Black and White underwater.

A Lesson.

An age ago I had the opportunity of working with well known underwater photographer David Doubilet. For those not familiar with the name I am absolutely sure you have seen his work. Chances are while reading National Geographic you have marvelled at his amazing underwater photography .

Hungry for information, I asked him for some tips to improve my skills. Granted we were busy, however he did say study light and shoot a hundred rolls of black and white film. Initially feeling somewhat jaded at this advice I went ahead and did as he recommended and learned an amazing lesson.

My first reaction to my results was that photography underwater in black and white was for the subjects I selected pretty Blagh! A beautiful red sponge on the reef just did not make the grade.Then I began to become more selective and the sponge on the reef with variations of blue in the background worked in monochrome. I finished the project and yes I met David on another occasion, however I did not show the results. In truth I have not really shared the results with anyone In hind sight I do not think showing the results was to be a part of the lesson. None the less learned a very important lesson. It has certainly helped me as I developed as a photographer. I was very grateful for the help that input made in shaping my skills. In the years to follow that lesson have preached the value of the exercise. I now highly recommend every photographer get past the crutch that color offers, and at the same time take monochrome beyond the way to fix images as a cover up for issues that did not work as shot in color.

Then many years later I was listening to Brooks Jensen of Lenswork who verbally nailed the lesson in a way that it made so much sense. It was a podcast which I attach to this post.

667 LW0667 – Light in a Black-and-White World

I took the following from his presentation.

“A fundamental reality when working in black and white is that it forces you to pay more attention to light and composition” Things that you can get away with in color just do not work in black and white.

Your limited tools of which light is one of the primary, requires particular care to make the images work.

As an exercise try turning your digital camera to monochrome, shoot and review, it may be the “Shoot a hundred rolls” lesson that definitely worked for me.

Good luck and have fun.