Introduction skills of black and white photography

Most photos are in color now. In fact, 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? How do new photographers start black and white photography? Here are eight entry skills for taking black-and-white photos, which I hope will inspire you.

1. shoot RAW format

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

2. Use low ISO values

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

3. Take high-profile, mid-range and low-key black and white photos.

Black and white photos are mainly divided into three categories: high-profile, mid-range and low-profile:

High-profile: Most high-profile photos are white, and only a few are black. This kind of photos can bring readers a bright, light and elegant feeling, which is suitable for shooting beautiful scenery, children, girls and so on.

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-key: Low-key is the antonym of high-key. Most of the pictures are black, and only a few are prominent white. Such photos give people a deep, mysterious, strong and strong feeling.

It should be noted that when shooting, we should not deliberately take photos of a certain tone, but carefully measure which tone is more suitable for shooting scenes. High-profile photos should be exposed by one level, while low-profile photos can be downgraded by one level.

Looking for high contrast

Because black and white photos lack color, only black and white contrast can express "feeling". Therefore, "contrast" is a very important element in black and white photos. When shooting (even if we take color photos and then use software to turn them into black and white), we should especially find out the environment with high contrast (obvious light and dark) before shooting.

Look for patterns and textures

In color photos, patterns and textures are often ignored because colors are easy to distract attention. However, a good black-and-white photo is characterized by its unique pattern and texture, so you can try it more.

Pay attention to the light

This is the same as looking for high contrast in the fourth point, because black and white photos have no color and can only be represented by light and shade. Pay attention to the direction and intensity of light when shooting. For example, side light can bring out the effect of half a silhouette, so we can observe it carefully when shooting. Of course, silhouette is also a good attempt.

7. Shooting dynamic sky and water

Beginners can add "dynamic" elements to black and white landscape photos. Such as moving clouds or water, because clouds or water are white, it will produce a white picture. Moving clouds and water will bring layers of light and shadow effects, making black and white photos vivid immediately.

8. Turn color photos into black and white in the future.

If you have some color photos, it is also convenient to turn them into black and white photos later with software. The easiest way is to adjust in the options of Image >: Adjustment > Black and White in Photoshop. If it is in RAW format, it is more convenient to adjust it in Camera RAW.