Lesson9

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  • #17456
    eleanor
    Participant

    Black & White

    #18848
    Duncan Rawlinson
    Keymaster

    This is a great black and white photograph. You have good composition (although I would have liked to see more of a focus on the bird and its reflection in the water), and you have a decent tonal range.

    That being said, I think you could have pushed your tonal range slightly further. The white in the bird is as far to the bright end of the spectrum you could have gone, but there is lack in the area around the darkest end of the spectrum. Remember, tonal range is the most important thing and tonal balance is less important. But it’s the dark-darks and bright-whites which are important to any good black and white photograph.

    In your photograph there is a predominance of mid-tones or greys. This usually flattens a black and white photograph and gives the photograph a dull look. To add the dramatic look to a black and white shot you really need to push the range as far as you possibly can.

    If you were to take a reading on your levels for this photograph you would notice a peak in the middle of the reading and a lack of bars around the dark end of the spectrum.

    Some of the most dramatic black and white photographs use a predominance of one of the extreme tones (black or white) and highlight the shot with smaller amounts of the opposite extreme. However, these extreme tonal differences are hard to find in our day to day environment which is why black and white photography is such a challenge.

    Overall this is a really good photograph. Just keep your eye open for as broad of a range as possible.

    All the best!

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