Monochromatic

Why do you choose to use monochrome? The chimpanzee is puzzled too. But more of him later……

So, as soon as I got to the hill, I looked at the sky and thought, ‘Black and white’. It’s just like that sometimes. Straight away you know that you feel a mono image should work and the drama of the sky was a decider here.

I always shoot in RAW so it captures all the colours anyway but I’ll adjust the image in Lightroom and then use Silver Efex to convert to mono. I like to go through the colour buttons on Silver Efex because one of them always comes up better.

I find buildings often are improved as monochromatic images. For me, mono emphasises shapes and textures when colours might be distracting. The next one has little texture but plenty of form, and this old 60’s Jaguar works for me in mono too.

My Grandparents lived in Saltcoats which back in the day, was a very popular holiday destination for the people of Glasgow – I mean many thousands descended on the seaside town every summer and I used to love staying with my Grandparents there. Now, no one would holiday there and the seaside attractions are all gone, although all the locals still take their families down to the lovely beach on hot summer days.

But when I go back with my camera, it’s such a nostalgic experience for me. Something about looking back in the past makes this a Black and white location for me. The last images I took were converted to sepia, it’s the reflection back to previous era. Here’s a couple taken round what was the old sea swimming pool areas.

But then, of the monochrome images that I’ve taken recently, my own favourite is of that Chimpanzee at Edinburgh Zoo. This was good in colour but the bright green grasses at the right just took you eye away from the subject. So another reason to go into mono is to hide distracting colour.

This whole post is in response to Anne’s Lens-Artists Challenge #265: ‘Black and White or Monochrome’. In Anne’s challenge post, she shows many different variations of what monochrome might be.

And as Anne makes clear, Monochrome doesn’t just mean Black and white, it just means shades of one single colour throughout the tonal range. I took the next image at Greenbank Garden in Glasgow. It is of a feature on gate which in true life is just a silvery grey. It’s an image of the Green Man the symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring. Well shouldn’t it be green – so with a little help from the software, it can be….. a monochrome in green.

If you’d like to join in the challenge or connect with Anne’s post, you can do so by clicking the link HERE.

25 thoughts on “Monochromatic”

  3. You always bring it together, Jazzibee. I always love all you photos. Shooting in RAW certainly does bring out detail but you capture the angles, composition, expression and fun with interest and inspiration for all of us.

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  11. Wonderful response for the week Jazzibee. The chimp, of course, steals the show and you are so right about removing the distractions. I also loved the old swimming area – B&W and sepia are wonderful choices for nostalgia. Well done.

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