About the Course
Effectively conceiving, shooting, processing and even printing B&W digital photographs is totally different from color. We have to learn to “see” differently because B&W is not reality. This class will help you develop these skill sets and help you see, think and edit in B&W so that you can produce stunning and dramatic classic B&W photographs.
Black and White photography is “classic” photography. But translating the B&W film photograph into the digital world is a challenge. Anyone who has ever been in a darkroom will never forget the smell of the chemicals and watching that image magically appear on that piece of photographic paper being splashed around in the developer tray. Today’s amazing digital cameras, software and printers give us the opportunity to replicate, and some would even say, exceed what is possible in the analog darkroom. The greater ease of working the tonalities in the image using digital resources were mere dreams of photographers not that many years ago. During this hands-on workshop, you will learn the best techniques for deciding which subjects and scenes have the most potential for b&w, how to best capture images that will ultimately be converted to b&w, converting and editing using Lightroom and/or Photoshop, learning about a few plug-ins that I find extremely helpful in processing b&w. We will also learn the differences in workflow in making a b&w print versus a color print.
We will talk about, demonstrate and practice various approaches to converting to b&w, and will go through the important considerations for making stunning b&w prints. In many ways, processing from color to b&w is far more nuanced and requires a number of skills not typically used by the color photographer.
This is a small (maximum 6 people), hands-on workshop held in the Photoworks digital lab at Glen Echo.
You will need a laptop computer with Lightroom Classic, Photoshop and NIK Silver EFEX Pro 2 (30-day free trial version at https://nikcollection.dxo.com/download/ ) installed.
You will also need to bring about a dozen color images that you think may have potential as b&w prints. Because the true beauty of the b&w photograph can only be appreciated as a print, we will make at least one b&w print for each participant, so that we can see the end result of a well-processed and printed b&w.
Questions, email asislen@glenechophotoworks.org
Your Instructor
Alan Sislen
I am passionate about photography. Not just the finished photograph, but also the process of capturing, processing, and then creating the final print. I want the viewer to be moved or intrigued by what they see, regardless of whether their reaction is exactly the same as what motivated me to press the shutter release. Through my photographs I am showing what I saw, but more importantly, what I felt.
The writer uses words; the musician uses musical notes. My goal is to present images that stimulate more than our visual sense, but to also evoke emotion and imagination. While I use the most modern photographic equipment and software, my style and approach to photography are traditional, driven by my photographic vision.
My greatest influences have been those with whom I have studied, including well-known British landscape photographer Charlie Waite, former National Geographic legend Bruce Dale, digital expert Thom Hogan, fine art image processing and printing experts Eliot Cohen, Charlie Cramer, John Paul Caponigro, Julia Anna Gospodarou and darkroom master John Sexton.