I love a good black and white photo. In college, my classmates and I shot in black and white film (with the exception of one class) for the entire four years of college. Digital photography didn’t quite make its appearance until after I graduated. It’s crazy how the tides have changed completely! In college I used a manual film camera, developed the film by shaking the canister with different chemicals, let the film strip dry, then made a test sheet with my negatives using a little machine called an enlarger. Then I made photos on the enlarger, developed the photos in the darkroom using different chemical baths, and lastly dried the photos. All of this happened in a darkroom with a dim, red light bulb. This took hours upon hours of time! When digital cameras first came on the scene, I couldn’t believe we had the ability to take a picture and INSTANTLY see it on a screen! I was floored by my first digital camera (it was 3.4 megapixels). Now we even have great cameras on our phones that take stunning photos. Oh how the times have changed!
In the same sense, many years ago, people only knew black and white photography. Imagine the excitement when the first color photographs were seen. Or the first time you saw a colored photograph of yourself!? You know on The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy’s house lands and the entire movie switches to color? It’s magic, I tell ya. Pure magic.
But even through all of the changes in technology, black and white photography still holds a special place in people’s hearts.
The images have a classic look to them and they never go out of style (cue Taylor Swift song). Black and white has the ability to bring a sense of wonder to a photo. Some black and white photos are more striking than others, but what causes that? In this post I’ll be talking about WHEN you should use a black and white photo and WHAT makes a great black and white photo.
Great Light: First, it’s all about the light. If you have a strong light source in your photo (ie: the sun light sweeping across your table in the morning), then it will likely look great in black and white. The transitioning from light to dark makes your eye bounce around the picture frame.
Contrast: Contrast in a photo will make a more striking black and white. If you have a subject standing in front of a brightly lit window with their silhouette outlined, the b&w gives the feeling of a sharper silhouette when the color is gone. The bright white compared to the dark black will make your image more striking. While contrast is wonderful, you also want your image to have tones. When a colored photograph is converted to b&w, the colors are turned to tones. More colors in your photograph mean more tonal range in your photo.
Shapes and lines: Photographs with strong lines and shapes always look great in b&w. Black and white photos have the ability to quiet a scene and diminish the noise, allowing you to focus on the subject matter. Shapes become stronger, edges become sharper, and textures look more pronounced.
Black and white can save a bad picture! If you have a photo that you love, but the light is too weird or it is a bit blurry, try converting it to black and white! Black and white hides so much. It’s the white knight that can come in and save your photograph. Again, when you strip the color down, the forms and shapes will pop. This doesn’t work all the time, but most times its worth a shot! I loved this little scene with my kids, but the room was really dark, resulting in a slightly blurry photo. I love the way it looks once I converted it to b&w.
Here is another snap where I wasn’t crazy about the light. This was a little ballet recital and the back room where the ballerinas waited had poor lighting. See how their tutus and little arms and legs just make this photo so sweet? The yellow-ish floor was really distracting, but the conversion to black and white helps you focus more on the details and shapes.
Some suggestions for converting photos to black and white:
iPhone: Whatever app you like to use for editing, just change your photo to black and white and then increase the contrast afterward. This can help your photos really pop!
Photoshop: Honestly, I use the A Beautiful Mess Photoshop actions on a daily basis when I edit for clients or when I take pictures for the ABM blog. There are different black and white actions to choose from in each collection. When you purchase an action pack, you also receive instructions to set them up and use them!
Thanks for letting me share! xo. Janae
Black and White Photos are beautiful works and allways generous. Thanks for this tips and new ideas!
I must thank you for sharing this useful topic. Really a worth reading post ! it explains it all so easliy ! thank you for sharing this article !!
I like black and white pictures rather than colourful as it looks wonderful. Thank you for such amazing tips. I hope these tips help a lot in my photography sessions 🙂
Awesome tips! I find I am a little intimidated by black and white photography, maybe because it looks so classic and vintage, and how could I possibly be able to do that?! The main problem I have with black and white photography is that my photos have too much contrast, I can’t decipher one object in the photograph from another. But your tip on lighting makes sense: great lighting + lots of colours = tones = superb black and white photography! Got it. I look forward to more posts on photography, great job with this one! Thank you so much for sharing.
P.S. The picture of the little girls in the tutus in black and white is magnificent. I really like it.
I love Black and white pictures. Your tips are truly helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for these tips, funnily enough I recently blogged about my first ever B&W film & was asking for tips so it’s great timing! 🙂
thanks for your great content
link of my site:
عکاسی کودک | آتلیه کودک
i’m taking picture from baby’s
Thanks for awesome inspiring post. You have a bundle of good info in this post which really helps people in great way. And they will come for your more posts.
http://www.adeptclippingpath.com/
Nice tips for start ups.
Great post! Some top tips on this one! Love it!
I adore black and white photography! I have fond memories of processing film (agitate) and printing contact sheets and prints. 🙂
I just took a stroll down memory lane!!
I love the picture of the little ballerinas! The switch from color makes such a difference. Great tips! Can’t wait to try them out!
Thanks for the great tips!
http://www.distinguisheddiva.com/2015/08/syros-cyclades-greece.html
This is a really helpful post! 🙂
I often take photos and just get a feeling that they’re not worth posting because the colour is a bit off…so I’ll try changing it into black and white and see if I end up using far more of my photos!
Thankyou!
Flora
I love how you were reminiscing about your college times when you developed the black and white film yourself. To this day part of me still wants to try that. I love shooting in film in general because as fascinating as it is to immediately see the picture you’ve taken, I love that when shooting in film you don’t really know whether it’s been a good one until you’ve had it developed. Thanks for your tips on b/w photography, I’ll try and keep them in mind! 🙂
darjeelingtealeaves.blogspot.com
Thanks for your amazing tips! I love how B&W can be so helpful in so many ways and also be unique!
powerfulmomentsphotography.com
Beautiful pics. I love B&W photos too. My dad did a photography college back then and his black and whites are still so spectacular whereas the color pics have faded.
http://runwright.net/2015/08/07/5-reasons-kate-isnt-married/
Loved this post x
http://catchingdreamsblog.blogspot.co.uk
The lighting is key no matter what picture you’re trying to capture. I also agree that black and white can save a lackluster photo.
-M
www.violetroots.com
Great tips! I never thought to use B & W to save pictures that aren’t the most appealing or are a bit fuzzy.
xo
Paige
http://eyelinerwingsandprettythings.com