Cala Lily Flute, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Briefly noted: I’ve been experimenting with monochrome (black and white) images of flowers and shells. These images start in my camera as RGB RAW color files. Of course, I never convert to black and white in camera because this would lose valuable information. However, I do use the black and white conversion feature in my camera to help me pre-visualize the way the photo will look. It’s not always easy to focus on blacks, whites, and contrast in a color world, and using the black and white conversion feature in my camera, but canceling at the last minute, helps me do this.

Once I’ve imported the photo into Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop, I use the color information to get the photo to where I’d like it before applying black and white Adjustment layers. Usually, I employ multiple adjustment layers so I can control how specific areas of the photo are converted.

Nautilus in Black and White is one of my favorites so far.

[Nikon D300, Zeiss 100mm f/2.8 macro lens (read more about this lens), five exposures from 1/320 of a second to 1/13 of a second all at f/22 and ISO 500, tripod mounted.]