Weekly Black and White Photography Discussion Thread #1 for 2 February 2025

Mike,
Glad to see another Heinlein fan. The original "Puppet Masters" made in 1951 was about the free will being stolen from people and was in response to the "Red Scare" in the US during the onset of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Heinlein was one of the first writers to use science fiction to address social and political issues. That started a great tradition carried on by Star Trek and others.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puppet_Masters

The remake simply missed the boat as the original "villain" of Heinlein was replaced by extraterrestrial aliens. Producing the remake in color was I think a major mistake. Period pieces like this one and the parts Oppenheimer need to be done in Black and White. The remake was like most remakes missed the target.

As to the image itself. I saw the couple coming and waited until the strong like illuminated harshly the woman mesmerized by looking at her phone. The blank look on all their faces - including the child reminded me on the spot of the movie. I had the title before I pressed the shutter. My decision on cropping was more driven by trying to get the environment of people out on a nice walk on a warm evening having fun contrasted to this family.

Regards

Great shot Mike,
Tells a very interesting story. Takes me back to my grandparents farm. We most ran cattle which required moving (why I grew up on horseback), getting up about 4 times a year to worm, vaccinate the calves, check and treat hooves and spray and other wise treat. We did have a small herd of sheep and every spring two guys would show up to shear the winter wool. I will tell you these guys were good. I remember one year when I was about 16, we found one that we missed when we rounded them up. We caught him and my grandfather handed me the shears we had. He caught the sheep and give him to me. After I had finished I felt like I had gone 10 rounds with Mohammad Ali. I had bruises in places I didn't know I had places. The resulting wool was so chopped up we just threw it out. That did I gained a new respect for these guys.

Nice save Bryan. You make a yard menace look very delicate and lovely. The isolation by DOF really sets it off as does the square aspect ratio.

The cycle of life - always an interesting conversation. The subject isolation brings the story to the front. The only thing I might say is a bet more contrast to highlight the new life a little more.

There a some nice images posted, all made with digital cameras.
And I'll ad some B/W film images.
I do still shoot film and most of the time that will be a B/W film

Somewhere in the forest, shot on Ilford XP2 Super 400 with our Canon Eos 1V and EF 24-105 F4L

Developing was done at home with Cinestill CS41

And one I didn't post there but at Flickr:

Fench/gate in the Alps by PhotobyGMs, on Flickr

Photobygms,.

This are nice photos.

There's a depth to them.

I hope I can reach that one day.

Steve Thomas

The rail road has always been an iconic subject for black and white. Nice capture and good story.

I really like these. The first makes you wonder where does the road lead. The second makes you want to open the gait and go across the next ridge. Nice work.

This image is a nice abstraction - almost a mathematical abstraction.

My wife loves to take images of spider webs in the fence - especially on a foggy morning. Nice capture with the interplay of hard details (the fence) and delicate detail ( the web).

Shearers have a huge part in Australian legends and culture. It's tough work. This is an historic shed. I did a series on the season here. More to come.

There are many approaches to making a B&W image. Anyone interested in an exchange of experiences/techniques as to how we all go about it?

I'm excited to find someone who shoots film and does their own processing. I've never seen the point in using film and having it third party procesed (Unless by a specialist lab who develop the film to specific instructions from the photographer).
Would you care to tell us a bit more about the films you used? I'd have thought the second was taken with a different film. Or maybe on a different roll of film and processed differently.

If you want to put up a question on the Image Discussions. Critiques and Challenges Forum asking "How do I get depth in my photos?" I'm sure members will help.

Thanks Steve 👍

Thanks.
The fun part with that gate it's open and on the left side (not on the photo) there was no barbed wire so the fence is not helping a lot 😂

Thee film used in the posted photos is an type of B/W film that can be processed at any lab (it's an C41 film with standardized processing)
Both films I did develop at home with Cinestill Cs41 one of the available kits for (C41) film developing
I like to shoot B/W film one in while it just slows you down and let me think more about how I will shoot.

I remember when the first C41 B&W film came out. I think it was Ilford XP1 back in the early 1980's. It made shooting 35mm for other than street an very viable options in that it had a nice tight grain and a lot of speed latitude and could be shot from ISO 100 to ISO 800 and held together really well and kept the tight grain structure. Then XP2 could be pushed on up to ISO 1600 with no problems. The real beauty was you could expose a half a roll at ISO100 and 1/4 of the same roll at ISO 800 and the rest at ISO 400 and just have it developed. The ISO 400 rating was really just a suggestion. Really flexible. After about 1985 the only 35 mm film I used was XP. Dang this conversation makes me want to dust off my M4 and get the shutter recalibrated and head out with it.