I take a step back from monochrome images themselves to look at how our cameras see colour. Understanding this helps explain the key difference between traditional black-and-white photography, which worked entirely in tone, and contemporary digital mono, which begins in colour and allows each channel to be controlled independently. Modern black-and-white photography isn’t simply “colour removed” — it’s colour re-imagined.

🗺  Where Is That?

Digitising old photos often raises the question — where was that taken? Google Lens, built into Google Photos, can identify locations, landmarks, and even restaurant signs from decades-old shots. In my examples, from Gruyères in Switzerland to the Providence Church in Heidelberg, it’s a simple way to rediscover the forgotten stories behind your images.

This week’s spotlight is on Harold Chapman, the British photographer who lived among the Beat poets in Paris from 1957 to 1963. His book Beats à Paris captures life inside the legendary Beat Hotel—an intimate, unvarnished portrait of Ginsberg, Burroughs, and their circle. Chapman’s quiet, documentary style reveals a vanished world of creativity, chaos, and cigarette smoke, reminding us how powerful photography can be when the photographer becomes part of the story.

A nostalgic look back at my 1990s photo albums from our time in Germany, when film ruled and every exposure counted. Scanning those old negatives reminded me how much my photography has changed—from simply recording memories to seeing the world with a more creative and reflective eye.

This may sound like a foreign language but please bear with me as I explain changes to our weekly email.
This blog post explains changes in how I share WGPC news to make it easier to produce and, I hope, better for you.
This weekly email will now highlight new posts from the WGPC blog instead of repeating full articles. The blog will become a searchable, printable archive, and you can get instant alerts for new posts by installing the free Feedly app and connecting it to our blog feed.

This week’s article shows how to use Google Photos to manage and organise your images. You’ll learn how to create albums for events or projects, search by people or objects, and share your albums in full quality—without worrying about file size or compatibility.

We invest in high-resolution cameras, but too often throw away pixels without realising it. Google Photos, iCloud, email and messaging apps can all shrink your images. For A4 prints you need originals, not compressed copies. Our latest blog explains how to preserve your pixels and make sure your photos are exhibition-ready.

Software Spotlight: DxO Nik Collection 8

I’ve been using Nik Efex for most of my black & white editing. It offers an excellent balance of quick presets and fine manual control, plus powerful local adjustments. Unlike Adobe’s tools, it’s a one-off purchase rather than a subscription, and I find working on a computer screen far more effective than using a mobile device.

If you’re considering photo editing on your computer, I recommend giving it a try.

A review of Simon Ellingworth, whose RPS Mono Vision workshops challenge photographers to strip away colour and focus on light, form, and intent. Having completed Levels 1 and 2 (and signed up for Level 3), I reflect on how his teaching—encouraging both discipline and experimentation—has shaped and deepened my monochrome practice.

Our visit to Lacock’s Unseen Colour exhibition revealed Werner Bischof’s pioneering use of the tricolour separation camera. Unlike earlier methods requiring three separate exposures, this ingenious prism-based system recorded red, green, and blue negatives simultaneously, later recombined into vivid colour images. The process produced extraordinary quality but demanded heavy equipment and meticulous alignment. Bischof’s rare colour work shows both his technical curiosity and creative vision, reminding us how early innovations underpin today’s digital RGB photography.

Sue W’s photo of water pipes in the Victoria Art Gallery (with pencilled-in faces lovingly restored after redecoration) is a perfect example of pareidolia—the human tendency to see faces in everyday objects. Read more in this University of Washington blog article and start spotting your own.