42nd Street Photo’s Black and White Photography Tips

Black and White photography is coming back into popularity now more than ever. We are going to give a few tips that we hope will help you when shooting black and white photos.

Practice – Shooting black and white photos takes practice and isn’t a skill that can be picked up over night. You must be able to train your mind to pick up contrast and tone while blocking the distraction of color. You must make a conscious effort, in other words you must practice. One way is to limit your photography to black and white for an entire month.

Choose a Subject – Some subjects may seem very interesting when shooting in color but if you take and black and white photo of thwn they often turn out looking dull. You can achieve a very dramatic effect by having as few elements as possible when taking black and white pictures.

Focus on Contrast – Your main objective is to make your point with shades of gray. Use contrast to show your onlookers what’s important. Seek out scenes that show signs of high contrast naturally. Since black and white pictures lack color they are largely dependent on lines and shapes to create interest.

Focus on Texture – Texture is the regular or irregular pattern of shadows and highlights at various intensities. Texture can add interest and definition to black and white photos. A black and white picture of a roughly textured wall will certainly look more interesting than a smooth wall

Capture in Color – This section is mainly for digital photographers. If your camera gives you the option of shooting in color or balck and white, never shoot in black and white. The camera is really capturing color, then converting to black & white. Photo editing software can do a much better job at the conversion. There is one exception to the rule, if you wanted to use the black & white capture to give you a preview of what the scene might look like as a monochrome image.

These are just a few tips from 42nd Street Photo that we hope you find helpful.

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