Monochrome. In Colour
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Hello neighbours. A number of channel subscribers are big fans of shooting in monochrome, although to be fair, for most people, monochrome is just a shorter way of saying black and white. Now that is factually true of course, being one colour in different shades.
The Project
What we have this time is a project of monochrome. In one colour. With different shades. But that colour CANNOT be grey. Or gray. Or white. Or Black. Any other colour will do.
How To
The first step in the project is to find a subject that is predominantly (more than 90%) a single colour, although different shades of colour are acceptable and mostly required.
For example, if I set a goal of “photograph red”, the creative might ask “which red?” or more likely decide on a red entirely on their own.
This project does not specify any particular colour, but does require a single colour.
So go find that subject.
Step two is to figure out the best way to light, or shape the existing light to reveal the nuances, shades, shadows and highlights of the subject and to exclude the other colours that don’t fit.
To keep things both creative and human, no AI anything is allowed. This will also likely exclude any computational photography (smartphones) but you do you.
Work to fill the frame, and enter the project with the goal of NOT requiring Photoshop to fix or remove things. Certainly feel free to use the editor of your choice to manipulate exposure, colour, highlights, shadows, blacks, whites, saturation, vibrance and sharpening. But make a significant effort to avoid anything else.
The Power of Observation
Freeman Patterson’s book The Art of Seeing is required reading for all my students. Sadly the word seeing has become drowned in sewage by the Internet and many alleged photographic teachers. So instead, I will leap back a century or so to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional character, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes regularly chides his friend, Dr. John Watson, for seeing but not observing. Being a huge fan of Holmes and Watson, I wonder why at some point Watson did not pop Holmes in the mouth considering the amount of abuse he suffers at Holmes’ sharp tongue.
Seeing and observing are not the same thing. One of the things that I have tried, with varying success, to teach my students is to observe, specifically to see and recognize what is there.
If you want to learn to observe, do the following exercise at least weekly for a year. This is important to a photographer. The concept is based on the proven fact that visual witnesses are completely undependable, because while their eyes might work, their brains are blind.
Here’s what to do. You need a small notepad and a pencil or pen. Go to a mall or high street in your town and find a shop window. Observe the content of the window for a maximum of ten seconds. Then turn around and write on the page, EVERYTHING that you remember seeing in the shop window. Be detailed. If you saw a flower, what colour was it? Where in the window? Was it in a vase? What did the vase look like?
Point form notes are fine. You have one minute. Then time is up and you must turn around and compare your notes to what is actually in the window. How accurate are your notes? What did you miss? What did you remember incorrectly?
The first several times, the average person is chagrinned to discover how much was missing or incorrect. This is because observation is a skill built through proper practice and repetition. It requires diligence and attention. However, as you develop your skills, you will find photographs where you never saw them before. This will help you become a better photographer.
Example Images
I have placed a number of licensed colour monochrome images in the gallery below. All are REAL photographs, no AI generated bullshit. Hopefully they give you some ideas of what to look for.
Wrapping Up
The articles here are to help committed creatives become better photographers by their own choice. You don’t have to do any of the projects, but if you only do the same thing you always do, you will never achieve something new. Your choice completely.
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