One of the projects I have to complete for YOP concerns using Photoshop’s channel mixer to alter the mood of a digital black and white image. I plan to use some images from my East End work for this project. However, rather than randomly playing with the colour sliders on the channel mixer I have opted to use Silver Efex Pro and have selected an Antique Plate template for the images.
This option creates an ‘old’ looking black and white photograph. It is fairly dark has a warm tone and has a slight grain. A fairly strong vignette is also applied.
Having applied this effect to a set of my East End photographs I rather like the results but am uncertain about using this level of digital manipulation for my YOP work. It gives the work a nostalgic feel and reinforces the historical nature of the photographic references. I must say that my choice of processing was influenced by my reaction to David Gillander’s ‘Uncivilised’ work, which is in traditional black and white with liberal post processing in the darkroom. See here for his work.
So why is it that I like Gillander’s work but I am uncertain about using a similar effect, but digitally created? I think the reason is that it is too easy with digital. The level of craft needed in the darkroom is much greater – at least I think it is, based on my very limited level of skill in the darkroom.
Having said that another side of me says that I should not be concerned about using the capabilities of digital. Other photographers far more famous than I have done just that. Pieter Hugo used digital imaging for his ‘THERE IS A PLACE IN HELL FOR ME AND MY FRIENDS’ and Simon Norfolk used the same approach for his portraits in ‘Burke and Norfolk’. Both were in fact adjusting the Channel mixer on black and white digital images to simulate the effects of Wet Collodion which is not red sensitive – so the reds come out very dark. Hugo wanted his ‘white’ subjects to look ‘black’ and Norfolk wanted his portraits to look like Burke’s original Wet Collodion images.
I would be interested in other people’s views on the issues I raise above and also on their reaction to the images in black and white. I have posted a pdf slideshow of the new images – just click the link below:
ALWAYS FOLLOW UR DREAMS!! – VERSION 2 PDF
I have also produced another version of the video…this is getting quite long now. I have however made the intro much shorter…. Click the photograph below to see this video.
photo-graph 
jsumb
November 6, 2013
When I saw that you had done this I expected to be very disappointed in the visual effect, that the re-habituation of the areas your depicting would seem wrong. But I didn’t get that impression, they seemed to work, both as indivdual images and as a series. However I don’t think it does in the sense of the overall work. Gillanders heavy image processing empathises the sense of desolation and of isolation which works well with both the typography and the textual narratives. What I think works well for your series is the beautiful light in the images – which is squashed in those warm soft tones. The beautiful play of reflected green on the underside of the bridge, the shaft of light at the home for overseas visitors, the harmony of tones at the community centre. Maybe it is because I’ve sen the colour renditions and it is hard to escape them, but those beautiful images contrast very strongly with the some of the texts you’ve used. Just my view.
Keith Greenough
November 6, 2013
Yes I can see what you mean….In fact I did not include the ‘green’ image in the black and white version – the colour is very important to that particular image and its references. The contrast between the colourful images and the dark text is certainly one of the impressions I wanted to create, especially so in those images where the text relates to the myth of the East End’s otherness. Lots more water to go under this bridge. I have much photography to do. I haven’t discounted the black and white option yet….we shall see. Thanks for the feedback John.
Catherine
November 6, 2013
The images in the pdf are beautiful and quite haunting in themselves but there is an absence of life which, similarly to John, I think is because of the absence of colour that I saw before. this got me to thinking about colour. B+W is an artefact as we know but is there an in-between. Clothes and buildings are brighter in colour now but tones/hues would have been different then. What would happen if you de-saturated slightly instead. Re the video – the transitions still seem a trifle long to me. However, I do read quickly as I scan but look at images for much longer so it’s probably to do with that.
On a slightly different note – I got a notification of another post re fiction and image but it doesn’t appear when I click the link.
Keith Greenough
November 6, 2013
good points Catherine….I deleted the other post. I decided on this one instead. I was commenting on the use of Thomas De Quincey text with one of my images – this in now in the videos…..I think quotes from fiction work well, especially when I am referring to the fictional ‘otherness’ of the East End….Ripper Street and all!!
Catherine
November 6, 2013
Did you watch Ripper Street then? It’s quite violent but certainly does give you a sense of how hard life was then and how teeming the narrow streets must have been.
Keith Greenough
November 6, 2013
I did watch the Ripper programme for a short while….I found it a bit OTT! Too many freaks for my taste but it is a good illustration of how the East End has been mythologised as a dark place..
Jill Willis
November 6, 2013
I think the b&w images are very effective and in some cases beautiful in a way in which the colour images are not, but I wonder whether this is in fact appropriate for your project. It removes the contrast between then and now.
I’m surprised you have to do exercises like this in YOP – seems a bit late in the course. I thought that was all over with after DPP!
Keith Greenough
November 6, 2013
You are right about being surprised that YOP still requires exercises!! But I am trying to use them constructively towards my longer term project aims. Exploring different styles of presentation for the East End work is very useful. Several people have remarked that colour helps reinforce the contrast between then and now. This is an important point. Thanks for the feedback.