Dramatic Skies in Black and White

A clear day with a deep blue sky and some interesting cloud formations make for a great photographic opportunity.  But sometimes it's hard to capture the drama that you see in your camera.  One way to help add drama back into the scene is through judicious black and white conversion with some color filtering.

Look at this cloud shot:



It's an interesting cloud pattern, sort of abstract.  It's not as dramatic as I remember it, and even if I darken the blue it still won't be what I wanted to convey.

But look what happens when I convert to black and white:



That is a much more dramatic treatment and the black and white starkness pushes it over toward a more artistic presentation.  That's what I was looking for.

Here is a wide shot of the sky, in B&W, showing multiple cloud formations and therefore multiple opportunities to crop into a nice abstract.

And here is an in-camera crop (using a zoom) of one interesting section:



You need to do something a little special in the B&W conversion to get those dark skies.  You need to add a filter.  Yellow, Orange and Red filters blacken the deep blue sky, creating the dramatic effect.  Alfred Eisenstadt always shot his B&W landscapes with a yellow or orange filter for just this reason.  You get very dramatic skies.

Find photos in the most unlikely places

So, I really sometimes just snap photos, especially street photos, and then go back in post and see if I can create something.  Here is an example.

Starting with this:

Then find this in the shadow on the right side of the frame:

And finally, give it the black and white treatment:

That's quite a transformation.  I'm not saying this should be your main process, but I enjoy finding shots in the frame as much as taking the photos to begin with.  It's always a surprise - you never know what might be hiding in there.