During a trip to Costa Rica last year, I would often wake up before the sun rose to hike to a spot to take some predawn pictures. I would stay in the location until the sun had risen and then usually pack it up. But I found myself drawn to this majestic rock on a point near Playa Conchal. Hiking to this rock could only be done safely during low tide. After the sun had risen, this jagged rock jutting out from the ocean looked absolutely majestic against the back drop of a clear blue sky.
But this was not without problems. The harsh sunlight also created an extreme dynamic range, especially one wracked with underexposed lows. True, I could have bracketed the exposures, but I thought these would be the perfect fit for converting to black and white.
Black and white photography is a dying art form. With modern cameras and HDR allowing for a wide dynamic range, most photographers prefer to show the brilliance of colour as opposed to the tonal range of black and white. Good black and white photographers see things in black and white; they see in a scene the way it would appear with a black and white palette. I am not cut of the same cloth, I’ll be the first to admit, as I see colour first and black and white is more of an after thought.
In this situation, however, I recognized the pictures being taken, because they were so contrasty in the mid day sun, were perfectly suited for black and white photography. To process some of these pictures to Black and White, I used the basic black and white conversion in Lightroom as a starting point and tweaked until I felt satisfied with the resulting image. For others, I used Nik SilverFX.
Here’s an example of the jagged rock in colour and the same shot in black and white.
The colour version really highlights the varying colour tones in the rock and despite the blue of the water, the warm colours of the rock leave a warm feeling, while the black and white version has a completely different feel to it, at times cold, silent and ominous.
Here is a collection of some of the other pictures I took at the same spot during the week, with the majestic jagged rock prominently featured.
So as you can see, the harsh sunlight might not have been the best for colour pictures, but it was perfectly suited for black and white.
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Comments 2
As much as I like colour, especially turquoise, I have to admit that I am intrigued by the tonal range of your black and white photos. I become more aware of the texture of the rocks as well as the effect of shadow and light. Indeed the focus for me becomes more about shape than colour. Terrific!
Author
Thanks for your comment Patricia! Very insightful. I agree the texture of the rock through the tonal range of the black and white is what stands out.