5 More Black & White Photography Tips
<b>Black & white </b>photography
is one of the most interesting and inspiring aspects of this art form
we call our hobby and passion. It's raw & refined, natural and
unusual, bold and subtle, mysterious and open, emotional and
indifferent, simple and complex, black & white & everything in
between. The monochrome image has been practicing photography since the
beginning, but what began as the only way to capture images is turned
into something much deeper.<br />
1. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
An experienced black & white photographer can see the world without color. They've trained their
mind to pick up contrast and tone while blocking the distraction of
colors. This isn't a skill that you can pick up in a short amount of
time; it's something that comes naturally in time. I can't say that I'm
gifted enough to have monochrome vision, but I have been able to notice
certain scenes and subjects that would lend themselves to black &
white.<br /><br />
One way to help train your brain is to make a conscious effort - in
other words, practice. Trevor carpenter gave us the perfect example when
he started his October Challenge. Basically, he decided to limit his
photography to black & white for an entire month. This gave him a
chance to experiment with the medium and learn from his own work, and in
his project recap he states "I have found, especially in recent days,
that as I'm shooting and conceiving a shot, I see the potential impact
of the composition in black & white."<br />
Zig Zag<span></span><br /><br />
2. FOCUS ON CONTRAST
Black & white photography is about the black, the white, and all
the tones in between. The human eye is built to pick up two things:
light intensity and color. When you remove the color, your eyes become
more sensitive to the light intensity. We naturally pick out areas of
contrast - it's how we distinguish one thing from another. As a black
& white photographer, your main objective is to make your point with
shades of gray. Use contrast to show your onlookers what's important
and what's not. Seek out scenes that naturally show signs of high contrast, and your black & white photos will be more compelling right from the start.<br />When post-processing a black & white image, the use of Photoshop
techniques like levels, curves, and layer blends give you a wide variety
of output options. In addition to these things, burning and dodging are
highly effective methods of improving contrast. They work so well
because they allow you to focus the edit on a localized portion of the
image without affecting the surrounding areas<br />
3. FOCUS ON TEXTURE
Texture is really just a form of contrast, but it is perceived quite
differently. If you think about it, texture is the regular or irregular
pattern of shadows and highlights at various intensities. Black &
white photos really lend themselves to texture because color generally
add another layer of complexity, thus masking most subtle textures. Look
for areas of interesting texture that can be photographed by zeroing in
on specific surfaces and examining them for signs of patterned
contrast.<br /><br />
The choices you make in post-processing can really make a difference
in the texture too. During the black & white conversion, you can
usually pull texture out of otherwise smooth surfaces based on your
choice of conversion methods. In digital photos, blues and reds
generally contain more noise than greens, so tools like the channel
mixer and the black & white adjustment layer in Photoshop can really
accentuate those embedded textures.<br /><br />
4. CAPTURE IN COLOR
This is mainly aimed at digital photographers... If your camera gives
you the option of shooting in color or black & white, NEVER shoot in
black & white. The camera is really capturing color, then
converting to black & white. Photo editing software can do a much
better job at the conversion, and you'll have more flexibility on the
output of the final image. It's really amazing how different a photo can
look solely based on the post-processing, so it's best not to limit
yourself before the photo even makes it out of the camera<br /><br />
The one exception to this rule is if you wanted to use the black
& white capture to give you a preview of what the scene might look
like as a monochrome image. It may help you identify good black &
white scenes more immediately, but once you find your shot switch back
over to color capture and shoot it again.<br />
Under the Weather<br /><br />
5. USE COLOR FILTERS
Black & white film photographers make use of color filters to
change the captured tones in their photographs. Ever see those
monochrome images with dark skies and puffy white clouds? That's not
natural; it requires the use of color filtering to produce the desired
effect.<br /><br />
Using an actual color filter with a digital camera
is perfectly acceptable and it has its merits, but it's not completely
necessary. Software like Photoshop has the ability to apply
non-destructive color filters. It also has the ability to produce the
same results as a color filter during the black & white conversion.
For those of you using Photoshop CS3, you'll see that the black &
white adjustment dialog has several preset filters that can be applied
and modified to suit the photo.<br /><br />
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