{"id":2654,"date":"2025-09-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2025-08-27T10:55:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T08:55:02","slug":"what-monochrome-taught-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/2025\/09\/19\/what-monochrome-taught-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What Monochrome Taught Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Switching to monochrome has changed how I see photography from the conceptual viewpoint, but also from the process viewpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Waves crashing on rocks and concrete blocks after a storm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I mentioned before<\/a> that monochrome has shown me a different way of looking at the world. A way that relies more on semantics and storytelling than prettiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the other things monochrome has taught me is to let go. When I was taking colour images, I was looking for perfection. Every pixel had to be the way I wanted it: I’d remove a single blade of grass in a corner I didn’t like; I’d use ND grad filters and I’d bracket like crazy (taking photos at sunrise, the exposures are tricky); I’d adjust the saturation of every zone separately to have the colours and contrast I had in my head; I’d go over a photograph millimeter by millimeter to remove any parasitic aspect I didn’t like such as a bird in the sky or a wrong splash of a wave. It was exhausting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wooden box on the sand dune<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With monochrome, I pretty much go with what comes out of the camera. I spend very little time making adjustments. A tiny crop once in a while because I forget that my camera has a zoon (I exclusively use it at the wide end like it’s a prime). A contrast increase when I missed the mark a little bit. Add grain. But that’s it. Monochrome embodies imperfection, and therefore faithfulness to the reality of the moment is more important than perfection that matches a preconceived idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rape plants and sun taken during a walk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s liberating. It means that I’m more aware of the moment instead of observing the scene and matching it to my idea. I pay more attention to movement and changes than when I was taking colour images. I see more and capture more of reality than when I was trying to make reality match my idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I capture is of course not reality. That doesn’t exist in photography since as a photographer I choose angles, exposures, even the fact that I shoot monochrome. But I feel that the images I produce that way are more faithful to the world I see. In a way it’s a step back from my transition to more intention photography<\/a>. But I see it more as a readjustment to the right middle ground between randomly taking what’s there, and making what I imagined using reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With monochrome, I also shoot with small cameras (a Sony RX100III set to black and white at the moment) that I would have considered toys a few years ago. I still love my big Canons (especially the 1DX and the 6D which produce great tones and are extremely sensitive), but I use them less and less unless I do portraits or planned landscapes. Monochrome has freed me from gear worries and even gear care. I now understand that the camera you use doesn’t matter that much to produce something important (to you).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see all those YT videos about gear and how people obsess about it and I recognise my past self in it. There is nothing wrong with that if it’s what interests you. But now I think “Eh! Who cares? The camera doesn’t take the photos” and I feel freer. I just ignore them and concentrate on those that talk about photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it’s just me, but monochrome has completely changed the way I take photos and I wish I had discovered that many years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#Photography #Opinion #IMayBeWrong #Theory #PhotographyTheory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Switching to monochrome has changed how I see photography from the conceptual viewpoint, but also from the process viewpoint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-personal","category-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3219,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions\/3219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoni.st\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}