Black and White photography in Cambodia

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Black and White

The freedom to shoot in colour and convert to monochrome at a later stage is one of the benefits of digital technology. To get the best out of monochrome one needs to look at tone rather than colour. This is not easy at first; but experienced black and white photographers "see" in black and white and can filter out the colour in the minds eye.

Ta Prohm Roots

Taken on film in November 2002 on my first visit to Cambodia. Image was scanned and converted to black and white using Photoshop channel mixer.

More on Ta Prohm

The Original image

Towers of Bayon

Towers Of Bayon

I used a wide angle lens and an extreme angle of view for this shot.The Sky was real, but enhanced a using red channel mixer to give that black sky beloved of traditional black and white photographers. I often add digital noise for film grain effect; as Digital images can look too clinical

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I started using black and white film almost as soon as I had a decent 35mm SLR .

With the help and encouragement from my friends in the Ordnance Survey Photographic Society OSPS I learnt the craft of mono printing quickly. It was very absorbing; I spend many long hours in the darkroom trying to practice what I learnt from the "old School" photographers at the Club.

I spent a number of years taking monochrome landscapes and set up a permanent dark room in my house. Domestic considerations and lack of time in the early 1990s, meant that my darkroom/study was converted back to a dining room and I concentrated on Colour Slides.

Come the digital Age and I soon rediscovered monochrome. My first attempt at converting a colour slide to mono was one of my most successful "Child Worker " an Indian boy, taken in 1996 was OSPS black and white print of the year in 2000 and has been in number of international exhibitions inc The Southampton International

Child Worker: Agra India

Card Playing Monks at Kompong Phluk Pagoda


Angkor Thom East Gate in rain, with a misted up lens added to the atmosphere!

	Banteay Kdei South Gate

Angkor Wat Moat with dramatic sky	Beng Mealea; Lightning tree

Bouquet through Barbed Wire

Its fun to take a black and white image and add colour to it. The old darkroom process of masking an area and selective toning was (and is) a tricky process.

In the Digital age photographers do the reverse process and take a Colour image and selectively mask off the areas where colour is required and then turn the rest of the image to black and white; or sepia toned as the photo of the wedding car below.