I always associate Disney with color. Which is interesting because I first watched Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color television show on my family’s black and white tv back in the mid-1960’s. With that in mind, this week I decided to visit each of Walt Disney World’s themeparks in Black and White.

All of these photos were originally captured in color. In my image editor I choose to use the Black and White Filter Tool. This gives much more control than just desaturating which can be done by taking the Saturation Tool/Slider and setting it to zero. With a B&W filter, you can choose the color filter. I know that sounds a bit backward. As most of these photos were dominated by blue colors in the sky and/or water, I choose to set the B&W filter into the bluish part of the spectrum. This brings out the sky and clouds better. There was one exception which I will cover when I get to it. I like to add a good amount of contrast and clarity to my black and white conversions. Brings out a lot of the details you may not notice in a color photograph.

Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom. Here I stood in front of the entrance to Cinderella Castle and pointed my camera upwards. The wide angle of the lens and portrait orientation gives a sense the castle is looming over you.

Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom.
Nikon D750/24-120VR, 1/200s, f/8, ISO 100, EV 0, 24mm Focal Length.

Spaceship Earth in Epcot. To emphasize the clouds and sky above Spaceship Earth, I again used a portrait orientation. I took this from the bridge in front of the Italy pavilion.

Spaceship Earth in Epcot.
Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 280, EV 0, 150mm Focal Length.

Twlight Zone Tower of Terror in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Remember the exception I mentioned earlier? This is it. For the Tower of Terror, I moved the B&W filter more into the yellowish spectrum. I think it adds a bit of spookiness to the image.

Twlight Zone Tower of Terror in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Nikon D750/28-300VR, 1/250s, f/8, ISO 100, EV 0, 48mm Focal Length.

Tree of Life in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When photographing an object which is far away, I like to add foreground interest as I did with the elephant sculpture below.

Tree of Life in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Nikon D750/28-300VR, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 320, EV +0.3, 28mm Focal Length.

While the world is not in black and white, seeing it in black and white gives your eyes something else to concentrate on and allowing them to discover Disney’s wonderful worlds.