Posted January 31st, 2015

Black and White Branches

The most recent monthly assignment topic of the Whitehorse Photography Club was straight-out-of-the-camera black and white images. I am mostly a colour photographer, usually resorting to monochrome only on occasion when colour gets in the way and detracts from an image. I am also a dedicated RAW format shooter; letting the camera bake in its processing formula and throw away information it deems unnecessary in order to produce a compressed JPEG file, seriously goes against the grain. So my initial reaction was that I was not interested in participating in this exercise. However, when I reviewed the black and white settings that are available in my camera, I came to realize that it actually offers a fair amount of user control. The purpose of the assignment was to promote seeing in black and white, but for me it turned out to be as much about learning the capabilities of my camera that I had never used, not just black and white settings but other JPEG only functions as well, and I had a ball doing it. The assignment restrictions ultimately were eased to allow basic post-capture adjustments, but the image shown here is true to the original parameters ... it is presented exactly as it came out of the camera other than being resized with standard output sharpening.
Pentax K-5, Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di-II LD @ 17mm