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Black and white photography

Technically, black and white photography should be ‘less’ than colour, but its popularity is, if anything increasing. Black and white suits some subjects extremely well, drawing more attention to shapes, lighting and composition than is generally possible with colour photography. Most cameras have black and white picture modes, which is very useful when you’re composing images, but you get more control over the results by converting colour images to black and white on a computer later, so it’s a bit of a dilemma which route to take.

Black and white photography is as popular as ever, though now it's seen as a means of artistic expression rather than just a way of capturing images. Its continued popularity might be hard to explain logically since it offers 'less' than colour, but that may be part of its appeal – black and white offers fewer distractions, it's less 'literal' and it's easier to control the graphic and compositional elements that go to make up a picture without them fighting or undermining each other.

You can shoot black and white JPEGs in camera or do what most black and white fans do, which is to shoot RAW files and then process them into black and white later. This offers a 'digital negative' with a much wider brightness range and more scope for manipulation without image degradation.

Programs like Lightroom and Capture One are really good at producing strong, technically excellent black and white images, or you can use 'analog film simulation' tools like Analog Efex Pro, Alien Skin Exposure X or ON1 Photo RAW to create a film-like look.

In the days of film, taking the picture was only the start of the black and white image making process and the real work was done in the darkroom. It's the same now, and the most striking black and white images are created with careful enhancement and manipulation in software.

Black and white filters in digital imaging

December 10, 2016 by Life after Photoshop

Black and white filters Silver Efex Pro

Why would you use colour filters when you’re shooting in black and white? It’s so that you can control the way different colours translate into shades of grey. For example, if you shoot through a red filter, it blocks colours other than red, so that opposite colours, like blue skies, for example, come out much […]

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white

Learn better black and white photography – with your phone

December 5, 2016 by Life after Photoshop

The way that certain cameras feel and work and operate lends them to a certain kind of photography. And for me, the iPhone is perfect for high-contrast, graphic black and white images. True, the image quality is some way short of what you’d get from a ‘proper’ camera, but when I’m using it I see […]

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white

Black and white in Capture One Pro

November 20, 2016 by Life after Photoshop

Maybe you wouldn’t normally think of Capture One Pro as an image-editor. It’s a superb RAW converter and general image enhancement tool, but most of the time you’d probably swap to a plug-in or an external editor for really detailed effects work – especially any that required localised adjustments. But I’ve been spending some time with Capture One […]

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Capture One

Did you know you can stack filters in Google Snapseed?

September 11, 2016 by Rod Lawton

I am a huge fan of Google Snapseed. I’m not a huge fan of what Google has done with it, dropping the desktop Snapseed app and then the online Snapseed editing tools built into Google+ Photos. This has been replaced by a separate Google Photos option with much simpler editing tools. Thankfully, Snapseed still exists […]

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white

Boost your black and white shots with the Lightroom Clarity slider

January 26, 2014 by Life after Photoshop

Lightroom Clarity slider

The Clarity slider in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC adds a powerful localised contrast effect that can work well on colour shots, but really comes into its own with black and white. It recaptures the some of the punchiness of old black and white films without pushing the overall contrast out of control. Here’s an […]

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white

Discover the details with Topaz B&W Effects

December 1, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Topaz B&W Effects

I’m a huge fan of Silver Efex Pro, the black and white plug-in in the Google Nik Collection. But in a spirit of fair play I want to take a proper look at a rival product, Topaz B&W Effects 2. This comes from plug-in maker Topaz Labs, which sells a suite of plug-in tools that […]

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Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white

Topaz B&W Effects basics: is it as good as Silver Efex Pro?

November 24, 2013 by Life after Photoshop

Topaz B&W Effects basics

I admit that Silver Efex Pro, part of the Nik Collection, is my favourite black and white conversion plug-in, but I like to keep an open mind, and I thought it was about time I took a look at some others. I have reviewed Topaz B&W Effects in the past, but it’s been a while […]

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Filed Under: ReviewsTagged With: Black and white

Do more with Color Efex Pro’s Old Photo effect

November 21, 2013 by Life after Photoshop

Color Efex Pro Old Photo effect

Normally, if you want to create any kind of black and white effect with the DxO Nik Collection, you’d go straight to Silver Efex Pro. However, Color Efex Pro has some black and white effects of its own. The effects are different to Silver Efex Pro’s, so although the tools aren’t quite as sophisticated, you […]

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Color Efex, DxO, Nik Collection

How to apply the Zone System in Silver Efex Pro

November 8, 2013 by Life after Photoshop

Silver Efex Pro Zone System

The Zone System was invented by legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams. He hit upon the idea of splitting the full range of tones in a black and white image into eleven distinct brightness zones, which he then went on to define very carefully. I’m paraphrasing this from the Wikipedia entry: Ansel Adams’ approach was two-fold. […]

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Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, DxO, Nik Collection, Silver Efex

How to use the Lightroom Split Toning feature

October 22, 2013 by Life after Photoshop

Lightroom Split Toning tools

Split toning is a more advanced variation on the old technique of toning. It applies a different coloured tone to the shadows and the highlights in the picture, producing an interesting graded colour effect. It’s often used to give images a subtle, ‘fine art’ look, but it’s not always easy to get right. Split toning […]

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Black and white

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