I was (and still am) a brat while studying photography. My photojournalism teacher and I used to go head to head over her assignments and what I wanted to do. One such item was my determination to only shoot in black and white. To me, photojournailm means documenting history as it occurs and for some reason in my 19 year old brain, that meant it had to be in black and white. It came as a relief to my Boston Globe longtime staff photographer teacher and probably to my classmates as well, when on a vacation to California I began shooting in color. I was told that my images showed that I loved the state and came alive out on the west coast. They were right because less than a year later I made my first attempt to live out there. Sure, I only lasted 2 months but we won’t get into that now.
The reason I bring all of this to light is because I want you to step outside of your norm. My guess is that 99.9% of you always shoot your family vacations in color. That’s how digital cameras are set up unless you manually change the settings. The other option, if you’re worried you won’t like the results, is to shoot in color and then when you come home, convert the photos to black and white with photo editing software. It is a rare possibility that your camera will record an image in color and in black and white at the same time. To find out, consult your camera’s manual.
Consider this your assignment. The next time you take a Disney vacation or go on any outing, shoot in black and white. Send me 1 or 2 of your favorite photos and I’ll post them throughout the year. If you shoot in color, send me (lisaberton followed by @ and the name of this website) the image in color as well as a black and white version so folks can compare the two. Everyone who takes part will receive some AllEars.Net trading cards from me. How’s that for some incentive!
I will follow thru on my upcoming trip in May. Until then, here’s an example to get you going
The entrance to El Centro, the main building of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, is vibrant and with hanging flower basket and cool to the touch tiles. Sunlight shines down through skylights when the sun is overhead.
Part of what makes a color image work in black in white is tones. Black and white photography is comprised of the Zone System which gives us 10 steps of range from white to black. Varying shades in a black and white image give it depth and contrast.
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I change my camera setting to B&W and sepia in certain areas of all the parks. Especially love to shoot Tower of Terror in sepia.