BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY:

FROM ORDINARY
TO THE
EXTRAORDINARY
BY KENT DUFAULT
BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY:

FROM ORDINARY
TO THE
EXTRAORDINARY
 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY:
FROM ORDINARY TO THE EXTRAORDINARY
Can you imagine a more iconic image that represents the art
of photography than a perfectly composed, processed and
displayed black & white print? As photographers, we can often
find ourselves standing quietly in an art museum, our hands in
our pockets, staring blissfully at an Ansel Adams print.With the
magnificent detail, tone and texture,one could almost feel the
wind in our face, the sun beating against our brow, or the chill
in the air.

A properly crafted black & white imagewields much power. It

does this by forcing our brain to see details it might overlook in
a color image.

The art of black & white photography is revealed through

texture, tone and lighting. In this beautiful portrait, the child’s
face would have competed with the vibrant colors of the ocean
and sky behind her.
Many photographers see black & white photography as a
backup- a way to save a poorly executed color image- but
nothing could be further from the truth. Producing a superb
black & white image requires more skill than its color
equivalent.

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 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY:
FROM ORDINARY TO THE EXTRAORDINARY
Learning to recognize tone, shape, light and shadow is the key
to great black & white photography.
We’re going to tell you why this is true, and how you can take
your black & white images to the next level!
In the pre-digital era, black & white photography required a
completely different skill set, film choice, and lab set-up. In
today’s world, producing a black & white image can be simply a
choice that you make somewhere along your production line.

It’s easy to make a black & white image.

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 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY:
FROM ORDINARY TO THE EXTRAORDINARY
It’s not easy to make an extraordinaryone.

One of the most common problems with a digital conversion to

black & white is either a lack of contrast, or, too much contrast.
It’s our assumption that most of our readers are shooting
digital, sofor that reason, we’re going to forego the discussion
on black & white photography regarding the use of film.
However, many of the principles discussed in this guide would
also apply to filmphotography as well.

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 WHAT WILL BE
DISCUSSED IN THIS
BEGINNER’S GUIDE?
 WHAT WILL BE DISCUSSED IN THIS
BEGINNER’S GUIDE?
1. What is a monochromatic image?
2. Understanding tone versus color.
3. Should you create your black & white image in camera?
4. Exposure considerations for black & white.
5. Adjusting composition for black & white.
6. How to use your image processing software as a darkroom.
7. How colored filters adjust tone.
8. Using tint for mood and emotional impact.
9. Should you use a custom lab to print your
prizedphotograph?
10. The archival nature of black &white prints.

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 WHAT IS A
MONOCHROMATIC
IMAGE?
 WHAT IS A MONOCHROMATIC IMAGE?

You may be asking yourself- “Where did the term

monochromatic image come from? I thought we were talking
about black & white photography?”

Well… We are. A black & white photograph IS a

monochromatic image- butso is a sepia photograph or a blue
toned photograph. This concept was easier to understand in the
film days because these “coloring”processes were chemically
applied to the actual black & white photo paper. It could be a
sepia print, but it was also a black & white print; it was a sepia
toned black & white print. Nowadays, we click a button in our
software and suddenly the image is black & white, or all blue, or
all red, or yellow. We want you to understand that these are all
monochromatic prints. A monochromatic photograph means
that the full color spectrum has been removed.

This is a monochromatic black & white photograph - despite

the fact that it is toned “red”.

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 UNDERSTANDING
TONE VERSUS COLOR
 UNDERSTANDING TONE VERSUS COLOR

If you get nothing else out of this guide,we want you to pay
special attention right here!
From birth, our brain is trained to see the world in color.
For this reason many photographers, especially first-time
photographers, have trouble re-training their brain to think in
terms of tone.
Tone does not differentiate color. Two colors of the same tone
will appear the same in a monochromatic image.

Real world example-

This macro shot of a dried flower has interest because of the

subtle shades of color: yellow, blue and purple.

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 UNDERSTANDING TONE VERSUS COLOR

A black & white conversion of the same image appears

lackluster and lifeless. This is because all the colors were
similar in tone.

When converting your images to black & white there are ways
to adjust the color values to certain tones. We will discuss this
further momentarily.

More importantly, you need to train your brain to see tone.

