Photographyblog, Charlie Waite, Black and White Photograph

Mother Photography's first born were black and white, or perhaps brown is a better way to describe the colour of those pioneering early images made two thirds of the way through the 19th century.

From then on, and especially from the 1960's, black and white has earned a certain reverence and has come to be seen as more 'arty'. Quite what more 'arty' means I am not so sure. However since the advent of colour photography, many of the black and white aficionados still claim (unjustifiably in my view) that monochrome is indeed more of a creative artistic endeavour.

I am often heard to say that 'the absence of colour distils the image to its essential qualities' which indeed it does. I can claim to have spent very many years in the darkroom and the zone system and the whole notion of tonal values have become second nature to me. In latter years however, I have concentrated on my colour photography, yet would never claim that one is superior over the other, nor would I throw away those precious years in the darkroom where I learned the great fundamentals of photography.

I am often asked what potential image lends itself to black and white more than colour and what criteria do I use when making a decision as to which medium I should use.

I can't deny that I do favour a strong contrast scene when I work with black and white, yet one with some values in the highlight and shadows, so I would always encourage photographers to look at the depth of a shadow and the value of a highlight before making a decision. Good graphic shapes of course can make excellent subjects and a fine building white cumulous sky is hard to resist treating in black and white.

This comment will be unpopular but I do suggest that the decision to make a black and white image should be a firm and intended one from the beginning of the photographic process and ideally not some post rationalising that 'if it did not work in colour then maybe it will in black and white'; I call this 'image salvaging' but this will engender some controversy I am sure. If the image is to be made in monochrome then that is to be established and comprehended from the start and then one can engage with the appropriate monochrome approach.

I was brought up on the work of Ansel Adams, Bill Bandt and Ralph Gibson and although the latter photographer is known for very high contrast images, these are styles I like. Currently there is some stunning low key black and white gently powerful landscape photography from the hand of a fine landscape photographer called Paul Gallagher (http://www.paulgallagher.co.uk/) which I have become very fond of.

I would urge those who intend making black and white images be it with digital capture or with film to think carefully about filtration. It is worth remembering the trio of filters that are often used for black and white photography are yellow, orange and red. They all to a greater or lesser extent absorb blue light.

I have seen many a monochrome print where the sky made up of blue and white clouds has been overwhelmingly powerful and yet, there had been no filter in place to pronounce the clouds. Two of these filters bring with them associated problems. The orange and most especially the red wreak havoc with the green values, compressing them into a narrower band of values and in the case of the red plunging almost all greens into a dark featureless expanse.

Often when we see a landscape with a fine sky where the blues have been absorbed by the extreme red filter, have a look at the green landscape beneath (if it was green) as here the red filter will have absorbed the reflected green light in the same way as it absorbed the blue. Great sky indeed but a potentially muddy land!

The orange filter is a good compromise as it will not have such extreme effect on the green foliage. The yellow, even more green friendly.

If you were to have a graduated filter with one third orange. and the other two thirds clear or better still green (I have a rather gaudy looking one) then your landscapes made with film would enjoy an exceptional tonal range if of course there was a range there to start with.

I suggest that with film getting filtration right in camera is the ideal and with digital colour use 'black and white' in the image adjustment menu which will work well enough when dealing with a raw image. There are numerous ways of converting colour into monochrome but if it was the intention to make a monochrome image in the first place then hopefully, the conversion will result in parity between your previsualisation and the finished print.

If you have an old film camera knocking about (which I hope you may) then how about buying a roll or two of slow-ish black and white film and making some negatives using some of the filters we have discussed here.

In 1972, I recall an exhibition entitled 'From today painting is dead' (http://www.answers.com/topic/from-today-painting-is-dead) a remarkable and memorable exhibition of photography at the V&A museum in London. Whilst being a great advocator of digital capture, I would argue that the use of film (both in colour and black and white) is far from dead and anyone wishing to set off on a voyage down the black and white route, might consider those rolls of monochrome film.

Perhaps then a good scan of the negative and a subsequent print will provide a reminder of how enjoyable it is to interpret the world around us in black and white………..but it is just as lovely in colour too!

Biography

Charlie Waite was born in 1949 and worked in British Theatre and Television for the first ten years of his professional life. Throughout this period he became fascinated by theatrical lighting and design. Gradually the landscape and the way it can be revealed to us through light and shade stole him away from the acting profession.

Over the last twenty five years, he has lectured throughout the UK Europe and the US. He has held numerous one man exhibitions in London, including two shows in London’s National Theatre and three at the OXO gallery and held further solo shows in Tokyo, New York, Carmel and in Australia, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. He has published 27 books on the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany; all exclusively of his photography.

Charlie Waite is now firmly established as one of the most celebrated international landscape photographers. Aside from his own photography, he also enjoys introducing photography to others. Through his company, Light and Land the leading photographic tour company in Europe, Charlie Waite and his specialist photographic leaders, all at the very top in their field, run worldwide workshops and tours dedicated to bettering photography.

http://www.charliewaite.com

http://www.lightandland.co.uk

All images in this article © Charlie Waite