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Gardens are the type of subject that most photographers shoot in color. The reasons are obvious – those sumptuous shades of green, beautiful flowers and brilliant blue skies all make stunning color photos. But as somebody who loves black and white photography I can’t help wondering what happens when you shoot gardens in black and white instead.
As you know, with digital cameras, you can do both. You can start off in color and convert photos to black and white when you get home. But what if that isn’t the best way to make good black and white photos? What happens if you set your camera’s profile to black and white and deliberately look for subjects that have great texture, shape and contrast – all the elements that look great in black and white? That’s the question I asked myself early last year when I visited one of my favorite gardens. Today I’d like to show you the results and give you an insight into my creative process.
My working method was simple. I set my camera to black and white. I use a mirrorless camera so it showed me the scene in black and white through the viewfinder, which was a great help with composition. I even took along a second body that I’d had converted to infrared. That was my experiment for the day. I wanted to know if (a) black and white worked well for photographing gardens, especially in bright sun, and (b) whether I could make some interesting images with an infrared camera.
Here are some of the results.
Above: I liked the weathered textures of the old stone bench. But what really caught my eye was the contrast between the bench and the hedge behind it. I framed it to include part of the house, creating a composition with layers (the bench in the foreground, the hedge in the middle-ground and the house in the background). The blue sky and puffy clouds completed the photo.
Above: I photographed flowers as well as the gardens themselves, looking for flowers located in shade so I didn’t have to deal with excessive contrast. This is one of my favorite black and white flower photos from the day.
Above: This white statue also looked good in black and white with the dark hedge behind it. Similar to the previous photo I included the trees in the background to add an extra layer of interest to the composition. I tried several angles and ended up combining three photos to make a triptych.
Above: Here’s the only infrared photo from the day I liked (the tell-tale is the white ivy growing on the wall). To see why I didn’t like the other infrared photos I made, look at the two statue photos below. The hedge in the infrared photo (left) is too bright. There’s no tonal separation and the statue blends into it. I prefer the dark hedge and tonal contrast in the regular black and white photo (right).
The result
The result of this experiment may surprise you. I decided to more or less abandon black and white, and photograph gardens in color, which I did through the rest of the year. The idea was that I could convert my favorite color photos to black and white when I had time and was in the mood. Not surprisingly, I didn’t convert many photos to black and white. But here are three that I did. I’ve included the color versions as well so you can think about which you prefer.
The lesson I’ve learned from that (and hopefully one that’s helpful to you) that if you want to do black and white photography then it’s a good idea to be intentional about it. And that starts with being purposeful. Set your camera to black and white and look for compositions built on shape, tonal contrast and texture.
It’s also helpful to reflect on the result afterwards. Did it work the way you expected? Are you happy with the results? What did you learn that will help you in the future? Self-reflection is an important part of my creative process, and you’ll see the benefits if you make it part of yours.
I hope this insight into my process has been useful. Feel free to let me know in the comments what you think.
Further reading
The Magic of Black & White ebook
My ebook The Magic of Black & White takes you on a journey exploring ideas like the ones in this article that help you make better black and white photos. It covers topics like composition, light, the best subjects for black and white and post-processing.
4 comments
First let me say I very much appreciate your teaching style and method; that in and of itself is an art that makes a huge difference to the learner. I am a very amateur photographer but enjoy the process of learning and creating, having started to learn to use a camera about 15 years ago and then of course had to also focus on post processing. I’ve slacked off recently and instead focused on learning to sketch, draw and at times watercolor. It’s gratifying how the two coordinate, overlap and enhance each other. With the drawing I’ve been learning to add tone, shade and texture and discovered that I very much like black and white. I’d been somewhat interested in b n w in photography but have a much deeper appreciation for it now.
I was a little surprised with your experiment with gardens and the decision that it wasn’t something you want to pursue in depth until I gave it more thought. It seems to me that color often adds to the story or is a major element in it, but often color adds nothing and can detract. Black and white tells its own story, especially through depiction of texture. That is plainly obvious in the pictures you posted of the bee on the rose bud, the color one isn’t very interesting whereas the b n w one pops and draws the eye. So yes I would agree with you that a garden is mostly a color story unless the subject is specifically and as you say about tone, contrast, shape and space and texture. I suspect b n w works well when isolating small parts rather than larger more “garden-esque” areas.
Hi Susan, thank you for commenting. You’ve made an astute observation – black and white works really well for details and hidden corners, and not so well when including more of the garden.
Thanks for stimulating my thought process around this idea. I often play with conversion to black and white when processing and have wondered if there was any material difference between using camera settings vs converting on processing. You have answered my question and also encouraged me to play a little more.
Hi Reece, if you’re using Raw, which you should because it gives you the most options, then converting during post-processing always gives you a better result. The reason for setting your camera’s profile setting to black and white is to help you see the scene in black and white, not because it has any other advantages. Hope that’s helpful.