Black and White Photography in the Modern World
Black and white photography is like classical music. It has its own way, it is simply something special. Moreover, while back in the old days, this type of photography was often the only one, nowadays it reaches more and more popularity exactly due to its vintage look. While many typical cameras have their own option for Black and White photos, shooting in b/w is often more difficult than shooting in color.
In addition, this is exactly what we shall discuss in this article. Imagine a poem – it is a composition, of rhyme, meaning, sound and so on – everything makes out the poem. When you take out one of its main components, you have to find a way to compensate; you have to make the other components more visible, more powerful, so that they would be able to compensate for the lack of another. This is how black and white photography should be seen – aside from its vintage look, shooting in black and white brings a series of advantages but only for the trained eye.
If you are an amateur photographer, you will soon notice that black and white photography is rather simple to work with – I mean, simply consider the option in your camera and shoot as if you were shooting in color. Obviously, this is far from the first step in black and white photography, the first step is understanding the way you should think of black and white photography. Re-read the paragraph above – you need to compensate for the lack of color. Your photography needs to be more powerful in style and subject now – remember, you only have grays to work with – more or less powerful. Contrasting images are better than plain ones that use similar gray tones.
Now, let us relate to the title a bit – I said that back in the old days, black and white photography meant normality, and color photography was something special. Now it all turned around, black and white photography is for those that have even the slightest idea of how hard it is to obtain excellent b/w photographs. Black and white photography in the modern world brings a touch of vintage, in a brightly colored space. Often, one needs to understand color in order to understand gray tones.
Remember that a slight tune up in the curves and saturation area can lead to a completely new picture. Avoid using close gray tones since these will make the picture plain and boring. Also, avoid using high-contrasting tones since they will be too close to black and white, and will make the picture look like it is lacking shape. Keep a healthy balance between tones, and coordinate them with the message you want to send out.
If you want to send out a mystical, abstract feeling, simply use closer gray tones, which will complement the message. If your message is radical, or requires contrast, using powerful tones of gray may be the solution for your case.
Black and white photography nowadays has reached that art state – one does not only need to understand its use, but master the processing. You need to think of something that will send out a powerful message, and complement it with the right gray shades, or else your imagine will simply be one of the many b/w photographs out there.
