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Inspired by Leigh two experiments in monochrome. I just can't make myself blow those damn highlights

Peter - I like the tyre tracks - but, why worry about blown highlights at all - they exist

On the scale of 0-255 one goes from black to white so there is always the possibility of pure white and black

Peter to be honest your tyre tracks don't work for me. However I like the long line hooks, all together they look very fibrous, like animal hair or fur.

I agree with Chris, in the old film days, a B&W photo wasn't considered to be any good unless it had pure black, pure white and every shade in between.
Unless of course if the blown highlights are meant to have some important details.

Peter, I really like the tyre tracks! I think you could try just a little more contrast, and yes that will blow the sky a little more. But what you posted already works for me.

Hi Peter,

It is great to see that you are experimenting.
The tracks have a lot of potential.
The fishing hooks are very contrasty; I believe.
Keep doing that work; I love to see more of it.

Regards,
CD

Chris, Craig, Phillip, Doug and Christian. Thank you all for your comments. You have emboldened me to have another go at this.

Peter
The tyre tracks is one of those rare images that lacks inspiration...until you enlarge it! Then it come to life with a beauty of its own. And technically very nice too. Digital can do black and white just fine. Your second image has beautiful tones and is compositionally perfect...but I'm damned if I know what the subject matter is? So it's an abstract to me and that's just fine.

phillipb wrote:I agree with Chris, in the old film days, a B&W photo wasn't considered to be any good unless it had pure black, pure white and every shade in between.

Phillip,

The difference being that both the pure white, and the pure black, were supposed to be contained within some area of the image, within the detail, rather than, say, a blown highlight, like, for instance, a reflection of light from a glass or mirror.

Matt. K wrote:Peter
The tyre tracks is one of those rare images that lacks inspiration...until you enlarge it! Then it come to life with a beauty of its own. And technically very nice too. Digital can do black and white just fine. Your second image has beautiful tones and is compositionally perfect...but I'm damned if I know what the subject matter is? So it's an abstract to me and that's just fine.

Thanks for the comments Matt. The second image is hundreds of fish hooks on a single line. This was taken on a long line tuna fishing boat that was in port readying for an expedition.