One of the things in photography I struggle with most is black and white… I don’t have a problem with it, I just struggle to find the most appropriate images to convert.

Here is the thought process holding me back a lot of the time with landscapes and black and white and my style of image, and I emphasise that it’s about my style and black and white, not about black and white in general, and certainly not about your photos and black and white:

If you have sky taking up more than one third of your image, then that sky is the focal point of the image. A lot of the skies I shoot are either pretty blues or pretty sunsets, and I shoot them because of the expanse and colour – why on earth would I want to remove these key ingredients? Well, most of the time I don’t. Sure, clouds are interesting, and black and white can certainly bring out their texture and shape, but I find that white clouds on a nicely saturated blue sky are equally interesting.

All that being said, I found an image that worked quite well in black and white, and I’m glad I tried.

Yes, I was trespassing on the railway :) - The way I see it

Yes, I was trespassing on the railway :) - The black and white approach

… by Gordon Mackay. Last updated on May 31st, 2012

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