Three skills of black-and-white photography

Black and white photography is a subject that needs special study. The following are some practical skills of digital black-and-white photography that I share with you for your reference.

Digital black and white photography is not a black and white version of color photography. If you switch the camera to black-and-white mode, or switch the color image to black-and-white mode in photoshop, you will get a high-quality black-and-white work with "black-and-white taste". Black and white photography is a subject that needs special study. The following are some practical skills of digital black and white photography.

Skills of black and white photography 1. Black and white photography in color mode.

In the film era, there are color films and black-and-white films, but digital cameras only use the same image sensor to shoot color or black-and-white, and the original recorded image data is actually color, but photographers can choose to shoot different styles of color or monochrome JPEG images in the image settings of digital cameras. The so-called monochrome image refers to the "black and white image". With the most direct understanding, since we want to shoot black and white works, of course, we should set the digital camera to black and white. No! The correct way is to shoot color images, and then do black and white processing in post-production, so as to create better black and white works, reproduce more black and white images, and even manipulate the expression of color tones. Of course, if the photographer shoots RAW+JPEG, it can be set to black and white, because RAW is always in color, and only JPEG is set to black and white. RAW can be processed in black and white in post-production, and JPEG is for reference only.

Black and white photography skills II. It is appropriate to shoot black and white on cloudy days.

Anyone familiar with color photography knows that strong sunlight can make colors more colorful, while many amateur photographers think it is appropriate to take photos on sunny days, but it is not good to take photos on cloudy days. In fact, many artists prefer to go out on cloudy days and have no interest in creating under the scorching sun. Bright images should only be made into postcards. If a work is to have depth, it must have enough layers. Under the scorching sun, the contrast is high and the image will be too "hard". As long as the exposure is proper, the treatment is proper, and it is cloudy,

Black and white photography skills iii. Life, a necessary choice.

RAW refers to the original image file. Digital SLR, mirrorless camera and advanced DC can shoot RAW, or shoot RAW and JPEG files at the same time.

RAW files are not images, but light and dark data captured by image sensors and camera setting parameters, which need to be opened and processed by special software, and can be output as 16-bit TIFF or 8-bit JPEG. Therefore, RAW files can give photographers considerable post-production space, including changing color temperature, contrast, light and shade, color, and even gray tones when different colors are converted into black and white, which cannot be provided when shooting JPEG files.

Therefore, when choosing a digital camera, you must shoot RAW, and when shooting, you must shoot RAW or RAW+JPEG；; Now memory cards are very cheap, so don't lose more because you save money on buying large-capacity cards, just shoot RAW!