If you have a look at my portfolio, I don’t have (yet) any black and white pictures. I love colour but I also want to stretch my vision. This is the reason I started a personal project on black and white landscape photography.
Black and white teaches you to see and seek tonal contrasts.
Browsing the internet, you can come across some spectacular black and white landscape photographs. I know I’m not there yet, but this gets me motivated to get better.
I had seen pictures of this ship wreck online, but never managed to find the location. It turns out, the key is to go there at low tide.I was attracted by the textures and shapes of these rocks revealed by the low tide.Another composition. I could have stayed there for a long time, but decided to move on to other photo opportunities. I will be back.Always look for both horizontal and vertical compositions.
Longniddry Bents are part of the John Muir Way coastal walk and a popular place for a relaxing walk. The place is full of interesting textures, and the often dramatic Scottish skies make Longniddry Bents a great subject for black and white landscape photography. The pictures in this blog post were taken over a couple of photo trips.
I was attracted to the shapes and textures of the rocks nicely complemented by a dramatic sky.Using the rocks to lead the viewer into the image.
I plan to go back in the coming weeks as it will be easier to take long exposures of seascapes at this time of year. I did manage to take a few back then, but I’d love to try exposures longer than a minute or so.
The tide was rising while I took a few long exposures of this scene, and when I turned back I was on an island. Fortunately the water was only up to my ankles.I really like the reflection of the sky in the water.Got some nice motion in the clouds in this 47 second exposure.It was a bright day so with my 10 stop filter, a 50 second exposure is the maximum I could get. I would have liked some more motion in the clouds with a longer exposure.
Digital photography gives one more freedom in converting a colour image to a monochrome one. One can apply various filters after the fact. I like to digitally apply a red filter for contrast in the sky, as in the two photographs below.
Using the rocks to guide the viewer into the image. A red filter for a dramatic sky.Motion in the clouds from a long exposure and a red filter for a dramatic sky.
A red filter makes a blue sky go almost completely black The clouds are barely affected.
Long exposure seascape.Strong textures in the foreground of this long exposure seascape.
On my way back, I noticed an interesting bridge and a lone bench facing the sea and a dramatic sky.
Emphasising the lines of the bridge with this composition and a wide angle lens.Now a more traditional composition.I got as low to the ground with my tripod as I could, to capture as much of the sky as possible.
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