London in monochrome
You know, black and white photography ain't half bad. ;-)
If you've seen any of my work - literally, ANY - then you will likely already know what I am about to say: I'm a big color guy at heart. I can't help it. I love bold and expressive colors. It's just how I'm wired, and it's how I see the world. It's a big, beautiful, colorful place and I love to display that in my photographs. It's me.
But I do understand that not everyone thinks the same way that I do, and I have to admit that although I have rarely created and shared black and white photographs, I do love to view them. Yes, I like them quite a bit. I find they can be just as expressive as a color photograph, and maybe more so. When color is absent, you are no longer overwhelmed by it and can instead be drawn in by the details, the lines, etc - it's a photograph laid bare. It's boiled down to the essential ingredients.
It's just that creating them has never been my thing - until now. Yes, I stand before you a reformed man! ;-)
No, I didn't have an epiphany or get a message from the Universe. I simply started playing around with Tonality by Macphun, and fell in love with both the process of creating monochrome photographs as well as the results I am getting. I have learned a lot, experimented even more, and decided that maybe, just maybe, I will start to work some monochrome images into my body of work. Maybe. :-)
So when I was experimenting with Tonality, I kept coming back to using London images when doing so. I'm not really sure why, but for some reason it just felt right to work on London images in monochrome. So I did. And then I did some more. You might think it's because London can be rainy and overcast, but honestly I haven't had that experience there. Sure, I've had some rain, but I've also have some glorious sunsets, and have really only been rained out from shooting there 1 time.
Anyways, I ended up loving the results, some of which I am sharing with you today. (click an image to enlarge)
Now, I don't consider myself highly accomplished at this just yet, but I am getting there. I actually believe you should think in black and white when you are out taking the photographs, which I have definitely NOT done with these. I'm always thinking in color, so I need more "time in the saddle", so to speak.
But nonetheless, I went into my Lightroom library and picked this small collection of images which I am sharing today, and took them all on an adventurous and exciting roundtrip to Tonality-land. We all came back feeling refreshed and happy, and it was a great trip! In fact, I will do another roundtrip there soon with another set of images. Word is getting out amongst my library of photos. Many of them are begging to go on that same trip. ;-)
I hope you enjoy viewing these photos as much as I did creating them and converting them to black and white. Honestly, it was a real joy. And yes, you will be seeing more black and white photographs from this big color guy in the future!
And by the way, I realize that some of these "black and white" photos have some color in them. That was done in Tonality too, and I couldn't resist. Old habits die hard! If you are interested in reading my review of Tonality, you can find that here. It's an amazing product! You can add textures, grain, little bits of color and more! It's an incredible product, and I give it my highest recommendation. You will love it, if you decide to try it out.
Here's a quick review of Tonality that I recently posted on YouTube. If you enjoy learning via video, then you can follow me on YouTube here. I post videos showing how I use software to post-process my images.
If you are interested in a free trial of Tonality, you can get that right here. If you decide to purchase it (which I highly recommend that you do - I'm sure you will love it!), then use the discount code JIMNIX and you will get 10% off your order. Thanks!
