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Photography Challenge – Shoot in Monochrome Learn to See Light

Photography Challenge – Shoot in Monochrome Learn to See Light

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New challenge – shoot in monochrome (B/W)

Photography by the root and history of the word means – drawing with light. So learning to see and use light is a key element to being a better photographer.

In the golden days of film, black and white was very popular with many photographers. Shooting in monochrome strips the image down to the real basics – light, tone and form. It forces you to look at your subject differently and really see what the light is doing. See some great black and white photos here.

Many of the world’s great photography masters shot black and white, some of out of necessity (color wasn’t around yet) and some by choice. It can be an art form and a way to eliminate the distractions of color.

black-white-collection-featured get-closer-photography.jpg

Bracketed HDR without a tripod
Bracketed HDR without a tripod

Learn to see light

Part of your challenge this month is to use this tool to learn to see light. What is quality of light – is it hard or soft – and how does that affect your image? How does the position of the sun in the sky and time of day affect your images? Learn to see natural light and use it to your advantage. Know when to modify it or when to come back later.

Before I get to the details of the challenge though, lets recap the last one.

Wrap up of last month’s challenge

Last month I suggested that you select five photographers whose work you enjoy and study them, then share with us in the comments what you learned by doing so.

Some of the things readers got out of that challenge were:

  • I look forward to make more conscious usage of light in my photography. – Terry T.
  • It was a fun and wonderful exercise to look at some beautiful photos and try to figure out what makes them extraordinary. Now, when I take pictures of people I am going to try to make sure that my subject is clearly isolated. I am going to practice every day one concept that makes a strong photograph and practice looking for that and figuring out the best way to capture that so when I am in a real photo shoot I will “see like a photographer” and know what will make the photo better. – Rebecca C.
  • Was totally blown away by Joe’s style and problem solving approach. – Guarav S.

The Winner is . . .

2293239853_ddd6bc4ef4_z
Image by Scott Maxwell

Once again, similarly to the Use One Lens challenge, not everyone that said they were joining the challenge completed the second part, which was to come back and tell us about it. So those that did had a really good chance of winning. The randomly selected winner from those who completed it is:

Congratulations to – Folake Abass!

Folake studied street photographers and had this to say:

 “I can tell you that it was a wonderful experience to explore photography in this way and I’m now even more in love with photography than I ever was. The five photographers I studied who are mostly street photographers are Eric Kim, Joel Meyerowitz, Mary Ellen Mark, Steve McCurry and Vivian Maier. As a result of this challenge, I shall be joining Eric Kim on his street photography workshop in Amsterdam this summer.”

I’ll be in touch by email on how to send your images for review by me personally.

Details of this months challenge

This is what you need to do to participate in this challenge.

  1. Set your camera on the Monochrome picture style. If you shoot in raw format, you will still have all the color information when you get to the post-processing stage. If you shoot JPG you will be doing all black and white images.
  2. Commit to shooting B/W for at least two weeks. This challenge will run all month but you need to do it for at least two weeks to qualify for the contest and prize. That way if you join in late you can still participate.
  3. Get out and shoot as often as possible. Sitting at home isn’t going to make magic happen. You need to get out and go photograph something. The more often the better. This will help you in your quest to see the light.
  4. Come back and share at least two of your black and white images in the comments below. Pick two that represent something you learned, an “Aha!” moment you had during this challenge and tell us about that.
  5. Optional: Share with friends. Tell others you are doing this and get them to join in too. Then comment on your fellow challenge participant’s photos below as well.
15669789466_7f39bc7678_z
Photo by Dennis Skley

The Contest

In order to be eligible to win this month’s challenge you must complete the assignment, and post a comment below by May 27th (midnight EST) that includes:

  • At least two of your black and white images
  • Tell us what you learned about light

The Prize

Banner: Learn Portrait Photography FundamentalsThis month is all about light. I happen to have a course all about lighting – specifically for portraits – but even if you aren’t into portrait photography it can help you learn about light. The winner this month will receive a complimentary copy of my Portrait Fundamentals course (value $149 USD).

Cheers,
Darlene-1-250x130.png

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Comments

  1. I enjoyed this month’s challenge. Setting the camera to monochrome really made
    me think more about the composition of the photo than if I would have shot in
    standard color.

    Some things I learned about light from this exercise:

    – The most universally flattering light for a portrait (even
    in black and white) still seems to be the hour before sunset. The shadows are less harsh.

