Several days ago I was discussing Black & White photography. The discussion was about whether there was merit to working with black and white in the age of digital imaging. It's my opinion that B&W can often deliver a much more dramatic image than color is capable of. Personally, I prefer B&W portraits and some landscape images are also superior as B&W images. That being said, I believe there will always be a place for B&W in all areas of photography. The next question is how do we use our digital tools to maximize B&W possibilities. Some cameras have a B&W mode, like the Nikon D1 series. I believe it's a mistake to use this form of tool, the better answer is to shoot digital to color and convert to B&W in Photoshop. The reason I say that is because a color image in photoshop is actually composed of three B&W images, one red, one green, one blue. Using photoshop we can extract one or two of these layers and convert to B&W to create a more dramatic image. This concept is roughly the same idea as shooting B&W film and using primary color filters. That was exactly the process I used to create this image of Piney Lake in Vail, Colorado. I shot the image using a Nikon D100 and a Sigma 15-30 in the 15MM position. The image was shot to color RAW format and eventually converted to a color JPEG. After that I used Photoshop to examine the image in each of its three color layers. I determined if I removed the Green layer, leaving the Red and Blue and then converted to B&W I could produce a much more dramatic image than would result by simply turning the image into a B&W. The topic is certainly more complex than I have time to descibe here, but if you want to learn more then come to one of my digital photography workshops, the link is below. As with all images appearing on this site, they are the property of Loren French, and they are protected by copyright. Any images can be purchased as prints, or right to use can be purchased for any use. | 
