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P
hotography means different things to
different people. It’s a way to capture a
moment or record a memory. It can be
functional or artistic. People take pictures to
render a scene with a literal perspective or as
a medium to translate an abstract concept or feeling.
The reasons I take pictures have changed over time,
and my approach over the years shifted as my technical
knowledge developed. A few years ago something
happened to me totally out of the blue: I became
completely bored with color photography. I was just done
with it. I know it’s strange to become fed up with a whole
palette, but it happened nonetheless. As a result I’ve shot
black-and-white images almost exclusively for the past
few years, and I’ve loved it. I have spoken to photographer
friends, read articles, and written many words to try and
gain some insight; I eventually realized that my underlying
reason for taking pictures had changed. The narrative
I intended for my work had shifted. My subjects didn’t
change, but how I looked at them, lit them and developed
them in Adobe Lightroom did.
THE GOAL OF EXPERIENCE AND FEELING
As any photographer attempts to do, I hope to create
images that are compelling and thought-provoking. I
want to create pictures that stick with people, and I
believe the best way to achieve that is not to simply
present an image of a cool fish but to create a feeling
about that fish. My goal is to create work that doesn’t
show a thing but instead provides a sensation, mood
or feeling or leaves an impression relative to that thing.
To say it another way, I want my images to translate an
experience, not just be a literal visual.
When I take pictures in color, the images tend to be
about color, at least to some degree.
Color has to work to be part of the
frame — it has to grab and contrast,
and we photographers tend to want
to saturate it, emphasize it and show
it in some spectacular fashion. Very
little of what I see and experience in
the ocean, however, has anything to
do with color. For example, one of
my favorite things to encounter in
the ocean is a giant school of fish. I
get mesmerized when I see hundreds
or thousands of fish rhythmically
and cooperatively moving together
through the water. There’s something melodic about it;
it feels like an organism that’s exhibiting a choreography
that no solitary animal could possibly display. A lot of
the ocean gives me this feeling of many things being
together harmoniously, which is an experience that has
nothing to do with color. To me, color even distracts
from it.
THE PRACTICE OF EXPERIENCE AND FEELING
Visualization is the practice of forming mental images of
a finished photograph before a frame is ever composed.
It’s an extremely helpful way for photographers to
conceptualize what they are trying to do.
When visualizing black-and-white images during
a dive, my frame of mind is vastly different than if I
were visualizing in color. By removing color from my
thoughts, I’m left with things that are closer to what I’m
experiencing. I begin to look at shapes and forms, light
and tonality, patterns and textures, details and outlines.
By removing color I can escape the idea of wanting
to take a picture of the fish and pursue the concept of
capturing my experience of the fish.
Visualizing in black and white also changes my
technical approach. How and why I light things changes
from concerns about backscatter and strobe placement
to aesthetics. If my goal is to emphasize a shape, I know
to backlight it. If I want to create a texture, I know to
sidelight. Or I can deemphasize shapes and flatten a
subject or scene by frontlighting. Whatever the case, I
connect more with black and white because my mind
is in tune to all the things I experience with a school of
fish that have nothing to do with color. The following
are a few exercises that may help you refine your
personal vision in black and white.
ALERTDIVER.COM|
101
A CHANGE IN PALETTE AND APPROACH
By Jason Bradley
OUT OF THE BLUE
Simplify your gear, and leave your strobes behind.
This set of photos was achieved by working
solely with ambient light. A strobe would have added little besides backscatter.