    – I felt there was more range with exposure settings in
    black and white; meaning that I could vary shutter speeds quite a bit without having
    a really bad photo. In standard color,
    the range of exposure would probably not be as acceptable.

    – I was more easily able to see the light/shadows on the
    subject at different times of the day than if I shot in color.

    – I realized that deep shadows isn’t necessarily a bad thing
    if that is the emotion you are trying to evoke from the photo.

    – Even though I shot during harsh daylight, I was able to
    position subjects in a way that indirectly used the lighting and gave me some
    flattering back lighting.

    – I didn’t feel the need to re-touch the photos in post
    processing.

    Thanks!

  2. Hey gang – if you’re doing this challenge keep doing so, but the deadline to make your comment and be eligible to enter the contest is tonight! You have 6 hours left and I’ll be closing off comments. If you participated and learned something please come back and make your follow comment and include:

    – At least two of your black and white images
    – Tell us what you learned about light

    Thanks!

  3. I feel the hardest part of this challenge was having to choose only two photos. I had so much fun with this challenge and I soaked up a lot of new information along the way.
    I had the opportunity to photograph my sister-in-law’s 30th birthday party themed 20’s. The monochrome setting was perfect for that event. I learned that depending on how far I was standing from the subject determined how much to change the shutter speed. I had many very nice photos from that event.
    These two photos were taken over Memorial day weekend, very populated river. I was able to step out of my comfort zone and take photos of people I didn’t know “street photography”. I have been more confident with my camera, taking it places I usually wouldn’t. This particular day was amazing! People having fun everywhere, some of them noticed me, I continued to photograph 🙂
    I also reached out to a couple of photographers I have always looked up to. They both were very impressed with how far I have come with my photography. There is a type of portrait photography I would like to pursue. I asked one of those fellow photographers to be my first model, and we have an appointment set up for the photo shoot. This way she can critique what I’m doing as I’m doing it, and I can practice before I start selling it. I do newborn and family portrait now, but I am very excited to try this new kind of portrait and even more excited to have help along the way.
    I also, for the first time ever, had a fellow photographer I didn’t know come up to me and say, “Are you Krystle Mosley? I follow your Facebook and your website, I love your photos!”
    That moment was amazing!
    I feel this monochrome challenge helped me better understand lighting/ shutter speed. I also feel I still have more to learn about portrait lighting.
    Thank you Darlene for all your posts, e-mails, challenges, everything you do to help push me further with my photography, it is very much appreciated.
    Krystle

  4. Black and white photos takes me back to my family Kodak Box Brownie camera over 50 years ago when there was no other option but B&W. My efforts for this challenge involved some photos of local public street art and business signs. Working with the light I managed to get one photo of two stylised pineapples and another of an ANZ bank sign based on a pineapple crate, but in silhouette. I will keep progressing B&W photos just to get better at light usage. Thank you for such interesting challenges.

  5. Darlene has been gracious enough to let me come late to the party on this challenge. So, in light of that along with the facts that I’m new to shooting outside of Auto mode AND learning to use my brand new crazy complicated digital camera, here is what I came up with. I shot a bunch of photos on my dinning room table this morning and selected these to show. All were shot at f/2.8, shutter speed 1/60 with only the ISO changing. It seems that the mode I had to be in on the camera in order to shoot monochrome didn’t allow full control over the other exposure settings but I have to do more research on this. Anyway what I learned was that the lower ISO darkened the flowers but gave more detail in the curtains (Image 1), while the higher ISO (640, Image 2) gave more detail in the flowers but started to burn out the background. Of the 2 shaker pictures the first one had an ISO of 250 and is probably closer to a correct exposure(?), but the second one at ISO 640 having a brighter background is my preference. I seem to gravitate toward this type of image. The last one is a strange composition but I liked some of the shapes and the reflections on the table, also a pretty bright background. Again, I am really new at this and will hopefully be in better control of the camera and some of the concepts for the next challenge. The good news is that I was really excited doing this challenge and plan to shoot a lot in black & white while I’m learning about exposure. It was so helpful not to have color as another component to worry about.
    Thank you Darlene for letting me get in under the wire and for providing this website and these challenges. It is so helpful as a learning tool and much appreciated.

    • Hi Annie – glad you did it!

      The shooting mode and monochrome should be separate. What mode did you use on the dial on top of your camera? I can’t tell because whatever you’ve used to resize them has stripped off the original camera data. If I had to guess I’d say Program (P).

