Black and White Photography Tips - How to Take Great Black and White Photos

These black and white photography tips will help youartful form of photography!
to recognize good black and white (b&w) photoCreate Black & White Photography with a Photo
subjects and to be able to photograph and editEditor
these for the best effects.If upon seeing a subject, you know it's got to be a
The reason so many photography courses andblack and white photo, then you could set your
schools teach b&w photography early on is that it iscamera to B &W and take the picture. But once you
an excellent way to train the eye to recognize whatget experience with using your photo editing
makes a striking composition.software, you'll find that you can create even better
As amazingly beautiful as a colorful sky may be, it isimages by shooting in color first and then
the lines, shapes and curves that move the eyedesaturating it in the editor. Another added benefit to
through the photo. So while the colors can be quitethis method is that you'll never accidentally take a
beautiful, black and white makes the photo moreday's worth of pictures in black and white because
dynamic.you forgot to reset the camera!
In spite of its attributes, after the media went fullCheck Your Camera's White Balance
color in the 70's and 80's b&w photography faded. ItWhile the easiest and simplest way to use your
soon became increasingly more challenging to findphoto editor to change a color image to black and
places that sold and processed black and white film.white is to desaturate the colors, this method doesn't
Now thanks to digital cameras and photo editingallow you to control how the primary colors work
software, black and white photography is back!together to produce a grayscale brightness. If you
How to Recognize Great Black and White Pictureshave good white balance in your picture, then simple
Although choosing the best subjects is verydesaturation may be all you need to do in the
subjective, many professional photographers willsoftware editor.
agree that the following types of compositions begMake Use of Your Photo Editor's Color Swatches
for black and white:By using a photo editor, you can also apply color
- Photos that convey strong emotion. Color can be aswatches. Even though there are no colorful tones in
distraction, while black & white lends power to theblack and whites, there are still tones created by
feeling expressed.colors. Color swatches work much the same way as
- Images lacking a full spectrum of colors; forcolor lenses do on an SLR camera. For instance,
example, a city scape or Ansel Adam's Yosemitecamera filters in the yellow to orange range look
"Moon and Half Dome."great with skin tones while green adds wonderful
- Low contrast images such as photographs shot onnatural tones to outdoors pictures.
dark overcast days.And last but not least, don't forget to share your
- Any subject with the lines, contours, shadows andfavorite b&w photographs. Beautiful black and white
curves that you just know will look great in black andphotos deserve to be framed for all to see. Choose
white. How can you tell? By getting familiar with aframes that showcase rather than distract from your
variety of images! Just look online for "Ansel Adams."black and whites with simple clean lines. Hopefully, this
Or search for "famous black and photos."article has inspired you to take more black and white
- Look at B&W photography books at the library.photographs!
There are many places to appreciate and learn this