Tips for Black & White Photography

[Venky_lightbug]

Hello Guys,

Hope you all are doing great. Today I will be sharing few tips about Black & White photography.

We all know that the colorful photos blew our mind out, but the B&W one’s can give the same feeling if you choose the right picture and frame.

Many a times we are confused between several filters and unable to take a decision to make it vibrant or moody or B&W.

Sometimes the colors in the pictures overcast the Contrast, textures and shapes in the picture. You are so overwhelmed with the colors that you barely notice the other factors. In such scenarios, the black & white photography would be really useful to show what you wanted to. The

It’s very important to know “What picture makes a good Black & White image”.

Here are few tips to remember while choosing a picture to apply B&W filters,

• Do not use B&W, when the main essence of the picture is the colors itself.

For example, if you see this bokeh shot of the rocks, the essence is majorly the colorful flags in the background than the stones itself. So the B&W filter doesn’t look so great.

• Make sure the picture has both dark and bright areas in near equal proportion, unless you are taking a portrait picture of single object or person.
• Make sure that the main subject is popped out in the picture and is not buried in the contrast. Play with the contrast.

Here are few examples for the pictures with right amount of dark and bright areas

Here’ the texture on the statue is more visible due to the tonal contrast in B&W, if not would have been unnoticable due colors.

Here again the snow is clearly visible even in the woods.

The cloud formation is clearly visible due to the difference in dark and bright areas.

• You can chose monochrome to convey a story or portray the mood.

Update: Thanks to @TravellerG for this point(s)

• B&W are not mostly suited for Moving Objects with few exceptions. So avoid that.

These are just few examples of the B&W photographs. You can use the B&W filters for much more subjects and scenarios, but if you use the basics right, then it would look really great and memorable.

I hope this short article would be helpful for your photography and I would love to your tips and experiences with the B&W photography. ?

Have a great day.

PS: All the pictures have been captured by myself with a Smartphone.

@ermest @PoliMC @InaS @DanniS Please give your feedback.

@TravellerG… Would love hear your suggestions too ?

[DanniS]

Hi @Venky_lightbug,

Thank you for sharing your tips on black and white photography! I especially like the one with the statue as it has great contrast and the last one is also pretty impressive. It’s not so easy to do black and white photos I’ve noticed, so this will be helpful for other Local Guides to keep in mind.

Are you doing a lot of photography? Do you prefer to use black and white?

Here’s one photo I did, while I was in Thessaloniki last summer.

[PoliMC]

Hi @Venky_lightbug ,

Thanks for the tag!

I liked a lot your post because it’s very descriptive. I think that the Black and White photography is good for some monuments and old buildings for example. Your examples are just great!

Which camera did you use for them?

[InaS]

Thank you for tagging me @Venky_lightbug . You did an amazing job capturing all these photos with your smartphone. What model do you use? For me, black and white photography gives imagination to the viewers to read a story of their own.

@VasT you might wanna share a photo of yours, as you love monochrome photography.

[Venky_lightbug]

That looks so great @DanniS

Looks out of an old classic movie

I do photography during my travel and when I get inspired by some idea. And generally am not a B&W person but sometimes I like trying it according to the mood.

[VasT]

Thank you for the tag @InaS and thank you for starting this interesting topic @Venky_lightbug .

I love B&W photos though I have to admit that sometimes I am perplexed whether I took the right decision.

Please feel free to share your opinion @InaS and @Venky_lightbug !

[Venky_lightbug]

Thank you @PoliMC

Yes for monuments the B&W look really great.

I have been using Oneplus Devices from last 3 years. All were captured with them. Recently bought a Pixel 2Xl for wife, need to try out with it sometime.

[PoliMC]

Hi @Venky_lightbug ,

Thanks for your reply!

That sounds great! I will wait for your next great post with amazing photos and photography techniques!

Have a great day!

[Venky_lightbug]

Thank you so much @InaS

If you would have avoided the sky in that picture, it would been much better looking IMO.

I really love the reflection of light on the stones.

And I have used Oneplus Phones to capture these.

[Venky_lightbug]

Pleasure’s mine @VasT

That is such a great picture. You have so much story captured in that and the blueish tint just adds up to that. The reflection wouldn’t have looked well if it was in colors for sure.

The misalignment of the concrete part of the window is the only distracting part.

You definitely took the right path. It’s not possible for every one.

[DanniS]

Thanks a lot @Venky_lightbug it looks a bit like a pirate ship

I totally agree, black and white works sometimes really well and captures the eye in more details. Do you have a favorite type of photography? Would love to see some more photos from you!

[VasT]

Thank you for your feedback @Venky_lightbug ,

You are totally right! I should use grid all the time. Not everyone would had noticed the reflection. Do you use photoshop or any other application?

[Venky_lightbug]

@DanniS

Landscape and Long exposure photography are my favorites

Will share more pictures soon.

[Venky_lightbug]

Yea @VasT Grid lines are really useful. Helps a lot in framing.

I generally use Snapseed & occasionally PicsArt for few effects.

What do you use?

[DanniS]

Oh cool @Venky_lightbug ! I’m very curious of the long exposure photos! Can’t wait to see them and share some tips on how you make them as well.

[InaS]

Yes you are right @Venky_lightbug . The camera of the phone is very good. Where do you get the inspiration? Have you ever tried fish eye lens?

[VasT]

I use only snapseed @Venky_lightbug , but now that you mentioned it I’ll give a shot to PicsArt as well! Which effect is your favorite one?

[Venky_lightbug]

Yes definitely @DanniS Will do soon.

What is your fav kind of photography?

[Venky_lightbug]

@InaSInspirations are sometimes from dreams, some times momentary and sometimes is something I saw on Instagram.

I liked to put my twist to a tale ?

And yes I did try Fish Eye lens. I have a set of clip on lens. But the fish eye I use is a full frame one instead.

Here’s a picture I captured with the fish eye lens.

[Venky_lightbug]

@VasT Snapseed is definitely the best.

I do not use any effects or presets.

I use PicsArt for elements such as glares, lights and bokehs.