Black & white summer
While moody monochrome scenes aren’t usually associated with summer, Tim Clinch suggests setting yourself a challenge by shooting in black & white
Instead of the blue skies and warm tones we normally associate with shooting in summer, why not shake things up a bit this year and try something different. Your challenge is to shoot the summer in black & white. Shooting something we normally think about in colour in a different way is a great exercise in thinking more carefully about the form, shape and content in your images rather than relying on those summer colours.
When I was first approached with the idea to write an article about shooting in black & white in summer, my immediate impression was that the whole article could be done in one word. The more I have thought about it and the more I have written, I am convinced that my first idea was correct. That word is ‘shadows’. So, to begin thinking about why we would shoot the summer in black & white, instead of glorious colour, we need to begin by thinking about photography itself. Photography began in black & white; many of the truly great pictures from the history of photography are black & white, and to a certain extent, photography, or at least its history, is black & white.
Using monochrome to manipulate reality
In many ways it is the great manipulation. We hear so much these days about images being manipulated in Photoshop as if this in some way diminishes them. But we never for one second look at a black & white image and think that it is in some way false. We never look at an old picture that was shot on black & white film and say to ourselves ‘I bet that picture has been “manipulated” in the darkroom’. Yet black & white photography has one massive elephant in the room, and I feel like shouting it at anyone who bangs on about ‘manipulation’. The world is in colour! The very act of shooting in black & white is a manipulation of reality. You could almost call it ‘fake news’, and yet it is something we accept without question. Why? Well, to find out let’s think about the title of a rather wonderful book that David Bailey published in the early ’80s, Black and White Memories, which, for me, perfectly sums up the allure of monochrome photography.
A black & white history
We all have ‘ black & white memories’. Those of us over 50
will almost certainly have some black & white snaps of ourselves on a beach somewhere wearing a rather dated swimsuit and dodgy sandals. And the young among us will have seen pictures of parents or grandparents in black & white, so the concept of ‘seeing’ without colour comes naturally to us all. Despite my brief history lesson, and I don’t want you to think that I am suggesting shooting black & white in the summer solely for nostalgic reasons, let’s get back to why we should think about shooting this summer in black & white.
Break the rules
We all know that rules are made to be broken, so let’s start with a big one. I always tell people who attend my workshops about the importance of soft light. Beautifully mellow, sitting by a window on an overcast day with the light subtly blending the grey tones of a portrait. Beautiful… but let’s throw all that away and get out into the sun. Bring on the harsh shadows and the strong raking sunlight. The two important words here are black & white. Forget about your greys and take advantage of the strong shadows. Check out a photographer whose work I love – Aleksander Rodchenko (1891-1956) who was a Russian artist/photographer and graphic designer and one of the founders of Constructivism. His photographs are wonderfully strong statements, often shot in strong sunlight to emphasise the shapes and form of his subject.
Diagonals and dappling
This brings me on to my second point: diagonals. We’ve all seen the lines and shapes the sun makes at times of the day normally considered inappropriate for photography, but they are great to play with and can be used to achieve incredible graphic effect. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that summertime only means pastoral meadows, flowers, and beaches; get out into the big gritty city at midday and see what you can come up with.
Third, the dappling. This is lovely stuff, especially useful as a background to summer portraits. Whether it’s the light falling through the leaves of a tree or the slats of a parasol. And don’t be afraid of letting the dapples blow out – leave those highlights as highlights and stop worrying. After all, that’s what they look
like. Last, think about what makes you feel summery when sitting huddled up with a cup of tea in front of the fire on a cold February evening. Then, when summer comes around, go out and shoot those images you imagined.
Thinking in black & white
Perhaps the best example of this is the work of Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986), and in particular the wonderful book Lartigue’s Riviera (published in 1997 by Flammarion). Lartigue discovered the Riviera when he was just 11 years old and for the rest of his life was a regular visitor to the Côte d’Azur towns of Nice, Cannes and Antibes. The romantic monochrome pictures in this book showcase exactly what summer looks like and are an inspiration when it comes to capturing the ‘feel’ of summer.
Sadly, not all of us can spend our summers in the villas of the rich and famous, driving along the Corniche in open-topped cars. But by using tried-and-tested summery subjects, be they palm trees in the South of France or ice cream cones on the Torquay sea front, and shooting them in black & white, we can instantly transport ourselves back to the glorious summers of our youth.
To sum up, think in black & white, and learn which images will work well and which won’t. Don’t force it, but concentrate on shape and form – and above all, be bold.