One of the classiest genres of photography is black and white photography. But even with the inherent charm and charisma that black and white photos bring, it is often neglected by modern day photographer. Most of the photographers these days rely on colored photography and hence fail to reap benefits that black and white photography offers. Today in this article, we shall be discussing the tips and techniques that will enable you to take astounding black and white photos.
DESIGNS, PATTERNS AND LINES:
The most important tip for great black and white photography is that you imagine the scenes around you in black and white. Look for patterns, designs and lines. Patterns, design and lines are very important in colored photography too but in black and white photography they become even more important as in the absence of colors these compositional components help to attract the attention of the viewer and guide it over to the most important parts of the frame.
HIGH CONTRAST:
It is recommended to choose scenes which have high contrast in them. Black and white images of the scenes with high contrast simply look incredible.
LONG SHUTTER SPEEDS:
If motion of the subject is not an issue in the scene, it is always recommended to use long exposure times for black and white photos in outdoors. This create an amazing creamy affect from clouds and water bodies.
COLORED SCENES:
The scenes which produce a very dull and close to black and white image even shooting in colored mode, are not a good choice for black and white photography.
LOWEST ISO POSSIBLE:
As you may already know that ISO is the artificial brightening up of the image. Beyond a certain point, increasing the ISO values causes the image to suffer with grainy noise. These grains become extremely evident in the black and white photos. Until it is what you are looking for and an intentional creative need, it is recommended that lowest possible ISO is used for best results.
AVOID CLUTTER:
Another significant tip for excellent black and white photos is to avoid a large clutter of things in the frame. Keep the scene clean and simple. As colors are usually a source of affectively guiding the eye of the viewer directly to the main subject of the frame hence black and white photos loose that advantage. To counter that we recommend to choose a simple story in the frame. Keep it clear and all about the main subject. Failing to do so will confuse the viewer and hence will reduce the appeal of the picture.
POST EDITING:
It can often be very difficult to gauge all the aspects of good black and white photography in field. It is therefore recommended that you shoot in colored mode and later make it black and white in some good post editing tool. Doing so also gives a lot of flexibility to the photographer to manipulate with the contrast and hence the appearance of the black and white photo. It is also strongly recommended that you shoot in RAW mode, so as to retain the maximum amount of information possible for post processing.