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Scene Through the Lens | November 8, 2021

Inquirer staff photographer Tom Gralish’s weekly visual exploration of our region

November 8, 2021: The skulls on a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar are blurred as the lens is zoomed during the taking of the photo as the Mexican holiday was celebrated in LOVE Park on Nov. 1 and 2. The altar was created by Mexican artist Cesar Viveros, for the day that helps people remember the deceased and honor their memory by building altars. They leave ofrendas (offerings) to their loved ones' souls, including food and drink, orange and yellow flowers, and photos and mementos.
November 8, 2021: The skulls on a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar are blurred as the lens is zoomed during the taking of the photo as the Mexican holiday was celebrated in LOVE Park on Nov. 1 and 2. The altar was created by Mexican artist Cesar Viveros, for the day that helps people remember the deceased and honor their memory by building altars. They leave ofrendas (offerings) to their loved ones' souls, including food and drink, orange and yellow flowers, and photos and mementos.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

I received an email from a reader who saw both the black and white and color versions of a photo that appeared with my Monday photo column last month. He assumed (correctly) that I take all my photos in color, but wondered if I ever think about how they will look in black and white.

The quick answer is “yes,” I do think about it, almost all the time. But I know that most of the pictures I produce will be viewed by more eyes online, in color.

Most of the time it doesn’t make much difference, as other elements — the location, people and what they are doing — are more important than the colors.

But with my weekly column, many of the pictures I use are scenes that catch my eye for their composition, juxtaposition, lighting, or color.

Like today’s image. It was the brightly painted Día de los Muertos skulls I noticed. I tried a few ways to photographically capture their vibrancy before deciding to do the zooming during my exposure (Nikon Z6 II; Z 24-70 2.8; 1/4 sec. @ f/16; ISO 250; at twilight). I knew it would not be as pretty in B&W, but I hoped the blurs would still work when seen by readers of our analog dead-tree print edition.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work. As photographers who used to shoot black and white will recall, monochrome photography doesn’t mean strictly black and white, but a continuous scale of shades of grey. Different shades of blues, reds, purples and greens can all end up blending together in B&W.

And sometimes it’s not the shades that make the difference. Imagine this Photo in black and white. And you’ll “see” why you’re only seeing it here - and not in my B&W newspaper column.

Finally, I mentioned earlier this year a project our photo staff has been working on - each of us shooting for one week with the same 35mm mechanical camera and lens with manual exposure and focus, using just one roll of B&W film. As promised then, I will link here when the story is eventually published about our experiment.

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:

» SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column