Black & White Photography - Tips for beginners

Black and white photography techniques, tips, and tricks are the topic of today's post. Most photographers enjoy capturing and viewing pictures in monochrome. Black & white photographs can be classy, eye-catching, draw attention to details, and speak volumes. The pictures often stand out for the emotions captured, composition, texture, pattern, lighting, shadows, or contrast in it. The same image captured in color in fact might be a distraction.

Black and White Photography Techniques

Black and white photos help focus on expressions and gestures. In the early days of photography,  monochrome was the only option. It is still popular today in spite of having so many alternatives for color photos. Undoubtedly, monochrome pictures are here to stay. The black and white photos have only black, grey, and white colors in them. It is certainly an art to capture such images.

There is a lot that goes into capturing and making it stand out. It can be the tones, lighting, contrast, composition, and so on. It is a good idea to plan ahead if you intend the final photograph to be black and white. For instance, one can look at how light and shadow affect the subject to enhance certain features and textures. Such orchestration goes a long way in making a photograph memorable.

Tips for Black and White Photography Techniques or monochrome

Equipment :

You do not need any expensive equipment for this .Most people use a regular camera to shoot color pictures and then convert to black and white in post processing. There are cameras that even come with the b & w preset and some prefer that .However, there are monochrome-only cameras that can produce a sharper and cleaner black and white image than a color camera. Most beginners opt for the color cameras due to the flexibility and convenience.

RAW mode :

Shoot in RAW so you can capture all details . You can always change the different parameters and controls using software like Photoshop or Light room . The details can be adjusted to one's liking .

Shadows:

Focus on Shadows which are major elements of composition, as they bring depth to the photo.

Composition:

Composition is the essence of any photograph . The viewer should have a sense of motivation ,of why the photo was captured the way it appears .

Contrast:

Contrasts helps the images stand out. Look for the contrasts in a photograph while shooting and this can produce awesome results .For instance, a bright background contrasting with a dark object stands out and makes a great picture.

Filters :

Apply Filters in post processing and enhance your black and white pictures .It is amazing how applying the red, blue or green filters gives the photo a completely new look.

Photo Editing Software:

To enhance photos, use Software like Adobe Photoshop CC or Light room .One of the best ways to get a breath taking black and white photo is to make changes to photographs  in post production .There are also other soft wares designed for this purpose .

 How to Use Photoshop to convert a color to black and white image?

I normally use Adobe Photoshop CC or  Lightroom. In photoshopCC , naviagte to the Filter ->  Camera RAW Filter .It opens up the editing options just like in Lightroom and applies them as a filter.

The other option is to navigate to Adjustments -> black and white adjustment layer, decrease saturation completely or change parameters as needed to one's liking.

There is also an option to use  Adjustments -> channel mixer adjustment layer.It  helps control the red, blue, and green channel in your black and white image.

Hope these tips come in handy while capturing and editing your pictures in monochrome. Do also check some other Photography Tips and Tricks on my site. If you have any additional tips for beginners, I would love to hear them in the comments section below.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!

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