Noatak river flows out of the Brooks range in the Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark III, 24-105 f/4L IS (28mm), 1/1000 @ f/5.6, ISO 400
I’m often asked if I shoot black and white. The answer is no, in general. My world is one of color, and while I appreciate both the constraints and liberties of excluding color from an image, I generally prefer the invoked psychological elements that the inclusion of color creates.
But throwing away color opens up some creative opportunities as well, and I’m fond of all imagery that exhibits a powerful use of light and composition. Just for fun, I thought I would play with this photo for a few minutes in Lightroom. It was a pretty quick rendition of the file by reducing the saturation to “0” and then cranking the blacks and contrast. It creates a rich and energetic scene, which in reality, is far more dramatic than what the human eye actually saw.
I took the image while flying with Dirk Nickisch of Coyote Air, as we traversed across the Noatak river valley in Alaska’s Brooks range. If you have followed my blog, you already know that I’m particularly fond of the magnificent Brooks range. If you are open to the idea, it will change your life in just a few glances, through its sheer immensity and wild ruggedness–it is sort of a quick work of self reduction.
When shooting aerials–use a high, high, high shutter speed, reduce wind drag on the lens as much as possible, and isolate yourself from the plane vibration, and shoot a lot of frames.
Compare with the color version.
Both images are striking. I find it interesting that the tones of the blue sky and the dark cloud converge for the BW image. Looking at the BW image, I imagine that the sky is present in the upper left AND upper right. It’s not until I look at the color that I realize the error.
Beautiful, Patrick! 🙂 I really like the B&W here, especially.
@Tim, thanks, I think the dramatic lighting often found in the Brooks range works well with black and white.
@Erik, you made a keen observation, and it reveals how differently similar tonal ranges are displayed in their respective black and white gray color, but the actual hue adds another dimension of color separation in the color image.
The color photo is beautiful. But the sense of depth seems to be greater in the B&W, maybe because you increased the contrast and the eye travels back “farther” toward the light.
Vivian, I agree, there is more depth in the BW, largely due to contrast. I could crank the contrast more on the color image, but it begins to look “over worked” if you know what I mean. Perhaps o.k. for some fine-art presentations, but I like to keep the stock images a little more toned down. Although, this is hardly toned down to begin with!
Patrick,
I did a double take on the bw! Wow, how wild the landscape looks in comparison.
It’s a good reminder for me to look beyond the channels of my reality.
Steve,
Perhaps that’s some of the lure and beauty of black and white. It makes me want to make a gallery of BW aerials of the brooks range. So many are fitting for that presentation.
WOW !! gorgeous photographs .
This is really nice post and beautiful river pictures , I like it .