This past week my friend Bob Clark stopped by.
We were talking about some black and white photos that I had on the wall and he asked if I ever used my Fuji camera in it’s black and white mode. I told him I usually convert my color images to black and white with my computer.
Bob said he was getting excellent results with his Fuji and suggested I try with mine. He quickly went through my camera, selected a B&W mode so I could try it out.
I hadn’t thought about it until Jo asked if I wanted to go with her to Vernon. Kamloops no longer has a shoe repair – that means a trip to Vernon for worn or damaged shoes. Jo had broken the top piece off of both of her boot heels.
I thought that would be a perfect opportunity to try out my Fuji camera’s black and white mode. We first stopped at her favourite Vernon restaurant, EATology , for a late breakfast of waffles, chicken and bacon. I had planned on just getting a cup of coffee, but when she offered to share I forced myself to have some. I recommend stopping there for some good eats and it’s worth wandering around to view the very large paintings by artist Jordan Perkins.
Later, after stopping at the shoe repair, I grabbed my camera and went to a nearby park photographing anything and everything that caught my eye.
Using the B&W mode on my Fuji XT1 means the viewfinder also gives a black and white image. That is interesting and helpful when choosing the different subject tones. I used to tell people that were shooting B&W that they had to force themselves to “think” in black and white instead of use the color as they normally do to balance their photograph.
When Jo an I were about to leave my house I handed her one of those little Canon point and shoots I have written about in the past. So we both wandered the park photographing a water feature with a fountain, trees, lots of giant murals that covered the walls of near by buildings, a walkway dedicated to war veterans and the 1912 heritage clock tower from the original Vernon post office.
I called to Jo to come see a rusty metal tub and thought it would make an interesting prop for a photo of her. She is a good model and chose to do a sideways pose that worked out perfect. I also had leaned against a cement lamppost.
We could have spent the day wandering with our cameras. I would have enjoyed checking out some back alleys. It’s always fun to experiment with shapes and colors.
At home I loaded my images in to my computer to see how the images turned out.
They have lots of tonality, but I would have liked more contrast. The XT1 files have lots of grey, but the blacks don’t stand out. OK, that’s the out-of-camera RAW images, and it was easy to add contrast to “punch” the images up. I brightened the white areas, added contrast and detail to the grey subjects and deepened the black. None of that was a big deal. Now I need to do some reading and maybe some menu adjusting to get the images to be more like what I would expect from a properly exposed B&W film image.
I talked with Bob and he said he struggled with too much contrast. Our cameras are several years apart. Mine is the first of the XT line, an XT1 and his is one of the newest, an XT4. The newer sensor might be more of a contrast and there might be more changes that make the difference. I usually shoot normally and use some post-production program to change my colour to black and white. I’d like to try again and see what I can get, but it isn’t a big deal. And being able to decide at a later time whether to show an image as black and white or as colour does offer more creative options.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
