The categories for this
Digital competition are:
- Open
- Fauna
- Travel
- Special theme: Literally Black and White
The Special Theme for this evening is
Literally Black and White: Images in the Literally Black and White category are composed exclusively of pure black and pure white tones, with no shades of gray. Every pixel in the image must be rendered as either full white or full black, creating a true high-contrast, binary presentation. Any subject matter or genre is acceptable, but the absence of gray tones must be intentional and integral to the image’s visual impact. The strength of the photograph should arise from the photographer’s effective use of stark contrast, silhouette, pattern, shape, or graphic design within the strict black-and-white-only constraint.
Note that a pure black and white image may contain areas that look gray. However, if you zoom in, you'll see only black and white pixels, combining to gray when you zoom out, just as in halftone black and white photos in a newspaper. For this category, try to avoid gray areas large enough to become major features of the image.
In Lightroom, you can make a pure black and white image by first choosing a B&W profile, then applying a tone curve with the steepest possible transition(s) between black and white. In Photoshop, you can apply a Camera RAW file with the same choices as in Lightroom. Alternatively, you can use a B&W adjustment layer and either a threshold or a curve adjustment layer.
The judge will be [TBD].