Black and White Photography.

M.Hinch

Senior Member
What makes a good black and white photo? The simpler the composition the better? Say a lone flower for example? A photo that has to many colours in it, may be better off in black and white? Are there any rules of thumb?

Michael
 

Carolina Photo Guy

Senior Member
The FIRST RULE OF THUMB is

Make sure you have one on each hand.

I am not trying to be a smart ass here (although some would dispute that!), but the person that you are trying to please is YOURSELF!

For lack of a better explanation, your ARTISTIC EYE will know when you are done. Trust your instincts. In other words, USE THE FORCE LUKE!

Hope this helps.

Pete
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
  1. Shoot in color. You'll get better results by converting color to B&W by using PC software than doing it in-camera. Your PC has a much more powerful processor!
  2. Use RAW. See above. For the best conversion, you want as much control over the image as possible.
  3. Contrast. There should be pure black and pure white in your final image, period. If not, you're not using enough contrast by running the full spectrum of shades and tonal differences.
Those are my suggestions. As for composition or subject...I agree completely with Pete. Use your eyes, creativity, and make a judgment call.

B&W is slightly different in that as humans, our eyes are highly sensitive to color and movement. When shooting for B&W photography, train yourself to look for points of interest: stark contrasts in tones, interesting textures, and shadows/highlights.

Good luck!
 

Ruidoso Bill

Senior Member
I like what both Anthony and Pete have said. Always shoot in color and raw, that way you have the choice of color, B&W or selective color. If you only shoot B&W out of the camera your choice is gone. I love playing with selective coloring where certain or some colors are desaturated leaving others to dominate. As far as which ones are appropriate it can be the contrast but for me its more of the character and drama I'm trying to achieve.
 

LensWork

Senior Member
If you only shoot B&W out of the camera your choice is gone.

Not quite accurate. If you shoot in raw (NEF), all of the color information is in the raw file, even if you choose monochrome in the Picture Control menu. If I am correct, I believe that if you shoot in raw + monochrome and open the raw image in an application other than Nikon's own, the image will be in color as only the Nikon software has the capability to process Picture Control settings.

B&W can certainly add drama and a sense of stark reality to an image. The ability to "see" in B&W is something that many more experienced (older) photographers that grew-up shooting film (anyone here remember Verichrome Pan?) have mastered. I would advise reading the 3-part series of books by the master Ansel Adams: Camera, Negative and Print. While these books, originally written 60 years ago, reference film, much of the same principals can be applied even with today's digital capture cameras.

B&W photography has seen a resurgence recently, and has become quite avant-garde amongst "artistic" photographers. For many of my fellow "older" photographers, B&W was the only practical medium available as color films, and the associated process, was simply too expensive. B&W also gave photographers total creative control as it could be processed and printed cheaply, and easily, at home in makeshift bathroom darkrooms without having to rely on the talents of outside labs. Up until about 20, or so, years ago newspapers (remember newspapers?) used strictly B&W photos. Color was reserved for the glossy monthly magazines.
 

goz63

Senior Member
In the D90 when you use in camera processing from a RAW file it will create a JPEG of the image with the in camera adjustments. You keep the original raw file as is and now have an additional B&W photo if that is what you chose. So you can then go to the computer and make another B&W if you wish and compare. Any time you make adjustments to the RAW file, such as filters, B&W etc, it creates that JPEG additional file. Gives you the option of seeing if what you were wanting to get with a B&W is actually what you got. If not you can adjust the composition and re-shoot.
 
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