The (Not So) Golden Hour, ie- Three Shades Of Gray

 

Photo #1*        Photo: © Stan Banos

There are countless posts and articles on the glories of shooting during... The Golden Hour. Magical, mystical, exhilarating, transformative- just some of the superlatives used to describe the quality of light that photographers all crave to shoot in. And I most certainly ain't here to deny it- I have seen rather ordinarily, even drab vistas and landscapes literally transformed into surreal scenarios of other worldly beauty and wonder at said time. The ability of The Golden Hour to heighten and saturate hues and colors is not to be belittled. However... but... that said...

I haven't seen all that much written on how B+W responds to all this glory and wonder- it's usually considered from the viewpoint of color photography. And while you can no doubt get some incredible images with long, dramatic shadows using B+W, those beautifully golden hues and saturated colors that are intensified during the golden hour, often don't translate so successfully into monochrome. Instead of the long, exquisite and extended tonal values that you may well anticipate, you can end up with frustratingly shortened, truncated shades of black and white that will well leave you scratching your much disappointed head. Instead of infinite shades of enhanced grays layered between silken whites and deep rich blacks, you can end up with what may very well look like three muddy, lumpy shades of gray. You can seek out the technical reasons elsewhere, I'm just interested in the results.

Photo #2*        Photo: © Stan Banos

It shook me the first couple of times it occurred, I thought the mystical, magical properties of Golden Goodness would also somehow transition into and illuminate the more somber world of B+W! And then... I finally realized the reality of the situation. If you're shooting B+W in The Golden Hour- concentrate on those long, dramatic shadows. That's where you'll get your drama. You may even be able to make those shortened tonal values somehow work in your favor, but you're gonna have to anticipate, experiment and devise your own formula for success according to your shooting style and subject matter- but then,  Black and White was always about learning to work with less...

*Photo #1- I shot, reshot and reshot some more, and always with the same result... a massive expanse of uninspiring grey. 

                 Shot it once in color... BOOM!

*Photo #2- Even with the long ass shadow, if it wasn't for that dramatically patterned sky... another flat blob of two tone grey.

PS- Blogger flattens images even moreso...