Black and White Adventures

The other evening while channel surfing I came across the 1940 Errol Flynn adventure film The Sea Hawk on Turner Classics Essentials series. It was the first time I had seen this particular Flynn swashbuckler and it was one of the most colorful - even though it was filmed in black and white! Director Michael Curtiz and cinematographer Sol Polito made the most of the B&W medium using contrast and shadow to convey mood. In a climactic scene, Errol Flynn engages one of his antagonists in a sword duel (big surprise). As the scene stretches on, rather than simply focus on the duelists, Curtiz places the actors in the foreground while conveying the action with their large cast shadows on the wall. A really fun moment. Watching these classic films of the 1930's and '40's I appreciate more and more the outstanding use of black and white photography and find new inspiration for my own work.

This restaurant sign appeared in an earlier post in color. For this version I utilized Photoshop channels, converted to monochrome and played with the image to reach the desired contrast - more on this methodology in a future posting. In many ways black and white helps to enhance the image's old school feel.