      You said: “Anyway what I learned was that the lower ISO darkened the flowers but gave more detail in the curtains (Image 1), while the higher ISO (640, Image 2) gave more detail in the flowers but started to burn out the background.”

      Just so you are clear – the ISO change didn’t darken the flowers it just changed the exposure – ISO is one part of the exposure triangle. Because neither your aperture or shutter speed changed the overall amount of light hitting the sensor was different. This is likely due to the metering mode you were using more than anything else. If you were on center-point or even spot-metering it will give you a very the reading depending on where the camera meters. If it hits the flowers it will see they are dark and give you more exposure. If it hits the curtains it thinks it’s overexposing and give you less or darkening the image. This is THE most difficult lighting situation you could have used – backlight is tricky to exposure for and you cannot get a “proper” exposure on either the curtains or the flowers without adding more light (like flash).

      “Of the 2 shaker pictures the first one had an ISO of 250 and is probably closer to a correct exposure(?), but the second one at ISO 640 having a brighter background is my preference.”

      So there is no “correct” exposure it’s about your intention. I actually prefer the darker one – it shows the shape and outline of the shakers better. The lighter one has the windows blown out and detail in the actual salt in the shaker, which I don’t think it important. BUT it is your photo – so you decide which is correct based on what you want.

      Again this is likely from metering mode. You changed the composition and the camera picked up the light differently. I tell my students 90% of the time you want to be in Matrix or Evaluative metering. That measures the entire scene, not just a smaller part – and you usually get an exposure closer on the first try (with the exception of backlighting which will usually give you a silhouette).

      I would dig into learning about what mode you shot these on and what metering mode. If those are foreign terms check your manual or do some googling. This might help: http://digital-photography-school.com/metering-modes-and-how-your-camera-meter-works/

      • OMG, I have so much to learn! Thank you so much for your comments, I will be working hard to learn the camera. I have played with it some more and found out how to get to monochrome without going into the creative mode I was in. And I’ll remember to stay away from backlighting for now. Can’t wait for the next challenge.
        Thanks again, Annie

  6. I really enjoyed this last month. Darlene, the images and information you exposed us to this month were inspiring. Beautiful, emotional images that had me looking for light – inside, outside, anywhere! I mainly stuck to photographing simple subjects but I have promised myself to think about the b&w option more.

  7. These are 6 images, the first 3 taken with my DSLR and the last 3 taken with my phone with an app I got that lets you shoot in b/w. I shared my images with my friends and family while committing to a month of black and white shooting. The first 3 are with my DSLR and other 3 with my phone.
    It was interesting to hear how different people reacted to the same image. I started out looking for shadows and forms and realized that monochrome photography is much more than that. I’m not totally sure if I know what I am doing now when it comes to using light. But I know that light can make a big impact on my images, where it falls, how much light is there and the type of light at a certain time of day. I know I want to experiment more and so I go out and shoot more. I stared experimenting with subjects lit from the back and from the front. I experimented with abstract images.
    I also noticed that in processing I like to work with a high contrast at first and work my way to where I want to end up with my image. Also learned how to batch process my RAW images into black and white in Lightroom. This challenge helped me get out of my comfort zone and go out and try some more street photography as well.
    I’ve recommended this challenge to all my photographer friends.

  8. The first b/w picture I took was on a whim, a picture of my daughter’s dog. I liked it, even tho it was rather blurry, because the look on her sweet little face was one of waiting, waiting for her owner. The next picture I took was of my granddaughter Joce as she woke from a nap. It was late afternoon and rather dark in the house. She turned and looked out the window and I got this shot. I learned that shooting in b/w made me more aware of the light because I wasn’t distracted with color and I can concentrate on the shadows / highlights. I think I prefer natural light to artificial, it lends to the mood. I find I like dark photos too, not sure why, maybe it’s more emotional. And the third picture is of a rose on my black kitchen counter. Again, it’s dark, but I seem to like the feeling of deep emotion, like the rose is trying to get every last minute of light before the sun sets. I still have a lot of practice ahead to improve.

  9. I`d like to begin by saying that I`d like to call this challenge, “The Challenges of Attempting to Challenge Black and White Photography”. I say this as although I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge, I really struggled in post processing. I discovered and fairly quickly that, Black and White (B & W) photography is in a realm all of its own. Shooting in monochrome, and then post-processing from colour, back to monochrome again?

