How to Create Black & White Photos
Because black-and-white photography relies heavily on the contrast between light and shade, you need a good understanding of composition, light sources and post-processing to achieve the simplicity and beauty you are looking for in a monochromatic photo. Using a digital single-lens reflex camera allows you to see images as they pass through the primary lens. Digital SLRs also capture natural light well thanks to their changeable ISO speeds, which control the sensitivity of the camera's image sensor. Shoot your photo in color under the right lighting conditions, and you can adjust it to black and white using photo editing software.
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Instructions
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Your Camera
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Prepare to take a color photo on your digital SLR camera by adjusting the RGB channels to their default settings. Capturing data for the photograph in three channels -- red, green and blue -- allows for much more detail and depth than monochromatic -- black and white -- photography.
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Adjust your camera's ISO speed depending on the lighting conditions. When taking photographs in sunny conditions, set the ISO speed to around 150; at dusk or on overcast days set the ISO speed to around 500. When taking photographs at night or in very low light conditions, set the ISO speed to around 1,400.
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Adjust your camera's exposure to allow for the greatest contrast between highlights and shadows. Exposure controls how much light falls on the image sensor. Put exposure to the middle setting and from there lengthen it or shorten it. A short exposure time will make for detailed photos, while a long exposure time can make areas of highlight stand out. Adjust the exposure until your image is neither overpowered by highlights nor unfocused.
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Choose an object to photograph and position yourself so you see light hitting it from one side. By doing this you ensure a large amount of contrast between light and shade as one side of the object is lit up by the light source while the other is bathed in shadow. When you light a scene directly from the front, the contrast between light and shade becomes less noticeable, often resulting in hazy, gray photographs rather than crisp, black-and-white ones.
Your Computer
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Transfer your color photo from your digital camera to your computer and open it in your photo editing program of choice.
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Choose the "Monochrome" option in the channel mixer and change the RGB percentages to R: 65 percent G: 40 percent B: 5 percent. Because you have control over all three channels, you can make the photograph black and white without losing detail or contrast.
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Use the brightness/contrast mixer in your photo editing program to deal with any noticeable flaws. Increasing the contrast level will sharpen the photo by making the divide between areas of highlight and shadow clearer. Increasing the brightness level will expand areas of highlight, making shadows smaller and more clearly defined.
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Tips & Warnings
Use controlled lighting to give your photographs as much contrast between light and shade as possible.
Too much exposure when taking a picture can lead to blown-out highlights. To combat this and prevent highlight blowouts, reduce exposure time.
References
- Photo Credit black n white lavender image by cat from Fotolia.com
