This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm and is filed under An Introduction to Digital Photography, How to Take Extraordinary Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Some of the most stunning images that a photographer can take are done in black and white. Traditionally, photographers have chosen black and white film, polarizing and colored filters, and other expensive gear to get these great images. Today, photographers can take terrific black and white photos with half of the effort by using a digital camera.
Settings
Instead of buying black and white film for your camera, you can set your digital camera to take black and white photos. On most cameras simply press your menu button while in Manual mode, go to the photo options and pick the color mode. Color mode will give you several color options. Choose the black and white option. Presto! You’re taking black and white photos.
If you don’t have a black and white setting, you can review your photos and change them to black and white by lowering the color saturation. Check your camera’s manual to see if your camera has this feature. If not, use a good photo editing software program to lower the color saturation.
Contrast
The key to great black and white photos is contrast. Contrast is the sharp definition of lines in a photo. This is caused by dramatic changes in lighting or color.
To create nice contrast, look for ways to play up light or color.
Light should always be a priority in these types of pictures. Deep shadows mixed with bright highlights create drama. The best light for such a dramatic contrast is when the sun is low in the sky, such as early morning or sunset. Bright light tends to wash out a scene, ruining the contrast.
Even though it seems that black and white photos don’t have any color, color is a big part of the end result in a good black and white photo. Deep colors set against light colors will create a bigger contrast, for example, than two lighter colors or two darker colors.
Contrast can also be adjusted in your camera’s editing software or with computer software. Try not to go too crazy, though. It is easy to go overboard with the contrast correction, and it ends up making the photo look too artificial.
With practice, a digital black and white photo can be every bit as beautiful as a traditionally done photo. Use your camera and figure out what methods work best for your subjects.