I just taught a 90-minute workshop on dramatic black and white floral photography at Mid-Atlantic Photo Visions, and it was one of my favorite sessions of the weekend.
Here is how we spent the time:
15 minutes: the talk. I covered what makes a flower work in black and white: shape, tone, texture and the way light falls on the petals.
30 minutes: shooting. Everyone photographed flowers themselves, trying out lighting and compositions on the spot.
45 minutes: processing. In the processing session, I walked through the steps for turning a flower image into a dramatic black and white portrait.
Splitting the time this way gives people a chance to practice the capture first and then see how I approach the finishing.
Shooting and processing in one session works well because people can see how the capture decisions show up in the finished image. I wish I had 3 hours so I could spend more time in photographing and critiquing and adding more time to Q&A
I first wrote about this style in Dramatic Black and White Floral Portraits. The images below are newer work in the same series.
