

Yes, underexposing, or exposing a black and white image for a shorter amount of time than you would a color image, helps to create photography that stands out with high contrasts. Our next tip for stunning black and white images? Underexpose them. White Tiger | Image via Deposit Photos 3: Underexpose By playing with contrasts, you can create this effect stunningly. You want your subject, or the focal point of your image, to stand out from the background and capture the eye in one way or another.

Removing color effectively removes an element that viewers use to interpret a scene, so the other elements in your image become even more important.

If you’re working in digital instead of monochrome film, then removing the color from your images can completely change their effect. Even more so with black and white photography, your subjects can make or break your shot. Girl In The Hospital | Image via Deposit Photos 2: Select Good SubjectsĪs with color forms of photography, your subjects play a key role in the success of your images. You can also try converting some of your existing images into black and white to see what works and what doesn’t. It may take some practice, so don’t worry if your first black and white shoots don’t work out the way you had hoped. Is your subject a significantly different value (lighter or darker in tone) than the background? Is your focal point and area with a highlight and dark contrast?Īsking yourself these questions will help you create better images in black and white. To really get a captivating shot, you need to look beyond the colors in a scene and try to imagine how things would be perceived in greyscale. Seeing in black and white (or monochromatic) can help you determine where your viewer’s eye will be drawn and help you visualize the shapes, textures, light, and movement there will be in an image.
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When it comes to shooting in black and white, learning how to ‘see’ how you’d like your final image to look is a great skill to work on. Tips For Stunning Black & White Photography 1: Look Beyond Colors If you’re aiming to do more of this kind of photography, there are many time-honored tips you can benefit from using to make your images succeed at captivating the eye. So, if you’re looking to create high contrast black and white photography or monochrome photography, here are some of the ways in which the masters like Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange achieved such stunning work. He cherished his medium and saw the incredible potential of it to express both beauty, emotion, and light. Perhaps if he had, his incredible black and white images would never have imprinted themselves in the public eye. “I can get-for me-a far greater sense of ‘color’ through a well-planned and executed black-and-white image than I have ever achieved with color photography,” Adams wrote in 1967.Įven though Adams wrote that he foresaw the “beguiling medium” of color taking over the world of photography, he never left his preference for black and white.
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With the world of photography now full of highly saturated colors and HDR effects, deciding instead to portray your subjects in monochrome can give them a classic, timeless look, and black and white photography remains a very romantic medium.Īnsel Adams once notably expressed that working in color photography was like “playing an out-of-tune piano.” Given he worked extensively in both mediums, it’s interesting to see that we mainly remember his iconic American landscapes in black and white. 20 Tips For Creating Killer High Contrast Black And White PhotosĢ0 Amazing Black And White Photography Examples And Tips For How To Create Your Ownīack when black and white photography was the only photography we had, every photographer was looking for the perfect subject, light, and composition in black and white.
