Posts Tagged ‘monochrome’

Black and White Challenge – Part 1

Tysons, Virginia

Are any of you familiar with this Black and White Challenge that was spread throughout Facebook late last year? At this time, I had seen a few of my friends post up some incredible images. Overall, I thought that it was a great way to push you to make some new monochromes images for sharing. It works by posting up images 5 days in a row. With each submission, you nominate another person to the challenge which keeps it proliferating online. I’d like to thank Jae for nominating me to participate, and I enjoyed sharing the images! Luckily, I had some client-work coming up, so I did not have to look far for some situations in making some new images.

Santa-Claus-waving
Santa-Claus-waving

I was scheduled to photograph a bar mitzvah that had some great lighting setup by the event planners. The uplighting created a nice contrast to my flash which always makes for some nice black and white images.

Alexandria, Virginia

Bar-Mitzvah-Hora-dance-©TimeLine-Media
Bar-Mitzvah-Hora-dance-©TimeLine-Media

The other schedule shoot was at Tysons Corner Center. They had an outdoor Christmas market setup on the Plaza. They wanted to get some nice overhead views of the plaza and ice rink with lots of people doing their holiday gift-shopping. I thought that evening would work best with the light as is usual for most landscape photography. The best angle was to go into the new Tysons Tower to get an overhead view of the shopping with the expanding northern Virginia area as a backdrop. I was just lucky to get that nice colorful after-sunset sky. Although there is no color in the submitted photo, there was still a nice gray gradient in the empty upper right of the frame. I enjoyed the chance to photograph from such a great vantage point, and to be lucky enough to see it at a perfect time of day.

Tysons-Corner-Center
Tysons-Corner-Center

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Updated portrait | Virginia Photographer

Happy Thursday! It’s my 38th birthday today, and time to update my portrait. Thanks for the all the messages on social media – it is really nice to have them stream in! it is one of the best things about the new technology. It is a great excuse to hear from people that you have not seen or talked to in a while. You can reminisce again about birthdays past and make plans for future celebrations! In addition to all the messages, I set up my camera to make a new self-portrait with some lighting.

GGB updated portrait at 38
GGB_portrait_at_38

My 25th birthday was marked by a day of national tragedy. We felt it here in the DC area, and the memory of the events will always be felt when the date comes around every year. The solemnness of ceremonies and memorials on TV and across the Internet lets me also be reflective on my own events. I can take things in; reflect on a milestone day along with everyone else, as a tribute to those that were taken that day, and to be thankful for another year.  It will be back tomorrow, but it’s nice to have a break from the norm. It is nice that so many do the same on your birthday, even if it borne out of sadness.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Ballroom in Black and White

Sepia toned ballroom dance - ©TimeLine Media

Having the option of getting your prints in black and white has been an important part of my photography business. In this age of having an extraordinary amount of images being produced by cell phone post processing becomes an important part of the professional photographer’s toolkit. I used to like Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets to make cross processed colors. Additionally these can make other strange contortions to make my images stand out. However, I have moved away from that look. Now, it is only color or monochrome images that I show. At this time the black and whites are quickly becoming my favorite for a lot of dance images.

Arthur Murray Dancing

Black and White ballroom dance - ©TimeLine Media
Black and White ballroom dance – ©TimeLine Media

Taking the color out of images really makes the subjects stand out. This makes it a challenge for the photographer to make sure there is a good subject in a good position! If you have a bad photo composition in color, changing it to black and white will NOT help. It all starts with composition – a good subjects placed correctly in the frame will look good in either, but it can be enhanced by removing the distraction of color information so that the viewers are forced to consider the subject alone.

Black and White ballroom dance - ©TimeLine Media
Black and White ballroom dance – ©TimeLine Media

Monochrome images rely on the light tones to show off subject, and the dark tones to reduce other non-essential elements in the frame. In creating these images, I use an adjustment brush darken areas that are no important, and lighten faces, hands, and part that I want to catch the viewer’s eye. The lightest parts of a scene will draw your eye first through the frame, so emphasize those parts by lightening them above the background.

Black and White ballroom dance - ©TimeLine Media
Black and White ballroom dance – ©TimeLine Media

Adding a sepia tone is also an option that I offer for prints on the website. This takes the tones in the shadows and darker areas, and gives them a slight brown town that simulates and aging print. This is also a popular option and is easily created after all the color is removed from the original photo. The effect is the same on the viewer but adds a little more nostalgic feel to the image.

Sepia toned ballroom dance - ©TimeLine Media
Sepia toned ballroom dance – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

1 2 3 4