Becoming a Better Photographer by Shooting Black & White

www.dennismook.com

Do you want to improve your photographic skills, expand your vision and stretch into new photographic areas of accomplishment?  I recommend that, if you haven't already done so, you go out and shoot nothing but black and white images for the next 30 days.  Then, on occasion, do the same over the course of the next 12 months.

I was fortunate to have cut my teeth on black and white photography.  In fact, that is all I did for several years as I intimately learned the photographic art and craft.  I learned to see, properly expose film, develop according to the subject's dynamic range and print, all in black and white.  It did wonders for my vision and technical understanding to become a better photographer.  I would not hesitate to say, that I would not have been able to create the images I have if I hadn't first learned and photographed in black and white.

Black and white photography makes you see in an entirely different way.  In my old film days, I would have to go out with the idea of making images in color or black and white, but not both.  Why?  Because I had to change my mindset to "see" the scenes in color or black and white.  I wasn't able to easily change back and forth all day long.  In black and white imaging, color doesn't matter and is only a distraction, with the exception of the luminance of the tone of each color.  What I mean by that is that a person could be wearing a red shirt with green pants and on a black and white image, their tonal values may look identical.  The two colors reflect the same amount of light and blend into one another.  One has to learn by doing, how to recognize the difference in brightness of colors to visualize how they will render in a monochrome image.

What is more important in black and white photography is the overall contrast of the scene as well as the local contrast of objects that are adjacent to one another.  Also, typically, a black and white image will need more contrast to look great than a color image.

Red and White Lighthouse, golden marsh grass, blue sky, green leaves and brown wood, edited to create differences and contrast between adjacent tones for an overall pleasing rendition in black and white.

An easy way to shoot for black and white in the learning mode in this digital age is to set your camera to record both RAW and JPEG.  Then set your camera to its black and white setting in the menu system under its special effects or whatever your brand of camera may call it.  That way, your LCD will show you a black and white image instead of a color image after each shot.  By carefully examining that black and white image, you can start to see and learn how different tones will render.

The second half of that is when you get your RAW and JPEG files into your editing software, disregard the JPEG and work from the RAW, as you would with a color image.  The RAW image will be in color.  Remember the RAW file just collects electrons.  If you shoot only JPEG in the black and white setting, the camera strips the color out and then you will not be able to control the tones as you would by having a color RAW file. 

Convert the color RAW file into a black and white file in your editing software.  Leave it as an RGB file.  Even though it looks black and white, the underlying colors are still there allowing you to manipulate the tonal values.  It shouldn't look very good at this point.  Start playing with the available color sliders in your program to see what changes when you move the yellow color slider left and right, the green, the red, the blue, etc.  So, in the example above, if the person has a red shirt and green pants that render the same black and white tone, you can create a difference in the two tones to contrast them against each other.  You have the option to make the green pants lighter than the red shirt or the red shirt lighter than the green pants.  You can move the blue slider to the left and darken the blue sky a little or dramatically.  There are an infinite number of possibilities you can make to create the best image you can that matches your vision.  Like any other editing process, do over do it.

There is another thing you will find with black and white images as opposed to color images.  Black and white images, out of the software, may not be pleasing and look a little flat.  Typically, black and white images need more contrast.  I refer to overall contrast, local contrast and micro contrast. You can use the contrast slider or curves for the overall contrast, the individual color sliders for the local contrast and the clarity slider for micro contrast.  Experiment with increasing the contrast to understand how it may or may not improve any particular image.  Again, don't over do it.

If you haven't shot black and white, or haven't made black and white images in digital, I think you will find it fun and exhilarating to experiment and make some great images.  It will also change the way you see the world around you.  I believe, if you spend some time seeing the world by interpreting it into black and white tones, you will become a better, more versatile photographer.


Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis A. Mook

All words and images are © 2013 Dennis A. Mook.  All Rights Reserved.  Permission may be granted for use.  Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.