While walking through a lovely New Jersey Park with my wife, we came across this lovely scene. I quickly took the (color) picture and we continued along. Many lovely photos were taken that day.
When I came home I liked this one in particular. The problem was that while it was a nice picture, it just wasn't as good as I'd like it to be. I tried some simple color enhancements and still wasn't satisfied. I even tried a psychedelic look, but it just looked silly. So I put it to the side.
While preparing a recent iPhoneography workshop for a local camera club I revisited many of the photos I took this past summer and stumbled across this one. It came up just after I was looking at the Dramatic Black & White ($0.99) app. I hoped that the change from color to black and white would be beneficial. When I opened the image in Dramatic B&W this is how it looked. Although I could have made alterations, I decided to leave it alone. Sometimes, less is more.
This image is a reminder that black and white photography is far from dead. An application like Dramatic B&W can change a nice photo into one that looks really striking. Although it may not be up to Ansel Adams standards, I like it.
When looking for interesting black and white apps, I came across several that I had forgotten about and some that I'd never encountered before. I'll be writing about some of them in upcoming posts. It's a lot different from the days of using the old Beseler Enlarger, trays full of chemicals, and the rest of stuff in the old darkroom. I must admit, it wasn't the good old days. The iPhone has eliminated the odors and mess of the traditional darkroom and substituted a virtual darkroom that is just as good...if not better!