: picturegraphs :
black & white

With May's edition of Practical Photography focusing on Black and White I've been keeping a b/w eye out for details and shots that would be good in monocrome. Hence this feature, bringing some of my (hopefully) best shots that I've taken. All will be colour images filtered to mono in Photoshop or perhaps Picasa.

The Millenium Bridge, London
Canon S60 : 29mm : 1/200 : f/8.0

Black and White Filtering
Only just come across this feature in Picasa2 after talking with my brother. Turns out when doing b/w portraits you filter differently depending on the gender of your subject. For example this picture of a friends face was taken by her husband. It is a particulary good photograph, and a great example to demonstrate this filtering thing. There are three versions, standard black and white, filtered green and filtered red. It is clear to see how this filtering changes the appearence of the face, with the red filter really making the most attractive image. Take a look:

Straight b/w

Filtered Green

Filtered Red

The red filter smothes the skin just beautifuly and tidies up the image giving a really feminine feel. Green filters are used on men to give a more rugged appearence, and I'll have a go just as soon as I photograph someone rugged enough.