Black White Photography Tips

Black White Photography

With a little understanding of what to look for, you will be able to recognize which photos will work well in black white photography, and which won’t.

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Black and White Photography Tip 1: Start with a Great Image

When converting a color photograph to black and white, always start with a great image. When it comes to manipulation, keep in mind that less is often more. Subtle changes can be a lot more effective than trying to do too much.

Black and White Photography Tip 2: Look for Tonal Contrasts

One of the main ingredients of stunning black and white photographs is tonal contrast. Dynamic range is the difference in tones between the light and dark areas in an image. A photograph that has a range of tones, going from dark shadows to bright highlights, has a high dynamic range. The trick is in retaining detail while keeping that high range. Avoid uninteresting shots by looking for scenes that contain plenty of different shades of grey.

Black and White Photography Tip 3: Use a Red Filter for Landscapes

One way to control the tonal quality of the image at the time a photograph is taken, is to use a color filter. For example, a scene that contains red, green and blue objects of similar brightness will record as a number of more or less equal shades of grey. To add contrast and impact in landscapes, use a red filter to render a blue sky dark and dramatic, while the redder tones of the land will be recorded as paler greys.

You can, of course, achieve the same effect in the digital darkroom. If you take your image in color, you can create astonishing pictures in black and white by mixing varying amounts of the R, G and B channels to achieve the desired contrast.

For example, to achieve the effect of the traditional strong red (or orange) filter to darken the sky, just use a small amount of the blue channel - or none at all.

Black and White Photography Tip 4: Focus on Texture

Black and white is a great medium for recording scenes with lots of texture. Examples of subjects with plenty of texture include old buildings, sandy beaches and rusting cars.

Black and White Photography Tip 5: Take an Abstract Approach

Close-up photography enables you to create images that have an abstract quality rather than simply a record of an identifiable object. Black and white abstracts can be a very effective approach to exploiting the visual elements of a subject as a means of artistic expression. One of the best black white photography tips is to experiment with photographing familiar objects around the home and garden in original ways: choose an unusual viewpoint and frame the image in such a way that it’s not identifiable. This will have the added benefit of encouraging the viewer to focus on qualities such as shape, pattern and texture. Lighting can also help to give the image greater impact.

Black and White Photography Tip 6: Create Black and White Portraits

It’s no coincidence that many professional photographers specialize in black and white portraiture. If you have an interest in photographing people, you’ll most likely love the classy look of black and white portraits. Here is an example:

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You can find beautiful monochrome photography images in my black white photography gallery.

Also, if you found my black white photography tips page helpful, feel free to browse my free digital photography tutorials.

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