Sometimes an image works in black and white. When we say that, most of the time we are really talking about an image with many shades of grey rather than just black and white. This post is about images with just those two tones. I’ve used Photoshop with all these images to take away the colour, reduce the range of tones, and give a huge jump in contrast.
I was testing out my new lens with Olympus’ “Pro Capture” mode on the camera. It’s a nifty pre-shot system that starts taking images as soon as you half-press the shutter button, and finalises when you fully press the shutter button. It’s great for getting the perfect moment. Here the jackdaw’s primary feathers have the same sort of pattern as the central part of the TV aerial.
This macro image is an iris sawfly larva on an iris leaf. I lit the background with an LED light and then exposed so the larva was in silhouette. You can see the damage it has done to the leaf. The contrasty treatment has simplified the image.
This dead fly was on a window sill in rainy North Wales. It looks like it is supplicating itself before a monarch. I used macro focusing mode on my compact camera. The grey sky background was turned to white in Photoshop as before, and it left a few shades of grey in the wings. I thought that too much was lost if they went black. This sort of image make you realise just how hairy a fly is.
Only black and white; who needs shades of grey?