These black and white photography tips will help you to recognize good black and white photo subjects and to be able to photograph and edit these for the best effects.

The reason so many photography courses and schools teach black and white photography early on is that it is an excellent way to train the eye to recognize what makes a striking composition.

As vibrant and colorful as a sky at sunset may be, it is often the lines, shapes and curves that move the eye through the picture. With color, the vibrant tones are beautiful but with black and white the contrasting tones are more dynamic.

In spite of its attributes, after the media went full color in the 70′s and 80′s black and white photography faded. It soon became difficult to find places to process black and white film, and stores didn’t always carry it. Now thanks to digital cameras and editing, black and white is back!

How to Recognize Stunning Black and White Photographs

Although choosing the best subjects for black and white is very subjective, many professional photographers will agree that the following types of compositions beg for black and white:

• Photos that convey strong emotion. Color can be a distraction, while black and white lends power to the feeling expressed.
• Images that don’t have a full spectrum of colors like Ansel Adam’s Yosemite “Moon and Half Dome.”
• Low contrast images such as photographs shot on dark overcast days.
• Any subject with the lines, contours, shadows and curves that you just know will look great in black and white. How can you tell? By getting familiar with a variety of black and white images! Search online for Ansel Adams work. Or search for “famous black and photos.”
• Look at B&W photography books at the library. There are many places to appreciate and learn this artful form of photography!

Create Black & White Photography with a Photo Editor

Once you see a subject and know it would like best in black and white, then you can always set your camera to B&W and take it.  But once you get experience with using your photo editing software, you’ll find that you can create even better black and white images by shooting in color first and then desaturating it in the editor. Another added benefit to this method is that you’ll never accidentally take a day’s worth of pictures in black and white because you forgot to reset the camera!

Check the White Balance on Your Camera

While the easiest way to change a color to black and white is to desaturate it with your photo editor, this technique doesn’t let you control how the primary colors work together to produce a grayscale brightness. If you create a good white balance when taking the picture, then the simple desaturation method may be all you need  do in the photo editor.

Make Use of Your Photo Editor’s Color Swatches

One of the many methods for creating black and white images in a photo editor allows you to apply color swatches for your tones. Even though there are no colorful tones in black and whites, there are still tones created by colors. Color swatches work much the same way as color lenses do on an SLR camera. For example, filters in the yellow to orange range are flattering to the skin while green creates nice tones for nature pictures.

And last but not least, don’t forget to share your favorite black and white photographs. Beautiful black and white photos deserve to be framed for all to see. You should select picture frames that showcase your image with simple clean lines rather than distract from it. Hope you enjoyed these four black and white photography tips and have fun taking your next black and white photo!