Black and White Photography

At one time all photography was black and white photography. It was all black and white photography because that is all there was. The process of color photography took a long time to develop and then it took a long time to catch on because people just thought that photos should be black and white. It was many years before color photography supplanted black and white photography, but it did eventually happen. Now anyone pursuing black and white photography is doing so because they want to, not because they have to.

Black and white photography has its own aesthetic. Some people just love black and white photography for the contrasts. Some people love black and white photography for the smoky overtones. some people love black and white photography because it creates a mood, sometimes brooding, sometimes melancholy, sometimes menacing. You can evoke a lot of emotions with black and white photography if you are skilled.

When doing black and white photography, you need to be cognizant of the fact that most everything you shoot will come out in shades of grey unless you have a way of setting your photos to high contrast that will eliminate the shades of grey and be strictly black and white. Your palette is still color, but the colors are black, white and grey. So you need to understand how colors get translated from what they are, to shades of grey.

If you are doing black and white photography, you need to be in command of this transformation and use it to best effect. When doing black and white photography and working with set up shots and scenes, you need to keep this in mind so you can choose your props and set decorations with this in mind and you need to advise your subjects how to dress so that their clothing comes out in the shades you desire in your black and white photography.

Lighting is also critical in black and white photography. Because when you are working with black and white photography, you are often doing it to create a special mood and lighting goes a long way in helping you crate the atmosphere that you are looking for. Sometimes, in black and white photography, you want high contrast between objects or your subject and the background and lighting correctly for black and white photography can help you achieve that contrast. Even today, in the age of digital photography, you can work in black and white photography if you wish. You can create a lot of old time effects by shooting in black and white or even color and then transforming your pictures to black and white photography on the computer.

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