Saturday 1 May 2010

B&W V. Colour - Film V. Digital

It's no secret that I have a long-standing and very deep love affair with black and white film, but I also love shooting digitally in B&W. Lately I've started shooting more in colour, too and it really does require a different way of seeing the world. I'm used to framing everything in my mind and mentally converting all the shades and tones into greyscale. After years of doing this almost constantly, everywhere and anywhere I found myself (and with or without a camera) I developed a 'feel' for how B&W film behaves. I pretty much knew how a shot would turn out, using a mix of intuition and the right shutter speed. Now I use a digital SLR for about 70% of my work and have had to relearn. It means getting to really know the camera and that means practice - a lot of it! Two years on and I've learnt a whole new photographic discipline.

The other 30% of the time I use film and was using 120mm medium format B&W almost exclusively, until I forced myself to go back to colour - and that meant relearning all over again! I've really enjoyed seeing the world 'in colour' again!



The shots in this blog post are examples of my very latest work - at different ends of the spectrum. One was shot on colour film, the other in B&W digital. See what you think...

The Arches


Glorious Springtime!

Until next time!
Emma ♥


(BTW; When I was a child I saw old black and white films on TV and actually thought the world was like that in 'the olden days.' I'm sure that's relevant, but I'm not entirely sure how..!)

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful shots! That blue sky is stunning! It took me a very long time to make the change over to using a digital camera. There was just something I loved about my good ol' film! :) But I have really fallen in love with my digital!

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  2. Lovely - and thank you for taking the time to write this down - :D JOY!!

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  3. They are both very good photo's each provoking different emotions.

    Your comment about watching black and white films made me laugh. I too thought that World War 2 and eveything before that was in black and white. I can't quite remember how old I was when my mum pointed out that in fact life was in colour then, but I remember being very confused!

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  4. Great photos - especially the arches!

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  5. Thanks for the kind comments, everyone! It's nice to be able to share my photographic adventures!

    Emma ♥

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  6. Stunning pics, I love your eye for composition and that blue sky is actually making me feel a little warm on this cold damp day!

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  7. I started out in film about 25 or I guess more like 30 years ago and still love film. I have a digital SLR and like you have had to relearn the way I think about my photos. Your photos are lovely and being a huge B&W fan, I prefer the first one!
    It is funny you said that about thinking the world used to be black and white. I still think of the countries that were part of the USSR as living in B&W because even after color TV and photos were more prevalent, it seemed that the photos from the communist countries were always in black and white. Strange how perceptions are formed.

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  8. Thank you, Mary and Graceful Moments!

    I'm so glad this particular post has sparked some memories and chatter here! It's really encouraged me to continue sharing my 'photographic adventures'!
    :-)

    Em ♥

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment!

Emma ♥