Eight introductory skills for beginners to take black-and-white photos

Lead: Most modern photos are also in color, but actually taking black and white photos can make your works more artistic. So what's the difference between taking black-and-white photos and taking color photos every day? How do new photographers start black and white photography? Here are 8 tips for taking black-and-white photos. I hope I can help you!

(1) shot in RAW format.

Many novice photographers are not used to shooting RAW files. Although the volume of the RAW file is relatively large, it can be fine-tuned to a greater extent later (such as adjusting exposure, contrast, saturation, etc.). ), especially useful for taking digital black and white photos. Therefore, it is recommended to choose RAW or RAW+JPG format for storage when shooting.

(B) the use of low ISO

The noise of digital photos is different from that of film. To take beautiful digital black-and-white photos, the lower the ISO, the better, so that the quality and black-and-white outline of the photos will be more prominent.

(3) Take black and white photos with high light tone, medium light tone and low light tone.

High light photography course

Black-and-white photos are mainly divided into three categories: high tone, medium tone and low tone:

High-light tone: A high-light tone photo is a type in which most photos are white and only a few are black. Photos can give readers a bright, light and elegant feeling, suitable for shooting beautiful scenery, children, girls and so on.

neutral tone

Mid-tone: Mid-tone photos are the most common. When the black, white and gray parts in a photo are evenly distributed, the feeling brought by the photo often depends on the contrast of the photo.

Low light tone

Low light tone: Low light tone is the antonym of high light tone-the picture is mostly black, and only a few are prominent white, giving people a deep, mysterious, strong and strong feeling.

It should be noted that when shooting, we should not indulge in taking photos of a certain color, but carefully weigh the scene and decide which photo is more suitable. Light-colored photos should be exposed by one level, while light-colored photos can be lowered by one level to express a stronger feeling.

Looking for high contrast

Because black and white photos lack color, the only thing that can express "feeling" is black and white contrast, so "contrast" is a very important element in black and white photos. When shooting (even if we take color photos and then turn them into black and white), we must first find out the environment with high contrast (obvious light and shade) before shooting.

(5) Looking for patterns and textures

In color photos, patterns and textures are often ignored, because colors often steal the focus, and one of the elements of good black and white photos is to express unique patterns and textures. You can try more

(6) Pay attention to the light

Like the fourth point, look for high contrast, because black and white photos have no color, so it is necessary to express the picture by light and dark positions. Pay attention to the direction and intensity of light when shooting. For example, taking a portrait with sidelight can bring out a half-silhouette effect, while a single light source will produce a shadow, so we can observe it carefully when shooting. Of course, silhouette is also a good attempt!

(7) Shooting dynamic sky and water surface

Novices can add an element to the black-and-white landscape photos-"dynamic"! In fact, it is a moving cloud or water-because the cloud or water is white, it will produce a white picture, and the moving cloud and water will bring layers of light and shade, instantly making black and white photos vivid!

(8) Post-production converts color photos into black-and-white photos.

If you have some color photos, or want to take color photos and turn them into black-and-white photos with software, there are actually many ways, but the simplest way is that the' image' >' adjustment'> black &' white' option in Photoshop is internally adjusted. Of course, if you are shooting RAW files, it is more convenient to convert them into RAW editors!

postscript

After taking color photos for a while, it's time to play black and white photography. Artistic black-and-white photography has a high demand for "photographic eyes", so try and practice as much as possible!