Basic Black and White Photography Techniques
// Filed in: Photograpghy
Tips & Ideas
Basic Black
and White Photography Techniques
Despite the richness of color photographs, black and white photography was never forgotten, and it will never be. In fact, it always stood as strong as it was before the colors were introduced. It is still creating great moods that are not possible in color, and is still being embraced by many.
Working with black and white photographs is quite different from colored ones. Highlights and shadows play greater roles, and there is no color balance to worry about. The only colors available are the shades of grays from white to black, hence the word “Grayscale”. In this type of photography, the lack of color means that shapes and lighting must work together effectively to make the different elements of the photograph recognizable.
While most digital cameras provide the option to shoot directly in black and white, it is strongly advisable to shoot in color. The reason is that the color information stored with the image is useful when editing with a photo editing software, such as Photoshop, as it allows adjusting the tones of the black and white photograph based on the color of the object. In Photoshop (as well as many other similar software), there are a lot of different techniques used to convert a color photograph into a good black and white one. In this article, we will have a quick look on some of these techniques and the differences between them.
There is just one thing you should do before converting your image into black and white, and that is to check the color levels/ Choose Layer>New Adjustmnent Layer>Levels. This allows you to control the histogram, so as to make sure that all blacks and whites are represented reasonably at both extremes. If not, then adjustment of the levels will be needed to avoid a faded looking photograph. This can be done after the conversion, but it is usually better to be in the beginning.
The most basic of all the conversion techniques is to directly and automatically convert your image to grayscale. This can be done by choosing Image > Mode > Grayscale. It is quick and easy, but the results are not usually good, as adjacent colors could be translated to the same shade of gray, resulting a flat image with a somewhat low contrast. This method also discards all the color information, which means that you will not be able to enhance the contrast or the gray shades using the colors of the objects.
A better conversion method is done by using a black and white adjustment layer. Choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Black & White. This method allows you to control the way individual colors are converted. In the adjustment panel, you will have several options to adjust the color conversions. The preset menu will let you choose a predefined or a saved grayscale mix. Selecting automatic mix will make the program study the color values within your picture, so as to make the best distribution of the gray values. Usually the results are good, but they can be fine tuned using the color sliders. These sliders adjust the gray tones of the colors available inside the image.
A similar, but more common, method is to use the channel mixer. It allows the values of the different color channels to be mixed, providing a lot of combinations. It can be reached by choosing Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer. While having the monochrome checkbox checked, changing the percentage values of the three color channels (Red, Green, and Blue) will change the gray tones replacing the different colors of your photo. Basically, high percentage of red will give a light gray shade to red objects; the same goes with blue and yellow. If other colors need to be lightened or darkened, an understanding of color combinations might be needed. Otherwise, experiment using the sliders and looking at the preview photo. In general, channels work as color filters; they make the elements of close related colors brighter, and those of complementary colors darker. The constant slider is used to fine tune your image to make it darker or brighter as a whole. Just don't forget to avoid clippings.
Black and whites usually look better at higher contrasts. While the previous methods will normally produce high contrast photos, the effect can be increased using curves (which does the same work with levels, but with visual controls). Choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves. This will give you control over all the shades in your photo. It can also be used to enhance the low-key or high-key lighting conditions, which are very popular in black and white photography.
These techniques should be enough get you started working with black and white photography. So, give it a try and see what effect does it have on your photos.
Despite the richness of color photographs, black and white photography was never forgotten, and it will never be. In fact, it always stood as strong as it was before the colors were introduced. It is still creating great moods that are not possible in color, and is still being embraced by many.
Working with black and white photographs is quite different from colored ones. Highlights and shadows play greater roles, and there is no color balance to worry about. The only colors available are the shades of grays from white to black, hence the word “Grayscale”. In this type of photography, the lack of color means that shapes and lighting must work together effectively to make the different elements of the photograph recognizable.
While most digital cameras provide the option to shoot directly in black and white, it is strongly advisable to shoot in color. The reason is that the color information stored with the image is useful when editing with a photo editing software, such as Photoshop, as it allows adjusting the tones of the black and white photograph based on the color of the object. In Photoshop (as well as many other similar software), there are a lot of different techniques used to convert a color photograph into a good black and white one. In this article, we will have a quick look on some of these techniques and the differences between them.
There is just one thing you should do before converting your image into black and white, and that is to check the color levels/ Choose Layer>New Adjustmnent Layer>Levels. This allows you to control the histogram, so as to make sure that all blacks and whites are represented reasonably at both extremes. If not, then adjustment of the levels will be needed to avoid a faded looking photograph. This can be done after the conversion, but it is usually better to be in the beginning.
The most basic of all the conversion techniques is to directly and automatically convert your image to grayscale. This can be done by choosing Image > Mode > Grayscale. It is quick and easy, but the results are not usually good, as adjacent colors could be translated to the same shade of gray, resulting a flat image with a somewhat low contrast. This method also discards all the color information, which means that you will not be able to enhance the contrast or the gray shades using the colors of the objects.
A better conversion method is done by using a black and white adjustment layer. Choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Black & White. This method allows you to control the way individual colors are converted. In the adjustment panel, you will have several options to adjust the color conversions. The preset menu will let you choose a predefined or a saved grayscale mix. Selecting automatic mix will make the program study the color values within your picture, so as to make the best distribution of the gray values. Usually the results are good, but they can be fine tuned using the color sliders. These sliders adjust the gray tones of the colors available inside the image.
A similar, but more common, method is to use the channel mixer. It allows the values of the different color channels to be mixed, providing a lot of combinations. It can be reached by choosing Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer. While having the monochrome checkbox checked, changing the percentage values of the three color channels (Red, Green, and Blue) will change the gray tones replacing the different colors of your photo. Basically, high percentage of red will give a light gray shade to red objects; the same goes with blue and yellow. If other colors need to be lightened or darkened, an understanding of color combinations might be needed. Otherwise, experiment using the sliders and looking at the preview photo. In general, channels work as color filters; they make the elements of close related colors brighter, and those of complementary colors darker. The constant slider is used to fine tune your image to make it darker or brighter as a whole. Just don't forget to avoid clippings.
Black and whites usually look better at higher contrasts. While the previous methods will normally produce high contrast photos, the effect can be increased using curves (which does the same work with levels, but with visual controls). Choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves. This will give you control over all the shades in your photo. It can also be used to enhance the low-key or high-key lighting conditions, which are very popular in black and white photography.
These techniques should be enough get you started working with black and white photography. So, give it a try and see what effect does it have on your photos.