Monochrome Photography

In these days of quick digital photography it is easy to forget about what happens after you press the shutter release. For many, the images are simply stored and viewed occasionally. Some people go to the trouble of straightening their images and removing red eye but that frequently tends to be the end of it. For me, the click of the shutter is just the beginning. Playing around with my images once I get them on my PC is where the fun kicks in.

You might think it strange in a world where colour is taken very much for granted that anyone would want to remove it but monochrome photography still has a very significant place among any photographers skills. Have you ever had one of those photographs that are well composed and sharply focused but for some reason simply don't work? Chances are it's the colour in the image that is distracting. Try removing it and see how it works then. Colour doesn't always add interest to an image, sometimes it can simply clutter it up.
The image I have shown here was created with a timed exposure and a moving torch to produce the light trails. I then played around with it in Photoshop removing the colour and adding a gradient map which partly inverted the brightest values in the image. It was a bit of fun. If you would like to see more of my images just click on this image to go to my monochrome gallery.