In this exercise we are directed to take a photo with strong contrasting colours and, first, convert it to a greyscale black and white, then copy it and make versions with one colour light and its contrast dark, then reverse. The first photo below is the greyscale. The woman’s hat is red, the awning brillant green and her hair very, very black.
The hat appears much lighter in this version than in the original. Red apparently lightens when turned into black and white. The green awning is quite dark, much darker than in the photo.
In the second photo I have darkened to green slider and lightened the red. The result is that the red of the hat is quite dark and the green awning lighter. Of greatest interest to me is the woman’s face. In the greyscale it is an even white, with no blemishes. When the tones are darkened, the blemishes in her face are revealed.
It is almost as if you can brush out by simply working with the colour tones.
This assignment is a useful prelude to working wiht black and white. It takes more than a simple shift to make black and white work.
Here we can learn how to control the tones to alter the output.
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