Sunday 28 July 2013

Digital Photographic Practice Part 3 - Processing the image: Thoughts and Initial Ideas

I was quite excited when reading through the third part of Digital Photographic Practice - Processing the image. This was because in my eyes it revolved around and was geared towards black and white photography. If there was one area of photography I was extremely interested in but didn't have a lot of experience with, it was black and white photography.

   Another, more obscure reason why I was excited to be partaking in this part of the course was my camera I was currently using possessed an electronic rather than optical viewfinder. This was relevent because it allowed me to 'see the world' through monochrome, before the picture was taken. I felt I was in the minority concerning shooting black and white this way and was looking forward to at least a couple of exercises where I could put this potential technique to practice. Perhaps it would even come in useful for the assignment.

   More importantly, in my opinion using the electronic viewfinder in this way (seeing in black and white) would possibly allow me to better observe form and components inside the frame that I would otherwise have overlooked.

   Other thoughts I had about black and white photography were based around how black and white 'limits' information for the viewer. To 'limit information' could help serve to channel the viewer's eye towards the 'truth' or at least to what the photographer wants them to see. This could be in the form of composition or lighting and obviously not colour. Therefore the viewer would be much more likely to pick up on patterns in the first two elements rather than the latter. This would be because they were not distracted by the colour element. Maybe black and white photography's 'creative value' is to not quite tell the whole story; only the bits the photographer wants the viewer to see.

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