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12 Tips to Give Your Black & White Photos the Wow Factor

It’s hard to imagine that at one point the only photographs you could take were in black and white. Black and white photos are romantic, dramatic, and could have more impact than colour photos. Although we have collectively been shooting in black and white for longer, and it would seem that working in black and white would be less complicated than in colour, taking black and white photos that have that “WOW” factor is not as easy as one may think. To help you capture those amazing black and white photos, here are 12 tips.

Shoot in RAW

Always shoot in RAW. By shooting in RAW, you are covering your bases. Often you’ll take an excellent picture that doesn’t work in black and white but is stunning in colour. If you shoot in RAW, you can always change your mind if the black and white version didn’t turn out as well as you’d hoped. RAW format gives you the best quality photo with greater editing flexibility than anything else.

Lines, shadows and shapes

Pay attention to lines, shadows, and shapes when you are visualizing your picture. This process takes some practice, but once you get your eye in, it’s like riding a bicycle, and you’ll notice the number of quality black and white photos you take increases. So make sure you look out for geometric shapes or use leading lines within your black and white images.

Add contrast to your image

Look for stark contrasts within the shades of grey. Most black and white photos that have that WOW factor will have some part of the photo that is almost pure white and a part that is almost pure black. Make sure you also have a wide range of greys to balance out the white and darker areas. If the greys are all similar, then the picture will look dull and uninteresting. This contrast is often what makes black and white photos so dramatic. Just be aware that your white areas and black areas are not clipped.

Pack your polarizer

If you are shooting near something reflective like water or metal, then you should use a polarizer. The polarizer will dull the reflection of sunlight. Without a polarizer, the highlights created by sunlight reflecting off a surface can be extreme and detract from the overall composition of the photo. This can become more noticeable in black and white photos than in colour ones.

Look for textures

Black and white photos of textures can be striking because of the varying tones. As long as the surface is not front-lit, the finer details and contrasts of texture will be highlighted and create a compelling image.

Patterns, like texture, are also more interesting when shot in black and white. Patterns that are coloured do not command as much attention as when viewed in black and white. The ordered repetition of a pattern stands out more in black and white because the eye is not distracted by colour. You’ll start seeing patterns everywhere once you start photographing them.

Try long exposure

Long exposures work brilliantly in black and white. Before you delete that colour photo that you think is worthless because of prolonged exposure, try taking the colour away and seeing what it looks like in black and white. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Bad weather is great for black and white

If you’re shooting landscapes, do it when the weather is terrible. Bad weather makes for superb black and white photos because there’s always contrast and a range of greys. You won’t get the same drama and interest when shooting on a perfect blue sky day when you’re working in black and white. If the wind is blowing and you use a long exposure, you’ll also benefit from creating motion blur in the clouds. This can look incredible in black and white.

The ideal lousy weather for taking black and white photos is when there are low lying clouds that are moving at speed through the sky. Use a neutral density filter and slow shutter speeds, and you’ll capture amazing dramatic landscapes.

Plan your shoot

Use a phone app to help you plan. There is a myriad of apps available that can do everything from telling you the weather forecast and wind speed to check the angle of the sun or moon in your location. If you’re shooting along the coast, then a weather app that includes tidal movement can come in very handy.

You’ll need the right equipment

Have the right equipment. A DSLR camera (or a mirrorless camera) that gives you complete control over your shutter speed, ISO and aperture are best. A wide-angle lens for landscape photography will give you the ability to capture more of the sky and anything unusual in the foreground. A cable release or wireless remote to trigger the shutter remotely can also be useful (but not a necessity).

A telephoto lens can also be useful for times when you need to get closer to the subject but physically can’t (such as wildlife photography). Last but not least, a sturdy tripod that strong enough to withstand some wind, and light enough to carry around is a piece of equipment you will never regret buying.

Edit your photo

Most modern digital cameras can be set to shoot black and white images. However, you will have far more control if you shoot in color and then convert to black and white using Lightroom or Photoshop. These programs have extensive editing options and are worth spending time experimenting with rather than just using the natural “Convert to Mono” command. You’ll very quickly be able to tweak every aspect of your image until you get a perfect balance.

