Red visual photography

Monochrome photography is usually associated with black and white photography, but it is actually not limited to black and white effects. Monochrome, as the name implies, involves the use of tones and variations in images with only one specific color in the entire color spectrum. Why use monochrome photography?

First, convey emotions.

For monochrome, shadow is the result of a color combined with different amounts of white (light color) or black (shadow). Colored and colorless are effective ways to convey emotions. You can choose what you want to use, depending on the story you want to tell. If you prefer black and white images, you can get more vivid or darker scenes, thus conveying stronger emotions. A single color used in a photo can cause or enhance different feelings. For example, red is usually used to express passion, love and even anger, while blue makes people feel cold, calm and restrained.

It should be noted that different tones/tones/colors will also change the expected mood or its intensity, so we consider the concept of "feeling" of color. Sometimes, using too many colors in an image may produce contradictory feelings and may confuse the audience. If faced with such a problem, why not try monochrome?

Second, simplify the scene.

Monochrome itself has the ability to simplify the scene and help reduce visual interference. Photographers should take advantage of this quality and enhance it through thoughtful graphic composition and framing. Some thinking processes will occur in the perception of monochrome photography, so the lack of color has become a good way to highlight other composition elements, such as texture, modeling and shape, light and shadow movement and so on.

Third, how to obtain high-quality monochrome images?

shoot

In our bright world, how can we really shoot a successful monochrome scene? An interesting discovery: once you start looking for monochrome, it will appear. Monochrome is everywhere, especially in urban landscape, inside buildings and even outdoors. Monochrome scenes in nature can produce powerful and interesting images emotionally.

If you haven't mastered the use of color harmony, please use one of the colors in the picture first. The way lighting changes a single color in a scene is fascinating. This skill will help you pay more attention to color and explore its properties.

Identify important details in the scene

Deciding what kind of emotion a photo should convey will lead to many creative and technical decisions in the future, but at this stage, you don't have to worry too much about this particularity, just determine which details and emotions are the most important to the final image. Please trust your feelings.

Adjust exposure

Correct exposure plays a vital role in creating a good monochrome image, because it depends entirely on the combination of light and shadow. What matters is not the color contrast, but the color tone. Ideally, digital photos should be exposed to preserve the greatest details and tones in the image file. That is to say, the tone value of the important part of the image is slightly brighter than the average gray level, and then the exposure is adjusted in the post-processing.

Defines the light and style of the image.

Determine the style to be used in the final photo. Monochrome images have many different styles, such as grainy, high contrast, low-key photos, high-profile photos like silk, or something in between.

After making a decision, you can choose the exposure settings to get the most available image for further post-processing without making the final image in the camera.

What should be considered first?

Which highlights will be muted or shadowed?

How will this affect the image?

Can high dynamic range technology be used to expand the dynamic range of cameras?

Can you increase or decrease the lights to change the scene?

What do you lose when you focus on tone?

See how colors are displayed in monochrome.

If the differences between tones are insufficient, scenes with good colors may not produce beautiful monochrome images. When converting to monochrome, the hue information will be deleted, but the brightness and saturation information will be retained. This means that if red and green are displayed with the same saturation and brightness in a color image, they look very similar in a monochrome image. Try to look at the intensity of the tone, not its meaning. In the final monochrome image, brighter or less saturated colors and darker or less saturated colors will be displayed as darker tones.

Check whether two different colors with the same hue overlap in a way that will damage the image? Can the subject blend into the background? Do you need green to be darker or brighter?

post processing

Monochrome post-processing has existed since the film era, and it is certainly not a new creative method. In the early days of photography, hot tones (such as tan) and cold tones were caused by the use of certain chemicals when developing photographic films.

In addition to adding warm tones to photos, using tan has another useful effect. Now it is much easier to get the color of monochrome image in post-processing, and the simplest method is to color the image. To do this, convert the color image to black and white/grayscale, and then replace black with other colors.

In addition, the contrast can be adjusted to make bright areas brighter and dark areas darker.

Fourth, summary.

Black-and-white photography is the most obvious monochrome photography, and only one color is used for the whole image. This technology can enhance the emotional connection with the audience. Monochrome is naturally occurring, and it can also be obtained through post-processing of images. This is a minimalist imaging method, which can create real images.