The Power of Black and White in Nature and Landscape Photography

Remember the Contrasts

The key to black-and-white translation is to use whatever controls you have in your program to change how colors are converted to shades of gray. This is very important – there is no arbitrary shade of gray for any color. Red can be dark, light and every shade in between. The same goes for all other colors. This means you can change how colors interact with each other as they are translated into shades of gray, but you must pay attention to what is appropriate for your specific photo and subject.

As you watch how colors change, look for contrasts discussed in the last chapter. Remember that tonal contrast is the strongest and often most important of the black-and-white contrasts. Textures and patterns will change as colors ...