Sarah-Jane's OCA Blog: Black & White

Take one image if using digital and convert using the presets in Photoshop to Black & White (mimicking the filters one would have used if photographing with film)

Create 5 monochrome versions digitally using the preset settings to emulate filters. This is about understanding colour and tones and 'putting it to work in black & white'. Having done this I am amazed by the differences in each image and think I will pay far more attention to the way I convert images in future, as well as think about what colours to use in the original as the red and green below have adjusted with extreme differences depending on which emulated filter was used. There are many more possibilities available to me that I had previously imagined.

The image is a bit odd, I know. I was playing around with potential props and this is what I came up with. I used it because I quite like it but also because the colours worked well. Would love to say it has some erudite and surreal, intellectual origin but I can't say it does. But I do like to play and see what comes out of it. When I look at this image, perhaps rather morbidly but actually I do find it amusing, I can't help thinking about corpses (my own corpse) in their coffins being outlandishly dressed up and if this were a corpse - she does indeed seem to have a very long green beard! My favourite I think might be the blue emulated filter, although I am also fond of the red filter. I can't work it out.