The Contre-jour technique

This is when you point your camera towards the light source when taking your picture. This technique captures interesting silhouettes and shadows, emphasizing lines and shapes, and adds a dramatic effect that will grab the attention of your audience. Keep your ISO at 100, narrow the aperture, and increase your shutter speed to capture those classic sharp ‘freeze-frame’ moments that work so well in black and white. The key here is to ensure that your silhouette is sharp.

Be creative

Black and white photography lends itself to creativity, so try taking photographs of your subject from different angles. Try focusing on elements within the frame like lines and shapes rather than the whole subject. Zoom in on negative space and experiment by capturing abstract shots.

With photography being so widespread most people automatically take photos in colour. But black and white photos not only have the ability to give you dramatic results, but they can also help you become a better photographer. By taking out colour from a photo you will be forced to think more about the composition and your subject. Use the tips above and you will be on your way to capturing stunning black and white photos.

6 Tips To Help You Capture Better Monochrome Photographs

The world of photography has certainly moved on from the days of black-and-white film photographers. But there is still a great deal that can be learned from capturing photos in black-and-white. Monochrome photos are incredibly difficult to master. Without the addition of colour, it makes your subject even more vital to the composition. But if you’ve never taken black-and-white photographs you should certainly try as you may be surprised by how much you enjoy the process. To help you on your way here are 6 tips for capturing better black-and-white photographs.

Shoot in colour and in RAW

This might sound weird but for black-and-white photographs, you should actually be photographing in colour. Even back in the days of Black-and-white film photography photographers used colour filters and subsequently a darkroom process called dodging and burning to capture black-and-white photos. Nowadays you can set your camera to capture black-and-white photos. But what the camera is really doing is converting colours into different shades of grey. Ideally, you should also be photographing in RAW format rather than jpeg. It is the best quality and file format for photography. This will then allow you to convert your colour image into monochrome in post-processing.

See in black-and-white

Even though you are going to be shooting in colour what you need to do is to train yourself to be able to see the world in black-and-white. The big difference between black-and-white photography as opposed to normal colour photography is that you are relying far more on contrast, shape and texture rather than colours. This means that when you have complementary colours that are converted to monochrome you need to have enough tonal contrast to make the subject stand out. Without this contrast, your images will begin to look flat and uninteresting. You can, of course, adjust these tones in editing software to introduce some tonal contrast. But as a good starting point is to try to find subjects that give you the contrast, to begin with.

Simple composition

The biggest challenge when it comes to black and white photography is to ensure that your main subject stands out. To be able to do that in a busy scene requires skill and a lot of practice. So to start with look for simple compositions. Frame your subject using something like the rule of thirds and learn how the different tones appear in a black-and-white image. As you become more and more comfortable with black and white photography you can tackle more complex scenes.

Long exposures and black-and-white photos

One of the best techniques to use for monochrome photography is long exposure. This works really effectively when you have soft areas in your image to contrast versus hard, sharp edges. For example, photographing rocks in the water or moving clouds against a cityscape can have fantastic effects in black-and-white photography. Long exposures in monochrome photography give you a really good contrast between bright areas and dark areas. But remember that in order to capture long exposure photos you will need to use a tripod and possibly filters. For example, if you are photographing during the day you’ll need a neutral density filter to help darken the scene to allow you to have a slow enough shutter speed to be able to capture a long exposure.

Learn to use editing software

As we have already discussed you should be photographing in colour and then converting into black-and-white in editing software. So this means that you will need to learn how to manipulate the image and turn it from a colour photo to monochrome. Whether you use Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom or another editing software, you will need to take your time to adjust the image using the various colour channels, brightness, contrast and other sliders to give you the desired result. Don’t just turn an image from colour to monochrome and leave it. More often than not this will just give you a pretty flat black and white image with not a lot of contrast.

This is an image just converted to monochrome and no adjustments added. As you can see it looks flat and uninteresting.

