A Comprehensive Introduction to Black and White Photography
A lot of photographers think of black and white as the classical form of photography but digital technology helps make black and white photography a dynamic and creatively fulfilling modern pursuit.
With black and white photography, the constraints of conveying reality do not come into play since there is no reality conveyed in shades of gray. Thus, I can take an image file and using the tools available in the digital darkroom, create something that reflects my interests, visual preferences, and emotions about a scene in a much different way than I can with a color photograph.
For this reason, black and white photography often feels like a more expansive pursuit.
Creating Compelling Black and White Photographs
In this article, I will start by sharing a few introductory lessons that can help photographers create more compelling and personally expressive black and white photographs.
Next, I will walk through an overview of my black and white photo processing workflow, sharing a few examples of how I apply the workflow to a specific photograph along the way.
A dramatic summer storm brings lightning strikes to the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado.
It’s difficult to distill years of learning and experimentation into a few bullet points but I consider the following lessons to be the most important for photographers who are just starting out and want to create better black and white photographs:
Black & White = A deliberate creative choice
Typically, the most compelling black and white photographs result from making a deliberate creative choice to create a black and white photograph. This process often starts in the field.
The sooner you see black and white photography as an equal to color photography, the better.
Black and white photography is not just a fallback for saving a bad color photo but an equally valid creative pursuit that opens up all kinds of opportunities for personal expression and experimentation.
Depart from “reality”
Black and white photography is by its very nature a departure from reality.
Since we do not experience scenes in monochrome, black and white photographs do not have the same emotional tethers and expectations as color photographs might. Embracing this aspect of working in black and white is part of what makes this such an expansive and freeing creative pursuit.
While all of the scenes you see in this article reflect single moments I experienced in nature, I depart from the literal interpretations of these scenes during the processing stage to help me meet my goals for my black and white photography (specifically accentuating the darkness and drama often present in nature).