Black and White? Yes please!

I admit it. I have a passion for black and white photography. I think it started while in my teens. My uncle gave my brother and I his old darkroom equipment and we converted an empty room at my father’s office into a darkroom. A lifelong passion was ignited. I learned to develop film and make prints by reading books and by trial and error. Shooting film and processing it teaches you patience and you remember and learn from your mistakes.

Fast forward to today. I still love and appreciate a good black and white photo. I don’t really care if it was produced digitally or from film as long as the quality is there. Sadly some people think that a good black and white photo can be produced by simply converting a color photo to grayscale. To me, that’s like saying an out of focus photo can be corrected by sharpening it.

All of the elements of any good image must be present in a good black and white photo. You must have a interesting subject, you must have good composition, the lighting must be right, and you need a tonal range that is appropriate for the image. I think most people easily understand the first 3 criteria but the last one is easy to overlook and is directly related to the others. Tonal Range – The difference between the brightest and darkest value in an image and the shades of gray between the two.

So how do we control the tonal range? It starts before you hit the shutter release. You have to imagine how the photo will look in black and white. This is easier said than done. Colors can fool our eyes into thinking that, because colors are different, they will render differently in black and white. This may or may not be the case. Often different colors with similar brightness levels will only be subtly different in black and white. You must teach yourself to see in black and white in order to understand and anticipate how the final image will look.

When you look at a location at which to shoot a color photo, you must evaluate the entire scene. What colors are present? Where does the light fall? Where are the interesting textures? What point of view maximizes these factors? You have to do the same thing when shooting black and white, except you have to look at the tonal ranges (look for contrasts, textures, and different brightness levels) instead of just colors. Sometimes a location that is great for a color photo will not have the same impact in black and white. And the reverse is also true. A location that is perfect for a black and white photo, may be lacking elements for a good color photo. You must learn to see the difference.

Since most digital cameras shoot in color, most of us must convert our images to black and white. While a simple conversion is easy, it’s usually not the best option. Remember, while certain colors may look very different from one another to the human eye, they may look very similar when converted to black and white. The black and white conversion is crucial to creating a good black and white image. Every photo is different and so each conversion must take into consideration the original colors and how they must be altered in order to get correct tonal range. The techniques for converting color to black and white is well beyond the scope of this blog. There are tons of resources online and I encourage you to explore them and experiment with your images.

In the days of film, there were many different techniques for altering black and white images including the use of colored filters to change contrast, film selection, film processing methods and chemicals, printing techniques, and print processing chemicals and techniques. People were tweaking and altering black and white photos way before Photoshop was even contemplated.

Great black and white photography is a joy to behold. But it is easy to underestimate what techniques and effort goes into creating those images. I am in awe of photos that have deep blacks that still retain detail and have bright whites where textures are still visible and all the other colors are represented as unique shades of gray. It’s not as easy as it looks.

For instance, below is a wonderful photo by Robert Voltaire . It contains all the elements of a great black and white photo. The composition is amazing, the lighting and exposure are spot on. Notice that the white mesh material retains it’s texture and is differentiated from the background. At the same time, the model’s dark hair still retains detail. It’s a striking example of what to do right when creating a black and white photo.

Copyright Robert Voltaire (used with permission)

Well that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading and a special thank you to Robert for letting me use his photo as an example.

–Ken.