As you can probably guess by the list of previous photos of the week, I’m not really into black & white photography. However, I do dabble occasionally, and particularly enjoy playing with the channel mixer to get more dramatic and contrasty images. This is my favourite black & white conversion so far. This shot of the Moon over the top of the spire of the Gunne Chapel (AKA the College Chapel) on the St. Patrick’s College Campus (AKA NUI Maynooth South Campus) in Maynooth, Ireland. The black & white conversion was done using the channel mixer in the GIMP (a free cross-platform image editor). It was shot during the day, but made more dramatic by turning the blue channel right down to zero so the sky goes black.

Lunar Cross (Black & White)
on FlickrFull-Size

  • Camera: Nikon D40
  • Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
  • Exposure: 1/250 sec
  • Focal Length: 200mm
  • Focal Ratio: F22
  • ISO: 800
  • Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
  • Processing: Converted to black & white using the channel mixer in the GIMP