    After feedback received from my video review I decided to dive(albeit tentatively) into Lightroom and challenge myself to navigate my way around it (There’s certainly a lot to learn about Lightroom and B & W photography). As a result of this challenge I’ve learnt that by learning how to take great B & W photographs, I`m halfway there to mastering the art of photography. I also learnt that there are different shades of black and white and as such, I have to be willing to put in the time and indeed the effort it takes to experiment and see what works
    for each photograph.

    As part of my interest in street photography, I take a lot of photos of bikes (Don`t ask me why. ; )) and so in the first photograph, I just happened upon this bicycle, and took a photo using a 50mm lens.

    In the second photograph, I specifically went back to the
    wall I had previously seen the graffiti, which at the time, I had photographed
    in colour. This too was taken with a 50mm lens.

    Thank you for another great challenge.

  10. I was excited when Darlene announced this challenge. To me, there are just some instances where B&W shots are so much better at “telling the story” than color. The first one is of an old abandoned house that I saw while on vacation in Maine. My “ah-ha” moment came when I returned to the hotel and downloaded the shots I took that day. The lighting both on the house, through the upstairs window, and the shade on the left, accentuate the stark contrasts and give it almost a yin/yang feeling throughout the shot, and allow the old tree in front to set the pace.
    The sky being “washed out” gave the second picture the sense of abandonment and desolation that I was looking for when I shot this old wagon. I tried it in color, and it was just not the same.
    Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy them, and thank you again Darlene for your help on the software! 🙂

  11. It was a fun and wonderful exercise taking pictures in monomchrome. This way of photography is harder than I thought. There are no colors to hide the mistakes I made, I had to catch the emotion on her or his face who I took a picture of. Now I share some pictures of a foot race in Budapest. Where I tried to show the power of runners and desperation of people, adults and kids during a 2-5-7 km courts through my lenses.

    Thank you for this excercise, I learned a lot and realised, I have to practice every day.
    Sincerely Akos

  12. I’m back with only limited success. I finally got one shot that I think is worth showing but the others were blah. My biggest problem was that when seeing light I tended to blow out the lights in photographs. I am going to continue to work on backing down on the exposure. (I’m not sure why this is shown twice, bad case of happy fingers I guess)

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/twb2Za][img]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5459/18063085415_0fbf59a67f_z.jpg[/img][/url]

    • CC – so what that means is that your light is too contrasty. In b/w that shows up obviously so this is the lesson here. The tree being in bright sunlight is blown out compared to the dark background behind which is almost pure black.

      Can you see what I mean? B/w is showing you the light. Look at the tones here. What can you notice? How could it be changed or improved?

  13. Ok, I’m back. The first image taught me (reminded me) that certain colors blend when shot in black & white. This image has numerous violet colored flowers that show up nicely in color. There are atleast 10 blooms in the image, try to spot them.

    One thing I love to do in B&W is to shoot for depth of field as shown in the second image “The Fence”, for some reason they just look better to me.

    The third image I believe has the best variation of the gray scale and is a close up of a garden rock wall.

    The fourth image is of a robin that chose to pose for me for a few minutes.

    I learned photography at a community college quite some time before digital photography became a reality. It was then that I learned to see light and to judge exposure. When you can’t see the results of your efforts for 24 hours or more and your spending money on just seeing the results good or bad you push a lot harder to get it right in camera. I actually kind of miss that anticipation.

      • Shooting for depth of field would depend on the subject. For a landscape shot I would want the greatest depth of field possible to bring into focus the whole scene from foreground to background.

        Now if I were to take a picture in a nice natural setting but wanted to maintain all the focus on a specific subject I would want a shallow depth of field to difuse the surroundings and only focus on the person, statue or a flower, whatever the item of interest would be.

        Depth of field is a part of the composition of an image.

  14. This was and fun and informative challenge! I tried taking pictures at various times of the day. The ones I took at the beginning turned out rather bland then I started paying more attention to the way the light was affecting the object rather than just the colour. In the first picture I started noticing contrasts, in the second picture the mood the lighting created and in the third picture how light brings life to the picture.

    I am just a beginning photographer and this was a great learning experience for me. Thanks for the challenge 🙂

  15. Just a heads up to everyone doing this challenge. You have just over one week to keep working on this.

    IMPORTANT: if you want to be eligible to enter to win this month’s prize you MUST enter a comment telling us what you’ve learned by doing this challenge. If you’ve already done so then you’re all set. If not please give us an update so you can enter. I want to know what you guys are getting out of doing these exercises and challenges – tell me, please!