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 UNDERSTANDING TONE VERSUS COLOR

A great way to do thisis to buy a pair of deeply shaded

sunglasses with non-colored lenses. When you think you want
to shoot an image for black & white reproduction, put on the
sunglasses and view the scene through one eye. The sunglasses
will effectively eliminate all color in the scene (reducing
everything to shades of grey), and by looking through one eye
you are getting the two dimensional perspective of a camera
lens.

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SHOULD YOU CREATE
YOUR BLACK & WHITE
IMAGE IN CAMERA?
 SHOULD YOU CREATE YOUR BLACK & WHITE
IMAGE IN CAMERA?
We would suggest you do not. Although many cameras now
allow this option, there are significant disadvantages.
The one reason you might choose to do so is if you have no
post-processing software.

We suggest not creating the black & white file in camera

because you lose control with the conversion. You’re letting the
camera decide what the tone values should be. If you do the
conversion using software, you have much greater control over
how the colors are turned into tones.

A great tip for mastering black & white photography is to study

the masters: photographers such as Andre Kertesz, Alfred
Eisenstaedt, Elliott Erwitt, Ansel Adams, Margaret Bourke-
White, Robert Capa, and Garry Winogrand. When you spot an
image that you like, try to recreate it!

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 EXPOSURE
CONSIDERATIONS FOR
BLACK & WHITE
 EXPOSURE CONSIDERATIONS FOR BLACK &
WHITE
Exposing for a black & white image is similar to color
photography.

But, when you get into post-processing, you want to take special
care with the black point and the white point.

Have you ever looked at a black & white photograph and

thought to yourself, “The blacks look inky… like someone
poured black ink onto the print.” Or, conversely, have you
noticed highlights that are bleach-white? For example, you
can’t even see the buttons on a white shirt worn by a man in
the photograph.

These are problems with the black point and white point levels.

In general, when you’re exposing for a black & white image

you want to expose for the highlights. Make sure you don’t
overexpose and let the details burn out!

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 EXPOSURE CONSIDERATIONS FOR BLACK &
WHITE
Once you’re at the post-processing stage, open up your
histogram and adjust the levels so that the black point is no less
than 10 and your white point is no greater than 248. At these
settings your black values will reproduce deep and rich without
looking “inky”, and your highlights will look white without
being “blown out”.

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 ADJUSTING
COMPOSITION FOR
BLACK & WHITE
 ADJUSTING COMPOSITION FOR BLACK &
WHITE
The tools of composition apply equally to color versus black
& white. But, once again, it goes back to training your mind to
see in tone. Take, for example, juxtaposition. If your juxtaposed
elements are of a similar tone they could lose the contrasting
values that made them a good tool of composition to begin
with.

The tools of composition such as leading lines, the S curve and

juxtaposition still apply. You just want to make sure that they
don’t lose their impact when converted to a monochromatic
image.

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 HOW TO USE YOUR
IMAGE PROCESSING
SOFTWARE AS A
DARKROOM
 HOW TO USE YOUR IMAGE PROCESSING
SOFTWARE AS A DARKROOM
We decided earlier that it was a good idea to convert our image
to black & white in our post-processing software.

There are a number of ways to take your color image to black

& white. The simplest method is to de-saturate the image or
turn it into a grey scale format rather than RGB. These methods
aren’t recommended as they tend to create flat images without
a full range of tones.They also limit your ability to manipulate
the tones of the image afterwards.

If you’re serious about creating top notch black & white images,
we suggest you invest in a plugin such as Nik Software’s “Silver
Efex Pro”, or, Topaz Labs, “B&W Effects”. There are other
options available- these are just our favorites.

You may also want to check out this

website: http://www.powerretouche.com/. We’ve heard
excellent things about their conversion software.Another
option where you can experiment with their program for free is
BWStyler.

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 HOW TO USE YOUR IMAGE PROCESSING
SOFTWARE AS A DARKROOM
If you don’t want to mess with additional software, do your
conversion through the channel mixer. When you open it up in
Photoshop, you will see a monochrome button.Click that andit
will do a conversion. You can then adjust the RGB tone values
by moving the sliders up or down.
When you open it up in
Photoshop, you will see a The plugins offer the highest degree of control over the
monochrome button. conversion process and the tone values assigned to various
colors within the image. We highly recommend that you go
down this route.

Carefully examine the following photographs. You should take

note of how each method evaluated the color and converted it
to a monochromatic tone.

