These shots are a follow on from the 'Wide angle living' post I did of the Alps over Easter. I also took my Rolleiflex camera with me and experimented taking black and white photographs with orange and red filters.
These shots were taken over Easter at the same time I took the photographs on my 'Wide angle living - Part 9: we go super wide in the Alps.
Shooting landscapes in colour is relatively easy, many times simply composing at eye height will do the job. Of course if you want to create more memorable shots than your typical postcard scene, you have to experiment with different angles, lighting and composition. Black and white photography for landscapes is a whole different ball game, really needing to push your creativity, whether looking for minimalist composition, or very strong contrast shots.
About the shots
I have been wanting to experiment with colour filters for black and white photography for a while, and what better place to do that in such a vast and diverse landscape like the Alps. Inspired by the likes of Ansel Adams (more on his work here), I set out to experiment with different filters and exposure techniques. On the whole I didn't do too badly and learned quite a lot along the way, which is what it's all about!
My aim for the shots was to "think in black & white" (which is actually very difficult to do) and see how the different filters would affect the final photographs. I knew that my Kodak TMax 400 film had enough latitude to deal with either under or over exposing a scene, so off I went looking for high contrast scenes and interesting compositions. I also quite like the "black sky" effect you get in infrared photography, so I was hoping for some cloudless skies to work on that technique. In the end I experienced all weather conditions (snow, rain, clouds, sun), which made it quite hard to get any kind of rhythm going.
About the filters
Black and white photography reproduces a colour scene in a series of different greys. What colour filters do is that they control how these colours are represented in the greys. What I mean by this is that black and film is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, but in order to control how the visible (colour) light is interpreted by the film, you can use different filters. Different filters have different effects on the scene, and there are many different filter types, e.g. yellow, green, orange, red.
I chose orange and red as these are what I describe as the more aggressive filters, that help create images with strong contrast. Personally I find black and white images, generally speaking, can sometimes be a bit "flat", and using filters will help overcome that. Orange filters will record blue skies as very dark, and provide a strong contrast between the sky and clouds. Red filters create very dramatic effects when used correctly, with blue skies being recorded as black. These filters are also good for cutting through haze and fog.
About the film
I chose Kodak TMax 400 for this trip. In hindsight, knowing how much snow and bright light we experienced, TMax 100 would have been fine. However, I opted for the faster 400 as I knew some of the days would be cloudy and I also wanted to shoot most of the shots handheld without a tripod.
Kodak TMax is an extremely sharp film, more from Kodak; product highlights:
Panchromatic B&W Negative Film
ISO 400/27° in Standard Process
Very Fine Grain, T-GRAIN Emulsion
High Sharpness and Edge Detail
Versatile Speed & Wide Exposure Latitude
The Alpsee, in the vicinity of Neuschwanstein castle. Taken during a very sunny afternoon, I quite like the composition of this shot but I am not sure the exposure is right as some areas are severely underexposed, however that sometimes works quite well in black & white (for example to promote the mountain in the middle of the shot).
Neuschwanstein castle from below. Sometimes the best angles are a close shot looking right up. Look at the clarify of the details, that's Kodak TMax for you - super fine grain!
The Eibsee from the top of the Zugspitze. This was also taken through a window, but I like the overall aged look to it.
I really like this photograph, there is something very dramatic about it.
For some reason this reminds me of a James Bond scene. You can start to see the effect of the filter on the bright blue sky. I believe this was taken with an orange filter. I am lucky these shots came out well, as metering for snow is a bit of a nightmare.
Another perspective of Neuschwanstein castle - fantastic clarity and sharpness.
I drove around the really pretty Plansee in Austria and managed to get some good shots. It was harder to achieve the effect I was after as it was very cloudy and dull on that day.
I always like lake reflection shots when they come out well.
Looking down onto the town of Reutte in Tyrol, Austria. A cloudy and abismal day, which is where black & white photography can create some really dramatic shots.
Not the best composed shot, I was just testing out the clarity of this film and the sharpness of the Carl Zeiss lens on my Rolleiflex - good result for both I think!
Part of the Plansee covered in ice with a low hanging cloud descending over the mountains.
The Highline 179 suspension bridge, definitely NOT for the faint hearted!
Another shot of the 406m long (110 metre high!) suspension bridge.
I like the simplicity of this shot. You can also see the filter at work, with a strong contrast image.
I pulled off at the side of the road when a quick glance out the window made me decide this was a interesting composition. With no clouds I would have been able to create more of a dark sky effect, but of course you can only work with what you have in front of you. I really like the composition and strong contrasts in this shot.
I was experimenting with different focus points in this shot at the Alpsee, the sun flare created a bit of a magical shot if you ask me.
Could be my favourite shot of the post. I really like how vast the sky looks and the strong separation of bright and dark light in the scene.
Hohenschwangau Castle, right in the vicinity of the more famous Neuschwanstein castle, but just as nice and far fewer tourists!
Overall observations
I was quite happy with these shots overall, especially given that I shot them all handheld and that the weather was so changeable. I probably need to be more diligent with my note taking around exposure and filter usage in each shot (I never remember what settings I had!), but I am certainly pleased with the potential these filters have for my black & white photography.
I could easily do a whole series of mountain shots in black & white, there is so much to learn and experiment with filters and exposure times. I think I chose the right film for the occasion too, in future an ISO 100 film with a tripod would be a good choice also.
Once you start researching the Masters of black & white landscape film photography you very quickly end up in large format camera territory, which is a big step above the medium photography camera I used for this post. However, as the saying goes "the best camera is the one you have on you", so with that in mind I hope this post inspires you to go out and experiment a bit with different angles, themes and composition.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed these shots as much as I did taking them!
See you next time,
Neil
