Black and white camera response. A quick outing to test a theory...

 

The past couple of months have seen a lot of discussions about black and white photography. Michael Johnston is exploring a camera that's been converted to shoot exclusively in monochrome while YouTube is consistently buzzing with trials of the Leica Q2 and M10 Monochrom cameras that are engineered to photograph only in black, white and shades of gray.

On a theoretical level I think I would enjoy a monochrome camera but I'm not yet convinced that they are a must in order to make good, solid black and white images. 

I've been shooting black and white images with three different cameras lately and finding that the in-camera settings are very close to the way I like to see black and white photographs. While many cameras have B&W settings most seem only to strip out the saturation from color files and present that as the finished result. Some allow for filter settings which are emulations of the way some film emulsions reacted to yellow, green, orange and red filters. Fuji cameras are capable of being set up to emulate a number of classic black and white film looks and there is even a website that delivers a free app you can stick on your phone to dial in the settings for a pretty convincing look. Right down to the grain. That was one aspect of the Fuji X100V that I truly enjoyed!!! That camera does a very nice Tri-X imitation.

With the most recent Leicas the engineers seem to have paid close attention to the way in which most people like to see black and white files. When I use the "BW HC" setting on the Q2, the CL or the SL2 there is a boosted contrast but there is also some sort of filter emulation going on that makes the look of the file different from the look I get if I just shoot color and then kill the saturation. Leica seems to have modified the spectral response of various colors to derive a filtered look that I find very pleasing. 

The files above were shot with a Leica CL, equipped with a 56mm f1.4 Sigma Contemporary lens. I shot everything around f2.0 and I shot in DNG+Jpeg with the Jpeg files set to BW HC. 

These three photographs were taken in early evening down on the main street that runs North and South next to the UT campus. The clouds yesterday were beautiful and I wanted to capture that. I also like buildings and skies.

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My real reason for being over by the campus was to offer a counterpoint to a friend's unhappy text. He'd been trying his hand at street photography and decided that the younger generation had become so paranoid about photography, social media, pedophilia, etc. that it is almost impossible to photograph people in the street. He claimed that he got the "stink eye" from dozens and dozens of people just for walking down the street with a camera. He felt their suspicions of him were palpable. And his style is not a wide angle, close-up, in your face style either. 

Even in the diciest of neighborhoods around Austin I've never felt that this kind of reaction is really the case and after I read his text I grabbed a camera and headed over to the same area to walk around the same shops and fast food restaurants to see if culture had really morphed that much. Did everything change while I wasn't paying attention?  My contention being that people have not changed much and that they represent a feedback loop for your own attitude. A mirror.

I photographed for half an hour or so and got about ten photo scenarios in which people knew I was photographing and including them in the frames but either smiled or just went about their business unaffected. I sent the images along to my friend to make my point. 

Then, of course, it dawned on me how different our personalities are and how different our methodologies are. He's an introvert, I'm a far to the edge of the scale extrovert. He's not fond of interacting with people. I live for it. He tried to be a bit secretive when photographing on the street while I'm pretty much continuously broadcasting that I've got a camera in my hands and I like using it. Since this kind of work is really more or less a big mirror I see most people as open and gracious. He sees them as closed and protective. 

But whatever you believe that's what you project. And whatever you project is what you get back.

I think one benefit of having your hair turn white and wearing wool socks with your Birkenstocks is that young college students tend to identify you as a retired, grandfatherly figure whose retirement hobby is photography. Most of the people I encounter are quick to give a (mildly patronizing) smile and nod. It's all about what one projects. 

I'm happy to photograph just about anywhere. Below is a photo I took while taking a break for a cappuccino. I was photographing the two women sitting at the bar. We'd had a quick conversation when I was waiting for my coffee and I liked their energy. The out of focus guys in the foreground were discussing video production when I took the shot. When they saw the camera aimed in their direction they smiled and waved. I walked over and apologized for photo-bombing them into my shot. We all had a chuckle and then, a minute later we were deep into a discussion about which mirrorless system to buy into for general, day-to-day video production. Strangers are just friends you haven't (formally) met yet. 

coffee at Medici, on the Drag.

On the way home I wondered how the same location could yield such vastly different vibes. The answer, I think, lies in what you bring with you.