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 HOW TO USE YOUR IMAGE PROCESSING
SOFTWARE AS A DARKROOM
This is a simple desaturation of the image.

This is a conversion using the Channel Mixer in Photoshop.

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 HOW TO USE YOUR IMAGE PROCESSING
SOFTWARE AS A DARKROOM
This image was converted using the Nik Silver Efex Pro
software.

This last image was converted using the Topaz Labs B&W
Effects software.

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 HOW COLORED
FILTERS ADJUST TONE
VALUE IN BLACK &
WHITE
 HOW COLORED FILTERS ADJUST TONE VALUE
IN BLACK & WHITE
If you apply a green filter (either optically or electronically) to a
color image, you get a green colored image. The filter removes
all the values of the color spectrum except for green.

With black & white imaging the effect is exactly the opposite.

Thisis a very important point!

You can adjust the tone value of colors within your black &
white image by applying a colored filter. This can be done
optically or electronically. We suggest you do it electronically as
it will allow a greater degree of control.

In black & white photography a color filter absorbs its own

color of the spectrum. The result is that whatever color the
filter is it will lighten the tone of that color in the image.
Opposing colors on the color wheel will become darker.

Real world example-

You place a green pear and a red apple on a table and create
an image. The resulting black & white image is lackluster

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 HOW COLORED FILTERS ADJUST TONE VALUE
IN BLACK & WHITE
because the green pear and red apple are the same tone. You
then apply a green filter (either optically or electronically).
This results in the pear becoming lighter and the apple (red
being the opposing color on the color wheel) becoming darker;
you now have a more pleasing photograph due to the contrast
Colored filters difference.
are an important tool when
imaging black & white. Colored filters are an important tool when imaging black &
white. One of the benefits of the plugins mentioned earlier is
that you can even adjust the shade and intensity of the colored
filterswhich provides precise control over your tone changes!

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USING TINT FOR MOOD
AND EMOTIONAL
IMPACT
 USING TINT FOR MOOD AND EMOTIONAL
IMPACT
When black & white prints were produced by film
photographers, they would occasionally “tone” the print. This
was done chemically by soaking the print in a toning solution.
Common toners include sepia, selenium, gold, blue and red.

There were two reasons to tone a print: mood and longevity.

Let’s talk about mood.

A toned monotone print can add mood to your image. Consider

a black & white desolate beach scene that is toned blue, or, a
heavily treed park with the sun shining through that is toned
gold.

Use tone sparingly, only when it enhances your subject.

Longevity is added to a black & white photographic print when

it is chemically toned. In order to accomplish this you would
need to talk to a lab or do it at home.

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 SHOULD YOU USE
A CUSTOM LAB TO
PRINT YOUR PRIZED
PHOTOGRAPH?
 SHOULD YOU USE A CUSTOM LAB TO PRINT
YOUR PRIZED PHOTOGRAPH?
This really depends on what you want from your final image.
For example, you can have a black & white print made by your
local convenience store lab but the problem is they aren’t really
producing a “true” black & white print. They are creating a
color print with black & white tone. That’s why they will often
have a color skew. If you want a true black & white image with
the full range of tones, with black & white photographic paper
and archival quality, you’ll find this only at a custom lab.

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THE ARCHIVAL
NATURE OF
BLACK & WHITE
PRINTS
 THE ARCHIVAL NATURE OF BLACK & WHITE
PRINTS
This final comment is one of our favorite aspects regarding
black & white photography:Black & white photography has a
known archival lifespan. A properly produced black & white
photograph has the potential to last 100+ years. This is a
A properly produced proven fact. Manufacturers of inkjet products claim this kind of
black & white photograph lifespan, but do so only through their own testing. Black &white
has the potential to paper prints have actually stood the test of time.
last 100+ years.
If it’s important to you to have your art outlast your lifespan,
you now know what you need to do.

1. Have a true silver halide black & white paper print made at
a custom lab.
2. Have your print chemically toned (if it fits the mood)
whichcan increase the lifespan of the image.
3. Mount and frame your image using only archival quality
materials. When framing, you should put the image under
UV glass.

We hope this information and these tips will inspire you to

shoot more black & white images and proudly display them.
Who knows, maybe you will be the next Ansel Adams!

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR: IMAGE CREDITS: FONTS:
Kent DuFault is a professional Cover : Salmando Ovo
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