Making and Processing a Black and White Image–Part I

St Eloi Church Theriot, Louisiana

Image Capture

Processing an excellent Black and White Image always begins with a good capture. I captured this image on a very foggy morning south of where I live in the swampland. I left home early in the morning when the weather was clear. Unfortunately, as I approached the bridge where I planned on photographing the Pelicans, a heavy fog set it. So I decided to photograph this church instead.

The sun was directly behind the church and was illuminating the fog. I visualized the scene as a black and white image with the church in silhouette, the cross brightly illuminated to emphasized the church as the subject. In addition, I wanted to highlight the triangular shape of the church.

I used my 19mm tilt-shift lens to ensure the church was level and straight and not tilted with straight vertical lines. I set the tripod up, leveled the camera and lens, and then used the shift feature of the lens to create the composition I wanted.

The lighting was very tricky, and I had plenty of time. Therefore I decided to bracket my exposures shooting five shots, each one-stop darker than the previous shot. I carefully focused the manual focus lens, and I fired off the five-shot bracket using a cable release to minimize camera shake.

Bracketed Image Capture

Part II of the article will explore the files and deal with issues such as noise and contrast.