Black and White Photography

I became very angry while reading some decor articles and blogs written by interior decorators. The common theme they wrote was: Out with Black and White, and in with Color.Although I have nothing against color, I believe however that black and white has its place. It should not be ignored like what these other decorators are doing. Why would they stress that black and white has no place in our color rich world? The answer because they are interior decorators, I suppose is a little more complex. So let us further discuss and analyze this.

While walking down in one of the streets in San Francisco"s Financial District, I was continuously amazed and impressed with the gamut of colors. Everything is in color, from black to white and everything in between. Even advertisements, banners, flags and everything is saturated with color. This shows us that the world is color. This is also the big reason why Black and White photography is being replaced. Interior decorators and industrial designers know that bright and saturated colors, and bold images naturally draw our attention. Although they know nothing about Photography and its influence on arts, they understand color well. They know how to match color to create themes palettes, and anything else you want to call it. I call it harmony. However, there is harmony in Black and White as well.

The Many Shades of Gray

Black and White photography reproduces natural world using all possible shades of gray, all the way from white to black. This is something that color does not have. Looking at a Black and White photo activates our imagination. When we cannot immediately tell color, we use our minds to reconstruct the image, as if it were in real life. We pay more attention to the intricate details of a Black and White photo for this very reason. If the same scene was captured in color, we probably won't notice the very intricate details.The shades of gray are a very powerful communication tool. These shades can tell us which parts of the image are cool, which are warm, which dark, and light. Shadows become much more interesting and often more intriguing when expressed in Black and White.

Tinted Black and White

Black and White photos may be reproduced using an infinite number of tints and tones. A tone of the photo communicates its mood, something that color photography, even tinted does not do nearly as well. Sepia tones communicate warmth and closeness, while bluish and steel tints are great for architectural and mechanical photography. High contrast pure Black and White is excellent for Landscapes, where tonal differences are great. There are endless options and no hard rules for this. When a photo is tinted correctly, it just feels right. A good Black and White photograph will communicate not only what has been captured, but the environment surrounding the scene.

As for interior decorators ; they set their own rules. There is no reason for the rest of us to follow them. They are not necessarily experts when it comes to photography, and its selection.

Although black and white photography has a beauty all its own, the digital process unfortunately doesn"t always produce great black and white results.

The main problems I see with digital black and white photos are...

o Loss of information
o Lack of contrast
o Sharpening artifacts
o Unattractive colour cast

Fortunately, each of these can be solved in digital post-processing.

Loss of information

Image information is reduced from 24 million colours to only 256 shades of grey as soon as you convert a digital image to black and white. This can be seen in those parts of an image that require a smooth transition from light to dark.

A digital black and white image is likely to show banding unlike in a black and white film that delivers gradual change from one shade to the next.

One solution is to use the 16-bit greyscale mode available in some image editing software. This gives you 4,096 shades of grey to work with. I use Picture Window Pro ($USD90) to convert into and edit 16-bit greyscale images.

All of Picture Window Pro"s editing tools work with 16-bit images, unlike Photoshop CS3 (which I refuse to buy until such time as Adobe bring their UK prices into line with their US prices).

Lack of contrast

A fairly dull image results in converting a digital colour image to grayscale. This is often due to a lack of contrast.

You can add contrast digitally, but this won"t necessarily help you differentiate between the main subject and it"s background.

It"s much better to include a digital colour filter in your conversion to black and white. I tend to use the black and white module in Corel Paintshop Pro X. If you"re shooting Camera RAW, use Adobe Lightroom and Bibble which both offer excellent black and white conversions

Sharpening artifacts

Some black and white images benefit from extra sharpening. It adds micro contrast and helps to increase the dramatic impact of the image. Unfortunately, it would also add sharpening artifacts (halos around edges of high contrast and hard dots) to your images.

Sharpening artifacts can be removed by applying a blur to those specific areas of the image that need it.

I use the blur brush in Photoshop Elements. I usually set the brush opacity to around 40% to preserve some detail. If I"m blurring a halo around a dark object set against a light background, I"ll set the mode to lighten. And if I"m blurring a halo around a light object set against a dark background, I"ll set the mode to darken. This helps blend the light object into the background.

Unattractive colour cast

Digital images often don't look as good as the colour cast in black and white films. They have quite an unattractive colour cast.This can be mitigated by applying your own colour filter to an image.

Photoshop Elements provides an excellent tool for applying colour filters. So does Picture Window Pro which offers the additional advantage of working with 16-bit black and whites.

To get good results, I experiment with the percentage of filter I"ll apply. I want the image to still look like a black and white, so the effect is subtle. I get my best results with dark blues and magentas, though some images suit deep brown tones (sepia effect).

Experiment

The best thing to do is experiment with your image. Work on it until you"re happy. The above four tips will get you started on the road to getting much better black and white digital photos.