  16. When I started this challenge, I just wanted to add , add more color, add more something. Then nearing my 2 week challenges end, I had the AHA moment! These 2 pictures are the same, with the light processed a little differently on each. What mixed reviews I received from my critics: (alias family & friends)! I was truly set aback by the differences in viewpoints and feelings the 2 pictures created. The subtle difference of light, or lack of light, goes along way, and sometimes less is better. Simple yet thought provoking. So from the various feedback I received, in my mind, my goal was accomplished.
    Thank you Darlene for this challenge!
    Thank you for the lessons learned.
    PS: This is Ethelle, my very pregnant Ethelle!

  17. I was always worried about using the monochrome setting on my camera because I thought “What if I take a photo in black and white and then decide I want to have the color version too?” This challenge made me experiment and discover that if I shoot in RAW the camera will display a monochrome version for review and the color information will still be saved in the file. Having the immediate feedback on the camera back proved to be a valuable tool to evaluate and reshoot subjects. Without the distraction of color, I was able to better see and judge proper exposure and strong contrast. I also felt more freedom to just shoot anything to see what happens without prejudging the interest or impact of my subject. It became more about “how can I use light to capture to the subject the way I intend.” My “Aha” moment came while shooting inside using window light and moving around the subject (sometimes moving them with me) to see the effect the angle of light has on the subject. Those are the photos I am sharing here. For each series of a specific subject I shot in manual mode and kept the aperture, shutter speed and ISO the same. The angle of the light really dramatically effected the exposure and the way the form of the subject was represented in the photo.

  18. I was very excited when I read about the challenge. All day long I kept looking at things, that had texture, light…excited to try photographing them. When I got outside to start shooting I was surprised at how disappointed I was when I looked at the back of my camera to review my photos. I didn’t realize how much I was depending on color to determine proper exposure. I had to stare at it for a moment for my brain to process what I had taken a picture of. As the weeks went by I got a lot better at finding light and recognizing what I had taken pictures of. I was amazed at how often I was surprised by what would pop out in the black and white, like the stripe in my sons shirt or something else I hadn’t even noticed when I took the picture. The following are two of my favorite because I felt like I was really able to see the light outside and I love how the light comes through the leaves, an effect that wouldn’t be as pronounced in color. The other is when we were eating I noticed the lovely light backlighting my son and then I tried walking around him to see how the light changed. I really enjoyed this process. I think I became much more aware of light and texture. I became more aware of light direction and quality. Thank you for encouraging us to take the time to pay attention to the little things that make a huge difference.

  20. Hey Darlene….Have gotten some good B&W’s ready to go but….when I try to upload them in this section, it tells me that the limit is 2MB’s! Help! Probably a very stupid question, but I’m trying! 🙂
    Thank you!

      • Obviously this is one of my favorite month. I usually have a habit of taking ‘3’ things in my image. 90% my eyes will be drawn to the colors. But this month it has been a little different. Three things that i noted in this month are 1)Composition, 2) Angle/View and the last but most important that I have learned is 3)Lights/Shadows. Shadows impacted most of my images, from creating mood to changing the view of the image. I am really glad that i got into this challenge. Thanks a lot Darlene for making one more of my month more productive.

  22. Hi Darlene,
    I process a lot of shots in BW but haven’t
    set my camera to “monochrome” before. The view finder on
    my DSLR only shows what you are looking at through the lens (color)
    so I tried using live view as much as possible for a BW viewfinder.
    Looking at the shots on the screen in BW certainly helps to “think
    in BW”. I shot almost everything in monochrome for about 2 weeks.
    Probably 8 or 10 photo walks and several thousand shots.
    Additionally, I found it distracting to have everything in color
    after importing the RAW files to Lightroom so I would import a batch
    and change the entire batch to BW before looking at them on the
    computer.

    What did I get out of the project? I don’t remember who the famous photographer was that said “when you
    take a picture of someone in color you take a picture of their
    clothes and when you take a picture of someone in BW you take a
    picture of their soul”… I think it is true in a major way. I
    live in Mexico and often times there is just too much “distracting”
    color to separate the subject from all the colors. After doing this
    project I find myself looking for contrast much more and trying to
    ignore the color and going for the contrast when a shot looks too
    cluttered.

    BTW, Darlene, this was a very good
    learning experience and fun project and thank you!

