An art form that preceeds Kodachrome

In the infancy of photography, photographers had no choice but to shoot in black and white. Then, in 1936, the invention of kodachrome offered the alternative of colour photography to the world. Surprisingly enough though, black and white photography did not die off, instead it flourished as a popular medium. Modern black and white photography is unmistakably art, and many photographers regard it as the purest form of photography.

Some will say that nothing but B&W photos can capture the emotion and convey the mood of a photo better. Colors can be stunning, and really add to an image’s beauty, but they can also work as a distraction, especially if you have a lot of bright colours causing confusion.

Black-and-white photography consists of 5 key concepts, below, I have offered 5 tips that you can use to adapt these concepts to your images.

Shapes
When you are shooting black-and-white photographs you should look beyond the colors and focus on the shapes that surround you. Colors tend to take away your focus on shapes, so forget about them when you are out looking for good places to capture.

“Look at the world through monochrome eyes” I was once told.
Easier said than done for a fledgling photographer that was still struggling with the exposure triangle of aperture, shutter speed and ISO… so here is a tip I learned long after I was told to look through my monochrome eyes… go buy a square black and white filter or an grey ND filter. Look at a scene through that filter and train your eyes and brain to see how a black and white image will look completely different than a colour image.

Contrast
OK, here I am talking out of the other side of my mouth now… It is still prudent to not completely forget about colors when shooting black-and-white photographs. There is always contrast between dark and light colors but also between shadows and lighting.

Try shooting a light subject against a dark background. Try to photograph bright colours against dark colours, a soft pale green against a blue background… Do this in order to understand that contrast adds some depth. I might also suggest that you take a look at the color wheel… see what colors contrast each other, and learn how they interact with each other.

Patterns
Patterns can be hard to express in a color image. Colours tend to draw the eye because we are naturally attracted to colours like red and orange. Colours will distract the viewer’s attention and possibly miss the pattern you were trying to bring forth. With black-and-white photography this is not an issue. The pattern will stand out more, so, when shooting black and white… watch for patterns. They are everywhere, and the experienced photographers use them to their advantage.

Texture
In black-and-white photos you should be paying much more attention to texture. The reason is that the color information is not being picked up by the brain. Nothing is there to distract the viewer to really “see” the photo the way it was meant to be seen.

Lighting
This last element is very important because it will affect all of the others that are mentioned above. You can play with lighting in so many different ways. Side lighting can for example create a dramatic effect. Lighting a subject below ads a sinister feeling and creates emotions. Illumination from above can convey peace and tranquility. Dead on flash from the camera that is too intense, well that will just over expose the image and possibly end up in the trash folder.

Now that we have gone through the elements that you need to pay attention to when taking black and white images… use them as a guideline and play with them when you are out shooting. Paying attention to these details will separate your images from the rest.

So now let’s discuss a few points about you and your camera

You as a photographer
There are two types of black and white imagery in my mind. Some may disagree as you get more complex, but for the sake of this article… let’s keep it simple. There are “high contrast” black and white images and there are images that have more midtones and do not reach out to the edges of the whites and blacks on your histogram.

High contrast images convey more reactionary emotion while even flowing grey tone photos are softer and offer more subtlety… Which type of photographer are you? I am not saying you have to be one or the other. I am just saying, pick a style, master it, and move to the other style. Find out where you are comfortable and where your style allows you to go.

Your Camera and Software
If you are intentionally heading out the front door with the conscious thought of taking back and white photos… a few good tips for digital SLR users are
1) Shoot in the RAW format (which you should do for the best quality colour to black and white conversions anyway)
2) You could set the Picture Style, or shooting mode to a black and white mode. The photo will be displayed in black and white on the camera’s LCD screen… BUT, because you shot in RAW, you will still have all the colour information in the RAW file for your conversion afterwards.
3) Maybe grab your ND filters or black and white filters if you do not want to shoot in black and white. This will eliminate the colours when you are out shooting.
4) One last thought… you might have your own software, perhaps Photoshop – or any one of a dozen or so programs. Any of these will do a better job at black and white digital photography than your camera will. Think of it this way – your camera is specially designed to capture photographs. Your software is specially designed to "edit" photographs. Do you really want to ask your camera to do a job that your software is designed to do? Just sayin…

See More Examples of Black and White Images Here

Happy Shooting in monochrome,

Kevin

You don't take a photograph, you make it. - Ansel Adams

In order to take a great landscape photograph I believe you have to capture the spirit of a location. But in order to do that you have to use different techniques to truly achieve this.

I always say that nature is rarely perfect. Your images need a helping hand and with the right technique you give yourself the best chance of taking one of those shots you want to show off to the world.

The landscape photography tips below will help you make more of the photo opportunities that you'll come across when you are in search of that perfect landscape photograph.

