Tonality

I love color. But sometimes, color gets in the way of my seeing the bigger picture. I get caught up in which blue I like best, or which orange should go where. So it’s always helpful to take a look at an image in black and white. The desaturated image allows my eye to focus on contrast and values, giving me a better idea of the areas that are drawing a viewer’s attention.

Here’s a recent image that I desaturated. When squinting at the image in black and white, I see that there’s a lot of contrast in the backpack straps, drawing your attention there instead of up at the jar. Thus, my next step will be to tone down those straps and to bring more attention to the bug in the jar.