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/eldub1/17172325598/in/dateposted-public/

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/eldub1/17187894777/in/dateposted-public/

  23. I haven’t shot B&W since checking out digital photography. I just figured that it was easy to shoot color and convert that to B&W. When I took photography in school before digital I had to shoot in B&W only for the Basic Photography course then in the Advanced course it started with B&W and went to color to finish. I think this will be interesting.

  25. I participated in last month’s “study photographers” challenge. The comments have disappeared. It spears that my responses have been tagged as spam. Maybe this was because I put links to the 5 photographers. It’s a shame because of the effort I put into it. I did however learn a lot.

    • I haven’t seen your comment go through and links are just fine. We haven’t manually removed any comments on that thread. So there is no shame as the point was to learn something which you got, right?

      I’ll see if I can find your comment and restore it if it’s there.

    • Mark I did find it and posted your original comment back on last month’s challenge. I think what happened is it got posted twice – once as you and once as “guest anonymous” which sent up a red flag to Disqus that it might be spam. Spammers tend to post the same thing over and over so that might have been why it got marked and it went through the cracks.

      At any rate it is there on the challenge page now.

  27. First time shooting B & W with my camera so very excited for this challenge. Went out shooting early evening yesterday and I love how B & W completely transforms a photograph. Going to head out this evening after sunset and see what magic I can create.

  28. Count me in. This is going to be a lot of fun and a great learning tool. I love black and white but hopeless at post processing. I guess “get it right in camera” really counts here.

  29. I learned photography in the days of film shooting black and white. I learned to develop and print black and white and that showed me how to read the light for my photographs. Now I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark II in RAW and color. I then convert some of my photos to Black and White. The results can be stunning. Don’t be afraid of black and white.

  30. Hi, I’ve started shooting in monochrome for the challenge. But I have a question about post processing, as I shoot in RAW. How do I get Adobe bridge to show me the pictures I shot monochrome in camera to show up b&w on my laptop screen. Right now they all show up in color?

  32. Hi, this will be my first challenge as I am new to photography. My first challenge is to find the b/w setting on my camera ( I have a Canon 600D). I also read that some photographers advise shooting in colour and then converting to b/w during post production. Which is better?

    • Yes that is what we are doing but not what this exercise is about. The point is to learn to see light, to train your eye to see tones and shades – not color. Did you figure out how to find it on your camera? It’s called Picture Style on Canon bodies

  33. There is one thing, though – shooting in black and white and converting a colour picture in b&W. While the former is a deliberate decision, the later could be an afterthought, or an attempt to salvage an otherwise bad colour photo. I think the intention here is to promote original b&w work. However, there are cameras that don’t offer b&w shooting option (I have one Olympus sz-10 p&s, otherwise an excellent camera; but without a B&W option). Therefore I was always obliged to take colour photos and then convert them into b&w – which, incidentally is also a great learning experience.

    • It doesn’t? Most digital cameras have some form of monochrome style, even point and shoot ones. How old is it? To enter the contest share at least 2 of your b/w images and tell us what you learned about light in the process.

  34. This will be an excellent opportunity to mandatorily shoot in B&W. If done for the whole month, one will have a handsome bundle of b&ws, one will have to shoot 10 or so to get 2 ‘sharables’. Everyone interested in photography should give it a try. I will. Thanks.

  38. I love black and white and will join the challenge. Can I please have advise on exposure? When processing in LR, is it ok to move the exposure slider to the left to obtain a more dramatic look even if I lose the balanced graph?

  41. Congratulations to Folake! Loved this challenge and learned lots. Will continue to ‘see’ photographer’s work in new and different ways, as well as practice their techniques. I’m ready to take on the challenge of B&W! Thanks, Darlene!

  42. I just started shooting in raw and now I’m going to do black and white? Right now I’m searching for b & w photos to get some ideas of what makes interesting b & w photo. Kinda scarey but I’m in! I know that trying is the important part of the challenges and no one is going to throw rocks at me if I goof up and believe me, I goof more than I do things right but I’m learning how each challenge improves my photography. They make me do things I would never do on my own.

  43. This is a good challenge. I like b & w photos but I don’t take very many because I don’t think I have an eye for it. I’m going for it!

  48. Congratulations Folake! Last month’s challenge was very interesting, but well worth the effort to learn something new. With that said, I am going to attempt this month’s challenge as well. Practice, practice, practice!

  51. I am looking forward to this challenge! I usually shoot in color even if I want to create a black and white photo and often get medicore results. It seems like a great learning experience to shoot in black and white only.

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