Selective editing

Back in the days of darkrooms and traditional film photography photographers used techniques known as dodging and burning to brighten or dark in certain areas of the photo. Burning will darken parts of the image and dodging will lighten them. For example, if you find that your highlights like the sky are too bright, you may choose to darken them using the burn tool. Or alternatively, if you have photographed a subject and it is too dark you may choose to lighten it by using the dodge tool. this is an incredibly powerful post-processing tool that can really take your photos to the next level.

Monochrome or black-and-white photography is a difficult art to master. But often what you will find is that if you can become a better black-and-white photographer your colour photos will also improve. Black-and-white photography makes you have to think more around the subject, the shapes and textures and so you begin to see the world with a different eye. If done well, a black-and-white photograph can look stunning anywhere. With the tips above and practice, you too can capture stunning black-and-white photos.

Effective Black and White Conversion in Lightroom

In a way, black and white photographs were part of the reason I became interested in photography. I was no more than twelve or thirteen when my parents bought me a black and white Kodak disposable film camera. Remember those? It contained one roll of black and white 35mm film. Everything was set for you…just wind, click, and repeat. The thirty six exposures from that roll of film displayed an alien world. No colors, just shades of grey and contrasts of light. I was dumbfounded at the power that even these simple images could convey.

A picture from that magic roll of film….

Fast forward over twenty years and we find ourselves in the middle of the roaring age of digital photography. Now, we can see the world with two different sets of eyes: one in color, one in black and white. In our digital darkrooms it’s easier than ever to make professional quality black and white conversions from your RAW image files. In this tutorial we’re going to show you how to take your images beyond black and white using Adobe Lightroom.

More than Desaturation

There is more than one way to convert your images to black and white in Lightroom. We start with this image….

Sure you can grab hold of that saturation slider and simply set it to zero. This works. But you lose so much due to the nature of the desaturation.

The photo is somewhat flat after setting the saturation to “0”.

While the color has been removed, so too have the luminance values of those colors. Luminance values are the brightness values of the specific colors within the photo. It’s these differences in lights and darks that make a strong black and white image. Without being able to control each colors luminance we are left with a flat and often uninteresting image. The most effective method for converting your photo to black and white is to convert it to grayscale and then adjust the image with the black and white portion of the HSL Panel. It’s incredibly easy and powerful tool for working with black and white photos. You’re about to learn how to do it right now!

The Grayscale Conversion

Changing our images to “black and white” actually means we are converting them to “Grayscale”. No, grayscale isn’t some kind of mythological skin condition…. Grayscale is simply the term used to describe black and white photos which are in reality shades of gray and not only black and white. To convert your image to grayscale, click the black and white treatment option at the top of the Basic Adjustment panel.

Which gives us this grayscale image of our original photo.

You can also achieve the same result by jumping directly to the HSL panel and clicking the black and white tab.

Basic adjustments can be made for things like exposure, contrast, clarity, ect., but remember that we’re about to do more work on the photo using the color luminance adjustment in the HSL Panel. These adjustments can affect the overall contrast of the image so its a good idea to keep your initial edits at a minimum.

Adjusting with the B&W Section of the HSL Panel

Now that we have a black and white image to work with it’s time to adjust them color luminance and really make our image stand out. You can adjust the sliders for each color to either darken or brighten them within the image but an easier way is to use the target adjustment option. It’s the little dot at the top left of the B&W section.

Using the target adjustment tool is useful since we can select the area of color we want lighten or darkened without actually having to remember the original colors. Simply click the target adjustment tool and then click the area of color in the photo. Just drag up or down to adjust.

In this photo, the sky is made up mostly of blue, reducing the blue luminance values can add some great dramatic effects to the sky.

The same is true for the other colors. Greens and yellows in the bushes can be brightened. The orange color of the ponies hair can be darkened. After some final tweaking in the basic panel we have this final black and white photograph.

Final Thoughts

Converting and processing your black and white images in Lightroom is an incredibly easy and fast process. It also will open up a whole new world of creativity for you and your photography. Think your photos aren’t black and white material? Try the techniques in this article and I can virtually guarantee you might begin seeing your images in a completely different light.