When should I take black and white photos?

Lead: Since its birth, photography has appeared in front of the world in the form of black and white images. Black-and-white photography is meaningful, introverted and quiet, which allows viewers to abandon those useless details and get to the essence of things. With its strong and vivid color advantages, color photography has restored the original appearance of reality and seems to be closer to the essence of photography. There is no absolute universal formula for choosing color or black and white. The following four suggestions may make your decision easier.

1. Does this photo need color?

The color of this silhouette shot in reverse light is not good, so I put it in black and white mode. Does it look vivid?

Ask yourself this question:? Is the color or other factors the biggest attraction of this photo? Although it doesn't mean that color photos are not suitable for turning into black and white, some things themselves win by color, such as rainbows. For brightly colored pictures, it is usually a better choice to leave them as they are.

But if the content, composition and tone of the picture are enough to express your meaning, then the color will affect the performance of the theme. At this time, black and white mode is a good choice, which can weaken the variegated colors, make the theme stand out and avoid distracting the audience with colors.

The photo of giraffe in the above picture is very common in color mode, but it is refreshing after being adjusted to black and white image. Therefore, when your photo has only a monotonous background and color, you might as well turn it into a black-and-white mode, which may have unexpected effects.

2. Is there any interesting contrast between light and shadow?

I put a small lamp on the back of this leaf to make the stem veins of the leaf look clear from the front. In addition, the black-and-white treatment in the later period highlights the contrast between light and dark and the layering of black, white and gray.

Processing photos into black and white weakens the contrast between colors, and can represent light and shade more simply, so black and white images can represent light and shadow more simply and purely.

So when you want to focus on light and shadow, and the change of light and shadow is the main element of the picture, such photos are suitable for black and white, which can make people feel the layering of black, white and gray more intuitively.

3. Is there a unique texture and outline?

This picture uses side light, and the black and white treatment makes the contrast between light and dark stronger, and the texture on the hand is more prominent and clear.

When we think of texture, we can describe its feeling through language. But the texture in photography must be perceived by our eyes, and the sense of touch can be transformed into tangible images.

In color photos, patterns and textures are often ignored, because colors often steal the focus, and one of the characteristics of good black and white photos is to express unique patterns and textures. After removing the interference of color, the outline and texture tend to be more prominent.

Such as wood, metal, stone, and even plant and human skin. In black-and-white photos, these textures can be enhanced by subtle level adjustment, which can make every texture clearly visible in places that are usually invisible to the naked eye.

4. What kind of emotion do you want to convey in your photos?

This photo was taken on a sunny day in Boston. The light and color in the photo are very rich. I chose to turn it into black-and-white mode because I think the emotions conveyed by black-and-white images are closer to my inner feelings.

Have you ever felt hit at the moment you saw a photo? This is often called the mood of a photo.

Black and white images have a unique artistic atmosphere. For example, the dark tone of ghost can describe sadness or emptiness, while the bright and smooth texture conveys the feeling of openness and freedom. Using black and white tones when shooting portraits can make people look more patient and calm.

You can also try to turn your landscape photos into black and white and see what changes will be made in the mood conveyed by the photos.

Terminology of black and white images

If you are determined to know more about black-and-white photography, you may encounter some terms similar to black-and-white images, such as monochrome images and grayscale images. These terms are usually interchangeable, but in fact they are not the same. Next, let's understand the differences between them.

(1) monochrome image

Monochrome images are usually mistaken for black and white images, but they are different. Monochrome only refers to different tones, and any color can be regarded as monochrome. For example, a dark image is also a monochrome photo.

The picture above is an example of a monochrome photo. It is easy to see that this is not a black and white photo.

(2) Gray image

Gray images are often mistaken for black and white images by many people. Gray image is different from black and white image, it only uses different shades of gray, and does not use other colors. Without special editing and adjustment, the whole photo will look peaceful and gentle gray. For example, the above picture looks monotonous in gray image mode, and there is no sense of hierarchy.

(3) True black and white images

This is the effect of the above gray-scale image after further processing, which looks closer to the real black-and-white photo. The contrast of colors becomes more obvious and the photos look more pleasing to the eye.

Black and white images are indeed monochrome, but not all monochrome images can be called black and white images. Pure black and white photos generally only use black and white to represent the image content, although most people will mix some gray tones now.

Black and white photos depict the world through the simplest black, white and gray. The simpler the tool, the more you can touch the core of this field. If you want a photo to finally appear in black and white, it's best to observe the world with the feeling of black and white from the beginning. After all, the later revision is only a remedy, because you don't think and understand through the feeling of light and shade. Even if you turn it into black and white later, the photo will lose the shock of black and white light and shadow to some extent.