It’s another Fun Photo Friday, and this one’s a two-fer. Not only are we going to take a look at some fun photos of Arches National Park, we’re also going to experiment (again) with Color Filtering Before Converting to Black & White.
First, let’s take a look at the drama of Arches National Park (click on an image to bring up enlarged versions in a slide show):
Now for a little return lesson on the use of color filtering in black and white conversions. Take a look above at “Dead Wood” and “Reflections of Nature.” Below you’ll see the same images converted to black and white. The left side conversions were filtered for green; the right side red. The green filtering will cause the sky to lighten and will darken the red earth, and red filtering will have the opposite effect.
To best compare the effects, open the green- and red-filtered images in separate windows (which as the added advantage of enlarging the images) and alternate between the two.
First, “Dead Wood”:
Now, “Reflections of Nature”:
When converting a color image to B&W, always remember to experiment with color filtering for the best effect. Start with the two extremes — Dark Green versus Dark Red — and adjust the intensity as needed.
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R. Doug Wicker — Author 
Great landscape and wonderful photos. Also appreciate the conversion tips.
Thanks you, Cora. Glad you enjoyed both the show and the tips.
These images are so beautifully color-toned by Nature, it seems a shame to use them for a tutorial on turning colour into monotone! Thanks for tutorial, Doug.
Thank you, André. I rather agree with you on Reflections of Nature, but that particular image was chosen for this demonstration because red and green filtering would have such a noticeable and dramatic effect on that reddish-colored earth. Normally I’d keep the color on that one.
After I posted my first comment, I took another look at Reflections of Nature, wondering how I would draw that scene on the one hand in pen and ink, say with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black and Lexington Gray, and on the other with charcoal or the softer grades of graphite. Those two value-renditions, one green-filtered, one red-filtered, is exactly how I would draw them. Just another example of how the arts run into each, influence each other.
That’s actually a very good point, André. I can definitely see how both renditions would occur during a drawing session depending on whether you’re striving for form or concerned with shading.