PHOTOGRAPHS IN BLACK AND WHITE

The Hillsborough Area Artisans are hosting a black and white show/contest within the group whose work will be on display at the Gallery at Well Sweep in June. I offered to take pictures of some art work. Janett creates unusual designs in fiber art and she crocheted a beautiful black shawl with white trim and flowers. However, when I downloaded the pictures onto my computer, I found the white flowers came out without any detail.

This reminded me that I have trouble with any pictures of white flowers. Lilies of the valley and the double white lilacs in my yard are not shown in my albums because I am not happy with any photo that I take of them. The pictures end up looking overexposed.

With the purchase of a new computer, my old editing program would not work with Windows 7 and in my research, I found a better one and it was free. PhotoScape. This is a great program and it’s easy to use. One of my favorite features is the back light button and I thought this might be the answer to my white flower problem. It’s not. Back lighting causes the white to turn yellow or brown-ish and adjusting light and contrast further removes detail.

I don’t use an external flash. I seldom use the built-in flash as I try to keep things in natural light and even when I plan a shoot, I still operate on an in-the-moment mode. Most of the time, this works and I am pleased with the results. However, this photographing of white objects is a concern. Perhaps it’s the case of using an external flash—I don’t know.

Any suggestions to photographing white flowers will be appreciated. Thank-you.