Vignettes: Contrasting Tones

Posted by Mathew Braun on Nov 24, 2011 in Arts & Culture | 0 comments

Show me a stunning colour photograph and I’ll show you another, in black and white, that is equally excellent. You may be surprised to see that the two pictures are one and the same. The reason for this is that every colour image relies upon a framework of balanced contrast and rich tonal gradation. No amount of saturation can substitute for this.

Contrast is the degree of difference between areas of light and areas of dark. It is the grammar of photography, making it possible for the viewer to make sense of an image. Shape, form, sharpness, texture, and depth of field all depend on contrast. Keeping with the linguistic reference, tonal gradation is the prosody — rhythm, stress, and intonation — of photography. It is what gives a photograph meaning and emotion. Tonal richness exists amongst the transitions from dark to light, the distance between the two, and the number of steps it takes to get there.

To prove the point, consider the accompanying illustration. Leonid Afremov is a Bulgarian painter whose use of colour is nearly overwhelming. Searching on Google Images for a suitable painting, I felt like I was staring into the bulk bin of rainbow chocolate chips at Superstore. Colour—rich, saturated, vibrant—is fundamental to his art. Fascinatingly, any one of his paintings is equally striking in monochrome. The same is true for other timeless masterpieces like da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace at Night, and Monet’s Water Lilies. Even painted art depends upon contrast and tonal complexity.

Skillful handling of these two factors is all that is needed to make a photograph sing. What this means for the photographer is that he must learn to see without colour. This is difficult because human visual perception is highly sensitive and acutely tuned to colour. Seeing in black and white does not happen overnight.

Should you want to try, then set your camera to record in black and white. If you do not want to lose the colour data then shoot in the RAW file format—all of the colour information is recorded in the file, but the picture that displays on the back of your camera will be shown in monochrome. Even if your camera only saves JPG files, spend a week and shoot in black and white anyway, you will be surprised at what you see. The same goes for editing. Editing black and white files will teach you more about contrast and tonality than a hundred Vignettes. Exposure and experimentation is the only way to begin to learn.

The greatest thing about shooting in black and white is that it makes seeing light and composition simple. Where there is white in an image, that is where the light is; where there is dark, that is where the light is not. The quality and character of light is revealed in the tonal gradations. The contrasting of these two entities by how and where they are placed within the frame is image composition. Without colour there to distract, the photographer is able to focus on these fundamental elements, to understand what photography is all about.

Tim Andries