This was created for a black and white group I belong to. A full series in color will also be published a bit later.
I do like this monochrome photograph, in fact I think it is better than the color photos. I shot this two weeks ago when I first began using the ‘high spot metering’ in the OM System. This was not available in Canon systems and it takes a little ‘dinking’ with to get it right.
As we all know there is little time for experimenting on the fly with wildlife. So I shot some Egret flights with low expectations. Finished in DxO Silver Efex the combination works well.
I’ve probably been using this topic about eight years now. I’d like to say this is an artistic endeavor, but most likely it’s a way to step back from my usual wildlife photography. The topic lets me shoot B&W, historical places, and random stuff 😊.
So…
1. Many of the places we shoot are down dirt roads covered in Spanish Moss. For me this has been my vision of nature long before coming here to shoot. Sometimes we just need to stop and photo the road that brought us here.
Marsh Scene, Black And White
2. A common scene published on this site. The dike system in the Lowcountry has been here for hundreds of years. One of the few ‘if it’s not broke don’t fix it’ things there really is.
Marsh Scene, Black And White
3. Always around my articles somewhere. Growing up Alligators were something seen on Saturday early mornings B&W documentaries. WPIX in NYC just came to mind. You probably need to be of a certain age for this.
Marsh Scene, Black And White
4. A look at ‘one of the last great places on earth’. I didn’t come up with that, this is a description written and published by many publications over the years for the ACE Basin. South Carolina borrowed it, put it on a road sign, and it stuck.
Capturing white birds in bright sun is hard enough, Black and White can be a disaster for me. Snowy Egrets make me work for the shots.
Most all my monochrome photos are created with DxO Silver Efex. Also some of the work is done in camera to prep the images first. I will shoot the image using spot metering, or even High spot metering with exposure compensation dropped at least a full stop. Yeah it’s nerdy but really it’s just spot and experimenting with some exposure comp. It makes a big difference and helps me start out with the photo B&W ready.
I have photographed this building, and these ‘light sources’ before. Especially the first old statue that sits on the landing of the stairs here. It’s breath taking!
Looking For Light, CharlestonLooking For Light, Charleston
Since there’s no real light in the old historic homes I always look around to see what will help, cast shadows, or even blow out a shot.
Looking For Light, Charleston
I had these initial images on ‘hold’. However B&W fun won out.
The first three photographs here were taken in the kitchen behind the Aiken-Rhett house. The kitchen, laundry, and storage were behind the main houses. Heat from the constant fires was kept out of the family living quarters.
Monochrome – Inside Buildings Out Back, 1820’sMonochrome – Inside Buildings Out Back, 1820’sMonochrome – Inside Buildings Out Back, 1820’s
The final image here was taken in the dark basement area. Old trunks and furniture remain there.
Most of the old houses that are open in Charleston have limited light sources. In this case it was almost all ambient light from outside. Which is great for me, it’s what I like to shoot.
When shooting monochrome I tend to rely on DxO Silver Efex for the conversion and finishing of the photos. It has become the standard for B&W photography.
Recently I purchased a new PC to maybe better deal with the combination of Windows 11 and Adobe (not really a big help though). What I did not do was reinstall all my custom B&W presets for Silver Efex. It’s back to basics now, but a good thing since the software has been updated substantially over time. New custom ones will be better, I hope.
Light – Dark In An Old House
There’s no better place to work with B&W than the style I like with the Charleston homes. Silver Efex also is well integrated with the DxO Photolab7 editor. DxO in general works better with many RAW files than Lightroom since they are the company that creates and provides camera/lens/RAW data and software to all the other (adobe included) image vendors.
Light – Dark In An Old HouseLight – Dark In An Old House
The back rooms in the Akin-Rhett House, Charleston, SC.
