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Secrets Of Black & White

Learn to see and shoot differently for your best monochrome images ever

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Getting To Black-and-White
You have two excellent ways of going black-and-white: shoot black-and-white directly or convert from a color shot later. Here’s why you may want to shoot black-and-white in the camera:
1. You see what you get.
If you haven’t shot a lot of black-and-white, there are big advantages to shooting in-camera because you can review and revise what you shot based on what’s on the LCD.
2. The experience is more direct.
When you shoot black-and-white for black-and-white, you begin to work in a creative space that’s not the same as shooting in color. It definitely gives a different creative challenge and experience.
3. You can adjust filtration effects.
By using the camera’s built-in filtration effects, or by using filters made for black-and-white shooting, you can immediately see how black-and-white tonalities can be changed and adjusted for a scene.
4. The image is close to finished.
When you shoot black-and-white, you don’t have to do any conversion from color.
5. RAW+JPEG black-and-white gives you flexibility.
When the camera is set to shoot black-and-white, you’re locking in the JPEG files to black-and-white. RAW files aren’t converted to black-and-white. Shooting RAW+JPEG gives you the best of both formats.

Here’s why you may want to shoot color for black-and-white prints:
1. You aren’t locked into one black-and-white image.
A big disadvantage of shooting black-and-white directly is that it can’t be changed to color or any other black-and-white tonal interpretation of the scene.
2. Filtration after the fact.
Filters strongly affect contrast in black-and-white photography. You can filter the color image in the computer to translate the scene into preferred black-and-white tones.
3. Interactive filtration.
With the digital darkroom, you can try different filter effects on the same scene and instantly see how they change it.
4. Totally variable filtration. In the computer, you can fine-tune the filter colors to subtly adjust grays in the black-and-white image.
5. Multiple, yet separate filtration.
With the computer, you can use multiple filters on the same shot, something not possible when shooting black-and-white directly.

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