Bringing out textures with Black & White
by eNoBlog on Jun.28, 2010, under B&W, Post-processing, Techniques
In my previous post I showed some photos from my recent visit to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. When I started to review these photos, the colors and lighting were so compelling, I didn’t give anything but a color treatment a thought. Fortunately, I left on vacation, and after coming back, I started exploring several “lesser” images with B&W conversion. Here an image I first post-processed in color.
It dawned on me that I was missing all the textures in the red rock. Sure, I could bring it out with some drastic post-processing, but the results would be anything but pleasing — simply too far off reality to be acceptable. With B&W, on the other hand, I could push those textures out without being bound to the expectation of realism. The result is shown below.
Surprisingly, though color is generally an aid to depth perception in otherwise two-dimensional photos (warmer colors advance, cooler ones recede), in this case, it is the B&W version that really pops with depth and separation of foreground vs. background.
Truth be told, these next 3 images are the ones that made me go back and reconsider B&W. Shot on an overcast day, the skies did not feature the compelling blues of the first photo, and B&W helped focus attention where it mattered: on shape/form and texture.
We can read all the articles and books we want about how B&W photography accentuates shapes and texture, but there’s nothing like some hands on experience to bring the point home.
