elliott2

Randy,

 

I find myself disagreeing with your second paragraph, but what you describe in your third paragraph, is I suggest, how most photographers operate including myslelf.

 

For me the key issues are usually time of day, weather and subject matter. For landscape work that usually involves a little research beforehand to understand the terain, to see where the sun moves through the day and lots of walking to find the angles I want. Composition is to me the most important part and that only works when the lighting and weather conspire to work with you and not against you.

 

Whilst I shoot in colour I agree that some subjects instinctively and sometimes accidentally work better in monochrome. With film the decsion has to be made early in the process, wheras a digital workflow allows that decision to be made later, it being a simple process to strip away the 'visual noise'. I think overall it boils down to a little experience and practice, as wellas your choice of tools. For the digital workflow the hard bit is often getting the conversion right and dropping the saturation is generally the wrong approach.

 

Regards John

I would suggest that there is no right or wrong approach to this issue.

 

I think the simple answer is do what works for you. I do not understand this idea that the decision should be made before shooting, why?

 

Also I do not understand this concept that because a photo has been converted from colour to mono it means a poor colour photo has been fixed, or it is cheating because it was not previsualized. again why should this be so?

 

Many of my mono and duo conversions started life off as colour. It is a process that works for me. I have seen many examples by others of fine works that were done in the same way.

 

Examples of mine can be seen at

 

http://www.pbase.com/jellophoto/trees_in_winter

You are out of touch Bernard. Both of my children 18 and 15 do not know what vinyl is. They would laugh at your suggestion. They rarely even buy CDs now (that is what the oldies do). As for indie bands releasing on vinyl, free downloads is where it is now that is why the big record companies are in trouble.

Yes I am quite certain that film is in its last death throws. Like any technology transition there will be short few years of overlap as some of the older generation hold out. However a few years more pass and then only the odd specialist will bother to continue, sometimes just to be different from the crowd. Film will within a few years have joined the ranks of other obsolete (but note, not necessarily worse technologies, just less convenient) that went before it. Examples include the horse and cart, the 78, the 45, the LP, soon the CD and DVD, the airship the steam locomotive and countless others. Do I mourn,not at all. I just accept it and explore this strange new exciting world.