1. If you have a DSLR camera that gives you control over settings such as shutter speed, aperture and exposure values “EV”, set your camera on “Aperture Priority” and use a small aperture of f/16 or f/20. This will let you keep everything in focus and the camera will set your shutter speed automatically. For the advanced photographer, use your manual settings and adjust your EV setting to achieve proper exposure after you set your aperture and desired shutter speed.

2. Early morning and late evening are the best times for shooting landscapes. Blue hour photography and golden hour photography are the only time I venture out to take my landscape images. The reasons; the sun is not as harsh as a stronger high sun and the low angle of the sun reveals shadows and textures.

3. The best landscapes are rarely found at the side of the road. So be prepared to go for a hike with a map or a GPS Unit in an effort to seek out the most interesting locations that not everyone takes a photo of. You can also download Photographers Ephemeris and do some pre-planning before you leave home.

4. Wide angle lenses are commonly used for landscapes because they will allow you to include more in the frame and open up the vertical perspective. But, the wide angle lens pushes the scene away… you can also consider using a longer focal length lens and compressing the depth of just a part of the entire scene.

5. If shooting the entire scene before you, whenever possible, place something of interest in the foreground of the shot to create a sense of depth. At the same time, ensure that you use that small aperture to keep everything in focus.
If you do not have something to ground the scene, focus one third up from the bottom of the image. This way you will maximize focus of the entire scene.

6. Another great but simple landscape photography tip is to anchor your camera to a tripod to slow down your pace of working when shooting landscapes. This means you'll take fewer but better pictures.
Also, if you are shooting in low light your exposure times will be elongated, forcing you to mount the camera to eliminate camera shake.

7. Carry a cable release. The timer function on the camera is no substitute for a cable release, BTW. The cable allows you the release the shutter when YOU want to release the shutter, not 2 sec or 10 sec or 15 sec from when you want to release. The release makes it so you don't have to touch the camera at all which will definitely minimize camera shake...especially important for those longer exposure shots. As an aside, if your camera allows it, use the mirror lock up function.

8. Keep on the lookout for scenes that will let you crop the top and bottom of the image to produce a more dramatic panoramic composition.

9. Use a circular polarizing filter to darken the sky and saturate the colors in the landscape (this is the one must-have filter for landscape photographers).

10. Meter your scene and use graduated grey or neutral density filters to darken the sky and reduce the contrast between the landscape and the sky. Polarizing filters aren't much use for bright cloudy skies but graduated filters are. Frequently, the sky looks burned out in photos because your digital sensors don't have the range to record the brightness differences between it and darker foreground scenery.

11. Use color correction filters to change the color of light on a landscape. These filters can either warm up the landscape or cool it down, depending on the filter color used. In this image, a sepia graduated filter was used upside-down to color the foreground rocks only.
You can either do this in the camera or you can do this in Photoshop later.

12. Try using a soft focus filter to add an ethereal quality to the scene. These filters blur the bright areas of a scene into the shadows to give the image a glow.
Again, you can do this in the camera or apply the soft focus after with gaussian blur in Photoshop

13. If you’re up for experimentation, try making your own filters. There's never a guarantee you'll get good results, but your photos will certainly look different. You can make a filter out of anything that's at least partially transparent - a bit of old stocking, Vaseline rubbed on an old filter (don't ever rub Vaseline directly onto a lens - you'll ruin it permanently!) Or you could try breathing gently on your lens (in cool conditions) to get a soft-focus effect.

14. Use the Hyperfocal distance to obtain the fastest shutter speed with greatest depth of field. Hyperfocal allows you to get everything sharp, from things close up to the camera to those far away. It's more reliable than just setting the focus at infinity. You will need a camera that allows manual focusing though. Click here to learn what Hyperfocal distance is.

15. Shoot RAW images rather than JPGs. The RAW image will take up more room on your memory card but the RAW image will give you greater latitude for image manipulation in post processing. This is a “Must Do” in my opinion. I shoot all my images in RAW.

16. Be original! Develop your own style and unique vision. Any competent photographer can duplicate someone else’s work. Truly great photographers produce unique images and avoid cliché photography. Go for non-standard viewpoints, say from ground-level rather than eye-level. Imagine the world as seen from an animal's viewpoint rather than a human's! Think what the scene would look like to a flying bird or a ground dwelling squirrel.

17. Tell a Story! People who look at pictures will enjoy looking at a story over a snapshot any day. Telling stories with your camera forces you to slow down and think about what you are doing. What is it about this scene that makes you want to make a photograph? What moves you or attracts your eye? Is there a theme, a phrase or a point of view that you want to capture and preserve? Where is the beginning, the middle and the end?

Happy Shooting!