Black and White Monochrome

Photography

Grace Taylor

Intro to Digital Photography

The Landscape of Vermont in Black and White

I have had the wonderful fortune of being able to live in Vermont for most of my life. The splendor of the landscape is what first motivated me to pick up a camera over thirty years ago and endeavor to capture its beauty to tell a story. My photographic images are an extension of the world in which I grew up and live in today.

The images in this portfolio of Vermont are in black and white. I chose this medium because for me, black and white, or monochrome photography, comes naturally. When I am photographing, I try to look at how I can use the light, shadow, and composition to capture the character that black and white photography has to offer.

Having both black and white in a shot is important, but just as important is to have a wide gradient of the grayscale. The presence of a variety of grays adds depth and added vibrancy to photographs. Catching these grays is, again, a matter of proper exposure and making sure I did not wash out the grays with too much white. In all of my shots, I look for the possible middle gray and then expose the surrounding elements based on that exposure.

As aforementioned, proper exposure is key, especially in black and white shots, to maximize the visual and emotional potential of monochrome photography in every shot. Each shot should contain within it, pure black and pure white. Each shot should also be different in its range of tones; they do not all have to be the same level of lightness or darkness. Some will be much darker and some will be much lighter, overall. The proper exposure is what makes each shot accurate and unique in capturing when they were taken and under what circumstance. Just as the grays, darks, and whites are relative, so is proper exposure. What is appropriate exposure for one shot may not be the appropriate exposure for another. This is yet another aspect of black and white photography that challenges me. There are different challenges for a photography with the presence of color and without the presence of color, as I have experienced first hand.

Becoming more experienced with taking photographs really involves exposing oneself as much as possible; taking more shots than one may think is a necessary aspect of photographic experimentation. As a photography learns, there is no universal rule for which type of photograph works best. I am a fan of taking the shot in my camera rather than adjusting it on the computer later.

Digital photography allows for more instantaneous photo editing, yet the challenge to take a captivating shot still remaining. Just as in motion pictures (movies, films), advances in technology allow for a greater range of special effects, this does not deter the trained cinematographer or director from attempting to do most of the work in the camera rather than in post production. This is my philosophy regarding still photography. This approach to composition and form means a deeper understanding of the composition and subject matter while one is in the moment rather than relying on the computer to make the nice shot for the photographer