Black and White Digital Photography Photo Workshop

Chapter 1. BLACK-AND-WHITE VISION

• Why Black and White?

• Creating Black-and-white Images

• Visualizing in Monochrome

• Selecting Your Images

• Timing the Moment

• When Should You Use Black and White?

• Finding Photos Wherever You Are

In this age of multimedia, moving pictures, oversaturated colors, and digital speed, the desire to create good black-and-white images remains as great as ever. Whether it is the allure of distinct graphic lines, nostalgia, or the simplicity of the contrast (see 1-1), people continue to be drawn to black and white.

Even though you can simply and easily convert any digital image to black and white right there in the camera, that may not always be the best option. It's important to first take a critical look at black-and-white images to see what makes them work, and why people can be more drawn to them than to color images.

WHY BLACK AND WHITE?

When I was explaining the title of this book and its creation to a friend of mine who knows nothing about photography, he asked, "People still take black-and-white pictures?"

I reminded him of the black-and-white portrait I shot of his family hanging over his mantle. Not only do people still take black-and-white pictures, but these photos are all around us — they are still very much part of our culture and everyday lives.

Although there are many different types of photography, black-and-white photography is usually considered the classic ...