Research - Black and White Photography

Since the beginning black and white images have been amongst the best to inspire and move us. Virtually all of us can appreciate that black and white images hold something very special and an average image shot in colour can almost come alive when converted into black and white. 

To see the world with monochrome vision is quite tricky but its good tip to switch your camera to monochrome and then use the LCD to view the world in black and white.  This way you can view different situations and view them in black and white without having to press the shutter.  It is however, better to shoot the images in colour and convert to black and white later in photoshop as this gives more control over the final image.

Using a Macbeth Chart also allows you to view the different colours in monochrome.

This macbeth chart is showing the colours when converted to black and white the charts vary slightly when different techniques are used such as desaturating and image and using the hue/saturation to convert images.

When shooting in black and white there is no colour to guide the eye around the image so you have to look for shapes, tones, patterns and textures.  Light and shadows also play a very important role as shadows create tone and contrast within the image.   Shapes and lines can also play an interesting role when producing good black and white images.


Filters and Monochrome

• Red : Darkens the sky and foliage making this a good choice for moody landscape images.
• Orange : This filter is similar to the red filter but with a less dramatic effect
• Yellow : Less of an effect than orange.
• Green : Darkens reds and blues and lightens greens and yellows.  This filter is good for portriature as it can improve skin tones.

Optical filters work better than the filters used in photoshop but as I do not have any optical filters as yet I will be using photoshop to use filters if needed.


Research Material Used

The Photographers Eye - Michael Freeman
Photographers Monthy - March Issue
Digital SLR Photography - March Issue