black and white photography

 While both camera and monitor manufacturers are consistently developing to bring us better colour images, the modest black-and-white photograph is just as popular as ever before. Often regarded as the purest form of photography, it focuses attention on the fundamentals of a great photo: texture, contrast, shape and - of course - great lighting.Converting your images to black-and-white is a pretty simple process, but if you’re really keen on getting the best results from your black-and-white photography, these simple-to-follow tips will help you get more out of your camera....

1 Graphic shapes and contrast
 
Simple and graphic shapes are always very effective subjects for black-and-white images. You should look out for high-contrast subjects, which contain strong blacks and bright highlights that will provide maximum impact.  

2 Detail and texture



Both of these elements can produce subtle images that maintain the viewer’s interest. Soft, diffuse light in shady or cloudy conditions will allow you to capture the maximum amount of detail in the subject, while harsh, high-contrast light (such as direct sunlight) will reveal more texture.

3 Simple and strong composition

As there are no colours to help add impact, black and white photography is often more successful if you use simple compositional elements such as leading lines or foreground objects in your images. Also look out for scenes with a strong focal point, but remember that its impact will rely on contrast, rather than colour.

4 Contrast is Your Friend!
 

Traditionally, black and white photography has been a contrasty medium. In color photography, big contrast is often discouraged. In the days of film, we often would attach a red filter when shooting black and white, just to increase the contrast. In this example, because of the large boulder, the bald skies of Alabama Hills go very dark, thus making the boulder visibly pop. Looking under the boulder, you can see the heavy shadow, telling you it’s a contrasty condition.

5 Flat Light has Lots to Offer

And the exact opposite is true as well! Flat light, or light which has no giant range of exposure, can make for dramatic B&W images. Typically, though, this requires that you look at the elements, and find one or more deep blacks that grab the eye. In this case, the falling snow is flattening out the light, though the snow on the ground sets the stage. The wet, black road in the center of the frame takes the eye through the image, and then the speckles of black bring the eye back down. Standing there, you wouldn’t have thought there was a photo, and that’s because of the flat light.

6 Black Makes White Brighter

This is a favorite trick of mine: making the darks darker so the lights appear brighter. By association—and nothing else—when we make darks go darker, the mind just assumes the other elements have to be brighter, even though in reality they are not. This downpour over Bridgeport Reservoir is an example of that. In this case, I knew what was possible in the darkroom that would pull that black down, making that small microburst really pop. This is not what I saw standing there. It was a pretty even gray sky. The only difference is that the microburst was reflecting light, and the background was not. That’s all that was required to make it pop in post.

7 Gotta Have a Clean White and a Clean Black

If there is one thing you need in a B&W photo, if nothing else, it is a clean white and a clean black. Is this a rule? No, it is merely a starting point in your thinking, capturing and finishing a photo. Without a clean black and a clean white, you have what is called a “muddy” image. This means you simply have a bunch of shades of gray. In this photo of the Bodie Lighthouse, the only clean white is the post of light (and that was created in post), and the only clean black is the roof. But that’s enough for you to notice all of the texture in the image. If your B&W images just don’t seem to have real zing, it could simply be a case of no clean blacks and no clean whites.

8 Exposure is Your Friend

“Seeing” (thinking) in B&W is a very common difficulty for photographers. This stands to reason, since we live in a color world. Many B&W images are around you if you just think underexposure. This shot, taken at Cliff House in San Francisco, was an off-the-hip shot as we were walking in to breakfast. It was basically a bright morning, with the storm quickly heading east. I saw that great cloud shape in the sky, and knew I wanted the shot. If I exposed normally, the sky would have been blown out and the sand a medium gray. But by underexposing 2.5 stops, I pulled the sky to gray, the beach went black, and the surf stayed white, leading the eye through the frame.

9 Filters Make it Easier

In the game of black and white photography, filters still make a world of difference! The polarizer can be used, unconventionally, to darken the sky, which in B&W creates big-time black drama. The split grad can be used for the same purpose, as you see in this photo of Ausable Chasm in NY. The mist from the falls was the photo, but to bring this out, its brightness needed to be set against something dark. By using a .9 (3 stop) split grad turned severely to the left, darkening the left corner, the mist could visually pop. There is no doubt that you have to think B&W when you do this, because you wouldn’t have taken the photo if the end results were to be in color. How do you develop an eye to see this? You do it a lot, and learn from you successes as well as your failures. If you don’t have failures, you know you’re not trying!