Weekly Black and White Photography Thread # 30 (24Aug 2025)

Yes, I am sure I saw it before but where 😎
It has nice tones. I liked its high contrast look.

Nice composition.

Yes there is a flow from left to right. I flipped it after Alan suggested it but I will stick to this version

White Balance with Monochrome?

The other day, I ran across a reference from an author who said that he uses a certain Kelvin number when shooting Monochrome. Theoretically, it seems to me that it shouldn't make a difference.

Do you shoot Monochrome at a certain temperature?

Steve Thomas

I don't understand. How is it that there is a flow from left to right, but if the photo is flipped horizontally, there isn't a flow from right to left?

Because you're applying a logical understanding and just assuming it also conforms with a visual one instead of understanding a human perceptual understanding without trying to fit it into a preconceived logical framework, (we just had a long conversation about this...).

If you remember it one way around, then if you switch it it no longer conforms to memory, no longer fits the emotion you felt at the time, and generally just looks odd.

Sorry, but to me the photo looks overly tone mapped and flat, rather grey and without an impression of light.

The photo is really good; it shows us a completely different perspective.
Depending on your perspective, it could be about faces.

A very good photo, which suffered greatly from the effort to preserve the highlights.
It simply lacks dynamic range.

Yes, there is. I see a narrowing path and wall art that narrows from left to right, which gives me an impression of flow. What direction of the flow would you see for this drawing?

If you flip it horizontally it will the opposing direction. I just did not like my photo when flipped but I don't know exactly why I did not like.

To me there are cues leading to both left and right flows. The kerb vanishing toward the right may indicate flow in that direction. Depending on perspective, the feature could be interpreted either way (is it flat going to vertical or vertical going to flat?) but perhaps more to the right. The lady is however moving to the left and if her presence predominates, then there is a sense of flow to the left. However to my mind there is another aspect to the kerb. The pavement between the building and the kerb is expanding to the left - so I see flow in that direction too. One interesting thing is that prior to the conversation, I probably would have thought the image flowed to the right but after considering the cues, my mind sees it as flowing to the left.

Nonetheless the image is an intriguing capture of angles, lines, planes and surfaces and a human subject possibly wondering "what does it all mean"?

That's exactly what I'm saying, though! I see the arrow you posted as going from left to right. If you flipped it horizontally, it would then go from right to left. But the point is that there is still a flow, and I don't see how a left to right flow is any different than a right to left flow in the context of the photo,

I think you gentlemen are being far too literal, an arrowhead has direction/flow because of it's shape. Even here it's not a property of shape but memory...

"Flow" is a perceptual property and is so also linked to the associations we add via memory to our interpretation of the static scene. The person as photographed doesn't exhibit the property of "flow" but rather our memory of the balance displayed in the static pose is associated with movement. This is how you create movement in static figures, you understand their real time 3D balance on their two feet and draw it such. The light installation has flow just as the designer designed it. I don't think flow is an absolute property of shape in the image made by the placement of the kerbs for example... 😁

Just some thoughts, ignore if you wish/disagree.

There are several important languages that are written right to left, Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, etc. These languages were derived from the Aramaic alphabet
are written and read right to left. Languages derived from the Latin alphabet are written left to right as are the languages derived from the Cyrillic alphabet. I expect you are correct in your assessment to direction of flow is biased by your primary language. I was taught English and Hebrew as a child. Although I probably could not read a line of Hebrew and know I couldn't write it if my life depended on it today. 🙀 I am also ambidextrous. Wrap all this up probably means I don't have a bias toward the "direction of flow" in an image and take the cues from the geometric composition and direction of any "movement" with in the image.

Looking closely there are come conflicting cues in this image. Some of the geometric cues lead left to right with a strong geometric cue leading right to left. The motion of the woman is right to left. Added to that the dominate large rectangle in the image adds a feeling of neutrality.

At best, that's a Western bias. Regardless, I don't buy it. Below are versions of the same photo:

Left to Right:

Right to Left:

In a word, the two are equivalent (😁) to my eyes. I don't see either one as being "more natural" than the other, aside from the fact, of course, that one of them is the correct version of the scene. However, if this were a scene that I had never seen before, I would not be able to say which was the "correct" photo.

It would be an interesting experiment, methinks: show two such photos to people of a scene that they would not recognize, and ask if the prefer one, the other, or neither. I would be surprised if there were a preference for the left-to-right flow. Would be a very interesting experiment!

And once again we "arrange" a test in such a way as to cancel out human memory (perception). No, it would be a biased experiment, just as we need to address the question of "how many real photos are actually equivalent?" So to we also need to ask "how many real photos are memory neutral?" Before we can lend any weight to the answer. The fact remains that selecting a test group that has never seen/will never see the Golden Gate Bridge stretches the credibility of the point...

I really liked this photo, it has light, texture and nostalgia, by far the stand out photo of the thread for me, so far...

Which is exactly why I said, "...show two such photos to people of a scene that they would not recognize..." Here we go:

I can pretty much guarantee you no one knows where this scene is! I'd ask which of the two is "more natural", but, of course, we'd need a significantly greater sample size than is available here.