PANCHRO'. With digicams we can create monochrome pictures showing only one colour, such as brown oder blue or green or ... So we get at least effects looking nearly like B&W, but they are monochrome in another colour. Excuse my 'Asperger' way of differentiation;-)))
Another great and truly inspiring video Alex. Excellent production and content.
Much appreciated!
All of that work by Eric Mencher looks like it was shot using the Hipstamatic app on an iPhone. However he did it, he's a total expert in the field.
I spent last year shooting only black and white, I continue to shoot b&w about 75% and started color again : I am a better color photographer now.... also consider FAN HO the great b&w photographer
ruclips.net/video/WToUHtahvE8/видео.html
Great video bro!
Thank you
Another masterful video from you Alex. Thank you so much. Also, thank you for sharing more of your work. No need for imposter syndrome here. Your work is exceptional. Cheers.
Thank you very much!
Thanks
Are the Acros film simulations Fujifilm good or is it better to manually make RAWs black& white in post?
I love that film sim in my Fuji camera . Have got some of my best shots with it . Barely need to tweak it in post
If you are learning to work in BW I would suggest doing it manually as then you get a better understanding how you arrive at the black and white image
I miss the days of Tri-X and Rodinal + Ilford Multigrade...... standing in the dark meditating on life.....
All still available, so why not? I do. Developing and printing is so much more fun than sitting at a computer screen.
I love how some people think that ‘straight out of the camera’ is some kind of badge of honour.
Thanks!
Thank you
I had a lab process and contact yesterday, £30. Plus the film. That's me finished with film.
Colour? Probably a pro lab. I only used big commercial labs and they deliver shitty scans and shitty prints for like 20 years now. If lab I only let them process colour negatives/slides and nothing else. Keeps costs low too. Everything BW I do myself, which is so much more fun than sitting behind a computer screen.
Aperture ... Those were the days. I loved it, but unfortunately, Apple discontinued it.
FYI. The people that made Aperture for Apple have gone on to make the "RAW Power" program for mac.
Great video, thanks! Alex, do you by any chance do Zoom talks to photo clubs? I’m putting together a programme for my club’s next season and it would be great if you could give us a talk please? 😊
Hi Nick,
Yes, I do talks for clubs.
Please drop me a line - alex@thephotographiceye.info
I would like to see a vídeo on how to procesos black and white film. A while ago l took a roll of black and white film to be developed and printed but the price was prohivitive compared to digital.
Try searching RUclips. There are many videos out there...
Going against my principle of not giving people the answer but encouraging them to seek for themselves 🙂 try this from Ilford:
ruclips.net/video/aPQ7OPy8T2w/видео.html
You will need some equipment - developing tank, daylight changing bag unless you have a darkroom, measuring cylinders, thermometer, plus the chemicals. Ilford has a very nice starter kit, but I tend to buy larger quantities. I suppose I have been an Ilford fanboy, for much longer than that term has been in use, as I've been using their film and paper, plus chemicals, since the late 60s. With a break of several years, but I have been drawn back.
It's a fairly simple and straightforward process and I find it quite rewarding. The biggest problem I have is dust settling on the negatives as they dry!
Currently I scan my negatives, but we intend to build a darkroom as a couple of my grandkids are keen to learn more.
I'm sorry that that was a long and rambling answer to a simple question, but you triggered one of my passions.
And I do have and use a digital camera as well!
I am a fan of bw and colour and use both in my own work. But I sometimes wonder how bw would be regarded if the history of photography had been different. Imagine for example if bw film had never been invented, and the first and only film ever made was colour. Would we now regard bw as profoundly interesting or just a trivial/novelty digital Photo manipulation effect? Of course history is in the bag, so we will never know.
I’ve thought of that, too. I have to imagine photography would have begun with color, had the technology been there from the beginning.
Trent park is brilliant. Leica are foolish not having him as ambassador or as the face of their M cameras.
So many triangles in Returning Home.
Thank you so much for all you do your channel so good I relate. To you I too have been in photography for so many years professionally assigned in Hollywood staff photographer aero space Honeywell I’ve done so much darkroom Hughes Aircraft I went to Los Angels tech photography
If you get chance look up Famous Photographer School I have their books so cool any keep doing what you do please to much to write ✌️
Oh man, I would love to have a set of those books. I have heard of them before but struggled to find any copies of the course
If colour had been invented first would anyone bothered inventing B&W ? would it have been considered a wonderful advancement I think it very doubtful, and why didn't the old masters paint in B&W. I occasionally convert a photo to B&W usually to hide some thing, if you are using film it is of course cheaper
I’m wondering why just monochrome is your favorite? Don’t you think color photography also has its own uniqueness just curious?!… 😂
I like both. But would like to hear what you have to say.
The portrait of the girl that you used at the beginning of the video, is exquisite. You may have gotten bored with portrait photography, but that image anything but boring.
Thanks so much :D
alex I learned that for me is alwais very wise to call up your channel and getting the most out of your themes . Today it was this: black and white images .. fotos ..
are so forgiving and the same time so unforgiving... thats ecxacltly what it is... you hit thail on the head here..
I absolutely love black and white but I’ve got this stupid guilt that it feels like cheating, as in, sometime it’s like a way out of the burden of dealing with colours, which can be really hard for a rookie like me, especially since I don’t have the purpose and comfidence of an experienced photographer who’d already know even before the shot what they want and how’s the final image going to be, I just shoot in RAW out of instinct and then decide later on my computer how I’m gonna process the image into it’s final form... I know it’s stupid and probably due to my inexperience but every time I go B&W it kind of feels like giving up on something, it feels like taking the easy path...
Oh no in fact BW is harder. It takes another kind of seeing. So if you look into the colour viewfinder or screen you will have to imagine what it looks in BW. But the advantage of mirrorless cameras is that you can put your screen and EVF to BW and the RAW still keeps the colours and you can postprocess as BW afterwards.
@@arneheeringa96 that’s exactly what I do actually. I got the idea from another photographer who suggested shooting in B&W allowed to focus more on composition
@@r.c8756 I wish you good luck and a lot of fun shooting.
Apple Aperture has been discontinued.
I use Apple Photos on my iPad or Mac. If I have to do more than Apple Photos allows (it does a lot!) then I have screwed up the picture in camera.