Fall Foliage in B&W

[John Cook]

As the Autumnal Equinox is now upon us and the New England fall foliage season draws nigh, it is time, as they say on the Weather Channel, to "stand by to take and go ahead" to make some photographs. Perhaps a modest technical discussion might be in order.

Speaking personally, at my age I no longer generate sufficient testosterone to develop and print my own analog color. And I’m either too wise or senile (take your pick) to slide down the slippery slope into digital capture.

So this year I decree that my foliage documentation shall be in glorious monochrome!

Having spent my life imprisoned in the product studio pumping out logistically-correct wholesale plumbing sundries catalogues and the like, my experience with pretty pictures is limited.

At first blush, my plan is to shoot through a separation filter, such as a #29 red, to blacken the sky and whiten the crimson maple leaves, similar to IR film.

Then make a fairly soft print with few blacks and get out the Marshall’s Oils for a light tint.

I find that using Marshall’s whilst sipping some fresh unpasteurized apple cider from my local orchard and wearing my plaid cotton flannel shirt with corduroy slacks helps to set the mood.

How would you do it?

[John_4185]

John Cook, you are so very funny. If you ever make a post in which you don't focus upon being an Olde Pharte, I'll be surprised. To answer your question, simply stay in your recliner and find an energetic sixty-something year-old to make the pictures under your direction by cellphone.

[Mike Butler]

Sounds like good plan to me John.

Goes to show that the LL Bean catalog is every bit as important to the photographer as the Calumet catalog.

[Struan Gray]

I'm with jj. Why switch from one form of placid complacency to another? Try something new and alarm your cardiac nurse with an all-time record.

Autumn is my favourite season, because it is the season of revealed structure. Try looking at stems and twigs rather than leaves.

Failing that, a stumbling buffer with the gift of the gab would be ideally placed to do subversive anthropology on the leaf peepers and the industry that serves them. Get in their face - "I'm ninety four you know!" - and reveal their souls.

[Bill_1856]

I'd shoot it in color with my 8 MP Digicam, rework it in Photoshop (converting to B&W if appropiate), and print it with my HP 7960. But then I'm only 70 -- wise enough and not yet too senile to avoid the hair-shirt Ilfochrome and Dye Transfer printing that I've spent 50 years practicing, by learning t0 use the latest technology.

[Ralph Barker]

I think the approach you use should relate to whether it's an Irish or a Scottish plaid shirt, John. ;-)

From the purist perspective, what you're describing (it seems to me) is an approach that is inconsistent with the nature and allure of the subject matter. That might be prompted by a desire to rebel against your years spent as a thoughtful and disciplined commercial shooter, but I wonder if you'll actually be pleased with the result.

There's really no need to process your own color. Let a good lab do the grunt work for you. But, if you're set on shooting vibrant color in B&W, I'd suggest putting your commercial experience to use here and use various colored B&W filters to accentuate the difference in tones.

[Bruce Barlow]

Fall suits my melancholic outlook. Living in New England, and owning no color film, I find that the look of ferns and such against stone walls - the plants are browning, wilting, dying back - captures the mood. Others can go find the color. It is abundant. But it's the smaller, more intimate displays of the world bedding down for the winter that touch me.

[Terence McDonagh]

Perhaps I.R. film to show off the live from the dead. I guess the dying would show up somewhere in between. I love the idea of B&W leaf-peeping (as it's known in New England). It's usually my one attempt at color film every year. The leaf-clogged streams have been my B&W effort during the peak peeper season.

[John Kasaian]

Why not B&W? Go for a drive in the color of autumn, take some B&Ws if it suits your fancy. Make print and if someone remarks "The fall colors must have been beautiful" you can smile and reply "Yes, they were---you should have been there."

Thats what I do!

Cheers!

[Ben Calwell]

John,

I'm with you on everything, including the corduroy slacks and cider, but please don't "colorize" your prints. That would be akin to what, I think it was Turner Broadcasting's experiment a few years back, where they colorized classic black and white films. What a horror.