Practical black and white photography tips
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2024
- A follow-up to my previous video about editing black and white photos using Nik Silver Efex, where I share practical tips and thoughts about converting color digital images to black and white.
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📕 CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:45 Tip one
2:29 Tip two
5:51 Tip three
8:52 Sponsor
10:01 Tip four
12:41 Tip five
14:15 Tip six
17:23 Outro
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In Windows 11, you can switch to a grayscale display. Go to settings, click on accessibility, then click on color filters. Turn on color filters and click on grayscale. I think you can do this in earlier versions of Windows also. Watching this video prompted me to find out how to do it as I never thought of doing it before. Thanks for a great video.
Love the idea of using b&w to be more expressive and dramatic, as well as a way to use midday light to your advantage. I'm a new photographer, so I'm constantly hearing "golden hour/blue hour," which are great but not always practical. Great tips, Todd!
Re tip about mid-day light-I’ve heard so many photographers say there’s no such thing as bad light. It’s what you do with the light available that matters.
In addition to setting the monitor to black and white, setting the camera to display raw images in black and white is also immensely helpful in seeing the possibilities monochrome might offer. I also think your color image of the two buildings had more black and white potential than the simple conversion might suggest. I can image it with one building dark and and its windows light and the other building light and it's windows dark. If that were feasible with processing, I think it would be even stronger than the color contrast that exists naturally.
As someone who shoots primarily black and white content, it was nice to get your thoughts on how you edit. It took me a while to get comfortable with the pushing the boundaries of editing a photo as if it were color but now the bold and almost unreal look of that editing style has become my brand. Great video as always!
I think taking time with all images works well to see if how the emotions that a photographer wants to convey is coming out or not. Thanks Todd .
I typically shoot with my camera set to Acros so I'm always seeing the image in BNW. I do this to see shadows/light better. It also helps with composition because I'm only seeing the shapes in the composition along with the light and shadows. Your example of the mountain scene perfectly illustrated how in some images the color is not important and can even get in the way. That image was about creating a feeling the majesty and awe of the landscape. BNW did that perfectly. My eye tends to like a shadowy image. Sometimes it makes me underexpose though. To help that I learned recently not to underexpose but then to bring up the black point in the editor. Always learning!! Thanks for the pointers. Have a great day.
Love your videos and viewpoints. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for a really interesting video. I've found that, along the lines of your point about B&W allowing more creative freedom, I can turn the contrast way up, as I'd never do with color. That gives an impression of a pen and ink drawing, and it can be particularly cool with portraits.
Great tips Todd and well appreciated.
Excellent video, Todd.
I only work in B&W so I know what you talking about.
And I agree with every word you say, my friend.
Until the next video,
Antoine.
Thanks for the monitor accessibility tip!
Very helpful video. Thank you
The one take away for me is the great idea of changing the monitor's color mode to BW! Great On the other hand, ideally one is making images with BW in mind from the start and not simply searching for images to convert. Well, life does not always follow the ideal! I'm going on a search!
Great talk on the benefits of black and white. Love it myself but difficult to get great results. Found your last video on Nik silver really helpful. Learned a lot about Nik software in general. Have never heard anyone explain the different types of structure so well.
Thanks Todd.
Great job. I had completely forgotten I could change color space of my monitor with puck
Thanks!
Hi, Todd.
I only shoot B&W.
What I do is put my camera on B&W and shoot in RAW.
I have set up Lightroom so that the photos are imported with the camera setting.
So everything that comes to me is already in B&W.
But I don't do color work so if the photo isn't good enough for B&W then this photo will be removed.
So I can take pictures at all times, I never have "bad or good" light, only different light.
And it is in any way of shooting Lightroom or Photoshop can never make a bad photo good.
And I work, like you, I believe, with TK8.
I can make very good selections with this, so I get much more out of my photo.
That first photo you show is pretty good for B&W with some work.
You do have to put in some work.
Thank you for this video, it was educational and even confirmed how I think about B&W photography.
Antoine.
Thanks for the viewing many images tip.
Great tips. I have monochrome camera and I have found it to be vastly more difficult to get “keepers “. B&W requires much more attention to all aspects of a good photo. BTW, the time of day for best light in my mind is subservient to time of year! January at noon can be awesome.
Todd that final image was virtually monochrome anyway. It definitely was better as a black and white. That said, how you processed it after making the decision to go monochrome made it a beautiful image!
Todd, when you're on your BenQ monitor (Which I have 272U) did you set up a profile (Calibrate) specifically for B&W....??
What software or app do you use as “voice recorder “ ?
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Has anyone ever said you look like slightly older Matt Smith?
Ctrl + Windows Key + C toggles greyscale
Your example of color "spoiling" an image whereas converting to B&W improved it is a bit "unfair" because you compared the unprocessed raw color image to the fully processed B&W image. Your argument would have been more convincing had you processed the color image as you did the B&W one. Also, the B&W image has been cropped quite a bit in comparison to the scope of the original raw file. It's interesting that this approach to the argument is often used by folks who contend that a B&W image is "better" than a color one. I think that the color version has some very subtle color tones that make it very appealing. Hmm, you repeated the unbalanced comparison with the white sand image.