Tag: Mid-week Monochrome

A camellia, originally pale pink, converted to black-and-white using Raw Therapee. — “Pink Perfection” in Black-and-White

The name of this camellia is “pink perfection”, but I think it looks good in black and white, especially with the dusting of snow on the leaves. This pale beauty starts to bloom around the beginning of the year and lasts through March. Winter came late this year and the only significant snowfall occurred after the flowers were starting to bloom. I caught this as the snow was starting. Soon afterwards it got thick and we trotted for home.

I took this with my Sony RX10iv camera. Basic settings: F4, 1/80s, focal length 52.8mm (35mm equivalent: 144mm). I converted it into black-and-white using Raw Therapee then cropped and added a vignette in the GIMP. Click here for information about using Raw Therapee’s Black-and-White tool.

Posted for Brashley Photography’s Mid-week Monochrome.

In the original color image there was a bit of discoloration, converting to black and white disguises these. — Original image.

For a flower that bruises and discolors there is an advantage to black and white: it hides some of these imperfections. This pale pink flower shows bruising very easily. For this particular camellia, in black and white you can focus on the shapes and textures without the distraction of the imperfections.

Plum blossom in Black and White

3 March 2021

Kate

For Brashley Photography’s Mid-week Monochrome, a harbinger of spring the plum blossom, in black and white. I guess the raindrops are also a harbinger of spring!

Black and white photo of a plum blossom, converted using Raw Therapee. — Plum blossom in black and white.

This image was taken with my Sony RX10M4: F2.4, 8.8mm, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 1/125s. I processed it in Raw Therapee, then cropped and resized it and added a vignette in the GIMP.

I used Raw Therapee to do the conversion to Black and White. Specifically, the Channel Mixer method in the Black and White tool under the Colors tab. The preset was Absolute ROYGCBPM. Applying a special effect to the magenta and sliding down the green gamma setting. For information about how to use that tool check out this post: Black and White Digital Photo Processing-Part 2: Using Raw Therapee.

Both Raw Therapee and the GIMP are open source software (free!).

Original color image: