More practice required!

It's been such a long time since I took any 'serious' black and white images I'd forgotten just how hard it is to get any real depth of greys...

Take these Campanula flowers for example. If what you want is a colour image, all you really need to do is wait for the time of day when the sun gives you reasonable light, set your camera to 'automatic' point it at the plant and press the shutter, as above. The result may not be the best photograph in the world, but it will be acceptable as a simple colour image. In the world of monochrome photography that doesn't quite work!

Campanula Blossoms

I wanted my black & white image to show a cluster of Campanula flowers. A shallow depth of field is important if you want the background to appear out of focus, which I have taken care of adequately. However to get really good results when photographing flowers in black & white you really need to get the light right, which I obviously failed to do today. There is not enough contrast between the flower heads and the stems. Also the composition of the shot is all wrong; the image is far too 'busy' to be of any use. As one of my school teachers used to say on a regular basis, "Not good enough boy, go back and do it again!"

I'll wait now until tomorrow morning to see whether I can capture a better image in natural light. If the lighting is still wrong or for some other reason I can't improve on today's effort I'll have to rig up a reflector to bounce light back around the flowers... no-one ever said photography was an 'instant' art, knowledge, technique, practice and patience are required.