Fine Art Photoblog

I’ve always loved black and white photography for its ability to isolate the subject in ways that color can’t always translate, but it’s not for every subject, and often black and white doesn’t seem (to me, at least) to work well with flowers. Flowers have an inherent softness and romance that sometimes gets lost in the transition to black and white. However, flowers with a stronger, more graphical architecture can be more suited to the starker nature of a black and white photograph.

These globe thistles seemed a good candidate for black and white. They have a very strong structure and graphic element, and the color inherent in the real blooms was lacking in interest. This image wasn’It wasn’t about the color, it was about the shape, the light, the contrast.

The image was shot indoors with natural window light and fill flash against a black foam core board with a Canon Mark III, a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens at f/22 at 2sec.