The reason so many photography courses and schools teach black and white photography early on is that it is an excellent way to train the eye to recognize what makes a striking composition.
As amazingly beautiful as a colourful sky may be, it is the lines, shapes and curves that move the eye through the photo.
So while the colours can be quite beautiful, black and white make the photo more dynamic.
Despite all of its benefits, black and white photography became less popular in the 70s and 80's because of the popularity of colour.
It soon became difficult to find places to process black and white film, and stores didn't always carry it.
Now thanks to digital cameras and photo editing software, black and white photography are back!
1 How to Recognize Great Black and White Pictures?
Although choosing the best subjects for black and white is very subjective, many professional photographers will agree that the following types of compositions beg for black and white:
a) Photo that conveys strong emotion.
Oftentimes, colour can be a distraction whereas black and white make the emotion or feeling seem more strong.
b) Images lacking a full spectrum of colours; for example, a cityscape or Ansel Adam's Yosemite "Moon and Half Dome."
c) Low contrast images such as photographs shot on dark overcast days.
d) Any subject with the lines, contours, shadows and curves that you just know will look great in black and white.
How can you tell?
By studying black and white photos! Search online for Ansel Adams work. Or you can just search for "famous black and white photos."
e) Look at B&W photography books at the library.
There are many places to appreciate and learn this artful form of photography!
2 Create Black & White Photography with a Photo Editor.
If upon seeing a subject, you know it's got to be a black and white photo, then you could set your camera to B&W and take the picture.
However, if you gain experience with your photo editor, you will find you can create even better B&W images by shooting in colour first and then desaturating in the editor.
Another added benefit to this method is that you'll never accidentally take a day's worth of pictures in black and white because you forgot to reset the camera!
3 Check Your Camera's White Balance
While the easiest way to change colour to black and white is to desaturate it with your photo editor, this technique doesn't let you control how the primary colours work together to produce a grayscale brightness.
If you have a good white balance in your picture, then simple desaturation may be all you need to do in the software editor.
4 Make Use of Your Photo Editor's Color Swatches
By using a photo editor, you can also apply colour swatches.
Even though there are no colourful tones in black and whites, there are still tones created by colours.
Colour swatches work much the same way as colour lenses do on an SLR camera.
For instance, camera filters in the yellow to orange range look great with skin tones while green adds wonderful natural tones to outdoors pictures.
And finally, don't forget to show off your black and white photographs.
Black and white photos look great framed and deserve to be on the wall for all to see.
Choose frames that showcase rather than distract from your black and whites with simple clean lines.
Hope you enjoyed these four black and white photography tips and have fun taking your next black and white photo!
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