They concern me. Greatly.
For most black & white conversions, I do simple things. Silver Efex is really great for fine-tuning black and white for large prints, but it’s kind of a slow process: it adds another step, another program, etc. I don’t use it every time.
But black and white landscapes seem to be the thing that I really have to concentrate on. I can’t “see” them very well. The natural parts of composition don’t always just click.
Many times I have to throw back to Photo 101 days of standard “Rule of Thirds” and such things. I think part of the subtlety of black and white landscape photography is just that: the subtlety. You don’t have to slap someone in the face with a subject to have the photo be “good” because, with landscape photography, the subject is the landscape… not just the apparent subject.
By overpowering the rest of the frame with a solid anchor, it loses some of the intent: to show the beauty of a place.
I hope these work. There’s a lot of messaging in them there trees. At least… in the shooting, the zone system usage, and the digital conversion.
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
