Contemporary digital photography makes taking sharp, detailed and lush digital images affordable and user-friendly enough for anyone to try. But what if you yearn for that classic, sophisticated black and white look?
In-Camera Black and White
Most modern digital cameras will have options, usually buried in a menu somewhere, that will give you control over white balance and colour settings. These settings will often provide profiles for landscapes, portraits and neutral shots, and can also be used to take black and white shots in-camera. But since the image is originally captured in colour, all they really do is process the colour photograph in black and white, which is something that can be done much more effectively in editing software later on.
When you’re working digitally in retouching or post production, it’s always good to give yourself as many options and retain as much file information as possible. And that means shooting the highest quality provided by your camera, in colour.
Back Up Before You Start
It’s also incredibly important to keep your work backed up and maintain an organised file structure. So once you’re back from your shoot, pull your photos off the camera and back them up on your computer. I like to keep things ordered, so I am organised by year, month and then shoot name and date. Within the folder I create for my shoot I have a folder called Originals, for the images as they come straight off the camera, and then another folder called Finals, where I output my completed works.
Choose Black and White Conversion Software
Now it’s time to head to your chosen editing program for the fun part! I use Lightroom 3, because I love the file management and workflow, but there are countless options for converting your colour photos to black and white.
Choose a Photograph to Convert to Black and White
Choosing a black and white photograph, whether you are composing a shot specifically for black and white, or looking to convert a colour photograph, is all about looking for light and shadow; tones, textures, contrasts and moods. Whether we realise it or not, we love change, variety and difference, they are what make life interesting, and they make images interesting. So when you remove the distraction of colour, contrasts and textures are what become important and interesting to the eye.
Experiment, Practice and Learn
The best thing about working digitally is that it allows almost infinite experimentation. Experimentation is excellent practice, and practice will result in brilliant black and white shots! So try it out – pick a photo that you think will look good in black and white and experiment; convert it to black and white and then tweak levels, curves, contrasts, tones and even colours and see how it looks. Aim for contrasts; bright whites and deep blacks, create moods, make creative decisions and find your own style. If it doesn’t look good, try something different!
If you want to find the sophisticated and beautiful black and white shots in your collection, shoot in colour, look for contrasts and textures, back your work up, find software you enjoy and are comfortable with and, above all, experiment and practice!
Seth Reinhardt - null
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