Black and White Transformation

There's lots of information and even phone apps on how to convert color photo digital files into black and white after the picture has been taken. But what about deciding upon the black and white image before the picture is taken? I believe the success of a really good black and white photographs starts before the camera shutter button is even pressed, some call this pre-visualization. Picking out good black and white images in a world filled with color is not always easy.

I began my photography career by shooting black and white film for newspapers, on my time off I loved nothing more than to load up my Nikon F2's cameras with 35mm Kodachrome color slide film and go out and see what I could find in the natural world around me. Over the years my work transformed the opposite way, when I was working as a photojournalist and I shot everything in color (digital of course) and now on my time off I love to load up my 4 x 5 Ebony RW45 view camera with black and white sheet film (Ilford HP5) and go out and see what I can find in the world of nature around me.

 When I first started shooting landscapes in black and white on a more serious level I found this visualization process was not so easy, I read the Ansel Adams series of books on the zone system, which I still feel has relevance in today's digital world, including one photographic peice of equipment which I have found extremely useful is the Pentax Digital spot meter, I have attached the scale of tonal values in numerical values from zero to ten on the outside of the barrel of this particular light meter, and by reading the different tonal values in my scene before me it gives me an idea of how those shadows, highlights, and colors will look like as a black and white photo. In this way I was better able to understand how those colors I was seeing would transform into a real black and white photo, after a while I found that by using my 1º spot meter and the zone system it gave me a fairly good idea of how my final image might look as a good black and white photograph before I even made a single exposure.

In conclusion, when I am out taking pictures I try to think in black and white and find potential black and white photographs using my mind's eye to capture something that is seen not guesswork but by using a tried a true consistent method that has worked for myself time after time. The image posted is from some early work that I recently scanned. Witty's Lagoon Park, winter sunset (No.466) Copyright © Gary Nylander. Vancouver Island, December 1999. Tachihara 4 x 5 view camera, 120mm lens, Kodak Tri-X film. Scanned from 4 x 5 negative.

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