It is a free week this time and I thought I might try converting some images that I took with Anne from Slow Shutter Speed when she was in Australia last year. We went for a walk around a rainforest along the Great Ocean Road.
I have shown all these images before but in colour. It is always interesting to see how images will look when you make them monochrome. Part of photographing rainforests are the greens that you get from the leaves and plants, so if the green isn’t there are they as impactful?
So what are you left with and why remove the colour?
Well, that is a great question. I guess you are left with the shapes and textures that you find in a rainforest. Do they look better? Do you miss the colour? So many questions. I don’t really know. I like the monochrome images, but perhaps I like the colour versions best. I guess I can be convinced otherwise and maybe I should try more to see what I come up with.
Next week is Monochrome Madness #23 and we have Brian from Bushboy’s World hosting us again. His choice for the theme is CLOUDS and I have to say I am looking forward to this one. I love clouds.
Participating in Monochrome Madness
If you would like to participate in this challenge please post photos on your blog and use the tag Monochrome-Madness, then I can use the reader to see what you post.
You can also leave a pingback, do they still call them that? Basically, you put a link to my monochrome madness post in your post and it leaves a link in the comment section.
Don’t forget to check out the Monochrome Madness page. On this page, the next theme is announced and there is also all the information for participating. We have also included a list of themes that will be coming in the future so if you want to be able to plan ahead you can. They aren’t in order, but will happen. Please go and check it out. Click on the Monochrome Madness heading in the menu.
Also if you would like to host one week or more, let me know.
these are wonderful and interesting nature pictures leanne. i especially like the ones with the ferns.
here is my contribution for this week, https://wp.me/pfnz9O-xT.
many greetings robert
Thank you Robert.
Beautiful photos- love the play of the light.
Thank you.
I think these look really good in black and white. Better than in colour? I’m not sure, and perhaps it should be a contest between the two – either medium is valid if the image is pleasing 🙂
I feel a bit the same way Sarah, I think some things are better in colour. Thank you so much Sarah.
Fern is a good choice to convert to B&W as it is so structured and simple graphic shape, These look really good
Thank you Ritva, I thought it was an interesting idea.
A darkish forest is a really great subject – you captured the play of light and shadow beautifully. I’ve also picked a plant-based theme for today. I took photos of bare trees the other day and it struck me how luminous birch bark is: https://picturesimperfectblog.com/2024/12/04/birches-in-winter/
Thank you so much Elke.
I love the mood on these, Leanne.
Thank you Sofia.
yes, exactly, subtract colour and you’re left with shapes & colours — with sculptural qualities — here, I thought the tight fiddlehead stood up very well to the test, ditto the slightly-unfurled fern, and the others… not as strong as those two
Thank you Penny, I enjoyed hearing what you thought about them.
The monochrome works beautifully for rainforest photos.
I’m glad you think so Egidio. Thank you.
Beautiful photos, Leanne! The tree with the big gash is so odd-looking. 😲
Thank you John. Yeah it is odd, but you see a lot like that in rainforests. 😀
😊😊😬
Marvelous images, as usual. There is something dramatic and mysterious about b&w forest images that is harder to achieve with color.
I drove part of the Great Ocean Road in 2022, between Melbourne and the Twelve Apostles (way more than twelve, if I remember correctly). Beautiful park, I wish I could visit again soon.
Thank you David, I think the same, it is quite interesting.
It is quite an incredible part of the world, I’m glad you got to go and see it.
I do like your images, but I also think — generally speaking — images converted from colo(u)r to B&W aren’t necessarily as impactful as images shot intentionally as B&W.
All the textures and shapes, light and shadow, and such are sort of the point of ‘intentional B&W’ photography. Damn, I sound so pretentious to myself. :/
The problem is Matt, that if you are shooting RAW, even if you tell the camera to shoot in black and white, the RAW image will always be in colour, that is my experience anyway. I do think that a lot of people don’t really understand how to convert them, and perhaps that is more the problem. The only way to get true B&W, I think, in the way you are talking is to use film, and I”m not going there again.
Yes, actually… that’s a good point — and I was thinking in film because I still shoot with film quasi-regularly (if such a concept actually exists).
You are also right about conversion…
Yeah, film is very different, especially when processing. Thanks Matt.
Thanks for taking me back there! I thought this series was great in black and white. You got a better idea of how the light flowed and yes texture. But then my memory came into play, seeing in black and white then remembering in color.
You’re welcome Anne. I hadn’t thought about the light, but yes, I guess you do see it better. I know what you mean about remembering. Thank you Anne.