Black & White vs. Color

Our photography focus today was black and white, and we visited Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral to try and work our magic. To me, a higher level of skill is needed to intrigue and evoke an emotion with a black and white photograph. We can't all be an Ansel Adams or Alfred Stieglitz, whose photography was truly some of the most majestic, inspiring, and enduring of our times. When a picture is stripped to it's black and white core, the composition takes on a much greater importance.

Stonehenge Under Clouds

We had another perfect day, with fabulous towering clouds at Stonehenge. Have I mentioned that I'm somewhat obsessed with clouds? : ) Because we were shooting in black and white, I included people in some of my shots.

Generally I tend to avoid this as I feel they are a distraction (those bag-toting, camera-clicking tourists,.... not me of course), unless you are specifically focusing on human subjects going about their normal lives.

Of course, most of us were not really taking black and white photos. We were shooting in color and then using a variety of software to change, contrast, crop, and generally manipulate and enhance our original photo. I must say I'm loving it! So here are a couple of color shots, which do you prefer?

Salisbury Cathedral

At Salisbury Cathedral, I contrasted the black and white photos with shots of saturated color. I hope this Andy Warhol inspired take is not offensive to anyone, certainly no disrespect was intended. What was interesting was what colors were actually underlying the original photo. The saturation effect in Picasa 3 only intensifies what is already there, at least that is how it appeared to me. Some photos did not change much at all.

Here comes the fun!