When I began serious study of photography in high school, color was where it was at if you wanted to sell your work to glossy magazines. The days of black-and-white photography had just become old fashioned. Yesterday’s medium. (No matter that a photographer named Ansel Adams was perfecting the zone system and publishing stunning shots in black and white.) So when I loaded film into my camera, it was color transparency film I used. Then a few years later, after graduation, I was offered a job as an assistant to the school’s art teacher, who was starting up a photo club and darkroom. She encouraged me to take up black-and-white photography, because she’d seen my pen-and-ink illustrations and felt I could translate that skill to cellulose. With her help I learned to develop my prints, and gained an appreciation for the medium.

I didn’t stick with black-and-white photography after my job concluded at the end of the school year. Ginny moved away, and my interests in nature photography lured me back to color. I had only one camera, and didn’t want to have black-and-white film loaded when that perfect shot presented itself, so I kept Kodachrome 25 or 64 in my Nikon. That was a long time and many cameras ago. The years passed, and for one reason and another I got away from photography except in my work as a field geologist, but when I adopted digital technology, my old love of artistic photography returned. With digital technology comes versatility, and I rediscovered a love of black-and-white photos. Best of all, it’s possible to shoot in color, and translate photos into monochrome later, either in the camera, or with post-processing. Now I can eat my cake and have it too.

What about you? Not convinced of the beauty and utility of black-and-white imagery? Look at the following photos and reconsider.

 

 

 

 

 
Whether the subject is something mechanical, natural, or structural, black-and-white can create a powerful image. The secrets of success for black-and-white photos are strong contrast and composition. Without contrast, the image will be bland, and strong compositions give the photo punch and help direct the eye around the picture while giving it personality. Here are a few more shots:

 

 

 

 

 
By limiting or lengthening depth of field, you can focus attention on a discrete subject or on the whole view. Tweaking curves, levels, and contrast are fundamental post-processing techniques that are needed for monochrome images as well as color. To get black-and-white photos, you can set your camera to capture only in monochrome (if your camera has the capability, that is), or you can alter color images in post-processing (my preference). One common way is to open the Saturation feature in your image editing application and then desaturate the photo. Work on a copy of the original, never on the original itself. I you’re interested in the nitty gritty, get hold of a good book such as John Beardsworth’s Advanced Digital Black & White Photography.

We live in an age of color, but don’t neglect the power of black-and-white photographs. You’ll have to learn to “see” in black and white when shooting, but it doesn’t take long to get a grip on it. Give it a try.

 

 
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