9 quick tips for BETTER BLACK & WHITE photos

was out that she had headlong into the 21st century I think if the late-1990s in the 18 year old me is at college I'm learning photography I've got my Pentax p50 I'm in the darkroom developing my own film exposing my own shots I'm shooting ilford HP 5fb for other black-and-white films this is all I've got the knowledge to do this all I have the facility to do black and white is how I'm learning the language of photography why should color it so I've got pictures of my friends pictures of my dog for the 18 year

old me the color is not yet photography color is for documentation black and white is for parts jump forward 20 years to today and color is the default for everyone from the casual smartphone shooter to the professional with a DSLR color is what we use unless we actively decide not to for most of us these days black and white is an afterthought a creative filter we have an Instagram a Lightroom preset we apply because that particular shot has too much color in it black-and-white is not generally something we pre plan my point is that black

and white is more than an editing technique is more than a creative filter it's a completely different way of working a completely different photographic language so to give you a bit of an idea just how different black and white color from color I'm just going to click my fingers and turn this shot black and white change nothing else except take away the color [Music] that's great black-and-white photography is a huge huge subject and one I can't begin to cover in one video well like I'm begin to cover it I mean that's exactly what I'm gonna

try and do here in 9 quick tips and techniques that I think can play a key role in creating black and white photography number one plan to shoot in black and white before you take the shot if for no other reason that it will help you develop your visual senses and expand your understanding of the visual world make sure you understand why you're shooting black and white with color that can date the image a little bit more it's not necessarily a bad thing but is something to be aware of with black and white you can

tend to get a more timeless aesthetic with color there's more distraction there's more information with black and white you're dealing with a pure form of image it strips everything back to its fundamental building blocks of light and dark you'll find that by approaching a shot with black and white already in mind you'll start to change both how and what you photograph to look for the abstract black or white photography is a great medium for creating abstract work try to think about the negative space and the shadows and the reflections look for lines shapes contrast patterns

and textures removing color can transform your shot into less an image of something and more of a canvas of form and toned you can turn curving scenes into abstract patterns and you can turn body parts into what little light landscapes you can combine the figurative and the abstract like photographer Malik CD Bay has done here on the one hand it's a portrait and on the other it's a tapestry of contrast and pattern the resulting image has a vibrancy and an energy to it a different example can be seen here in Kathy Ryan shot from the

series office romance she's really found a beauty in the mundane she turned a generic and soulless office space into a work of and what's great about this shot as well is that it was shot as many of her shots are on her camera phone it's good to remember that while having good gear is really important the biggest differentiator in creating good and bad photography is the person behind the camera number three shooting raw or use filters shooting raw if you're shooting digital and you can simulate color filters by adjusting the color sliders in Lightroom or

Photoshop or whatever you use if you're shooting film just use color filters you can do it with digital as well obviously but you can control the tones between the different colors and create contrast and bring out texture by doing this for example you can pull down the blue sliders or use a red filter to create very dramatic skies but as always don't do anything just for the sake of it understand what you're communicating by doing that having a big dramatic sky communicates the power and the dominance of nature the more dominant the sky in your

photo the more it will show humanity's insignificance your shot will become more about that for use long exposures black and white photography loves long exposures they can really help emphasize textural differences in your shot for example a shot of flowing water can create an ethereal smooth effect to the water that can really contrasts against jagged rocks at the side black and white emphasizes texture a lot more and long exposures can really bump this up it's also good to use a polarizer because sometimes highlights and reflections can look weird in black and white and if you

can minimise those that's often a helpful thing to do but again be aware of what you're communicating with this technique long exposures will turn your shot from a snapshot of a frozen moment to being more about the place you're shooting it will create a sense of time passing rather than that decisive moment that cartier-bresson was so famous for v dodge and burn with black-and-white photography you've got much more license to push the image in post than you do with color before it starts to look garish use the local adjustment tools to highlight sections of your

image bring out textures bring out contrast bring out brightness in certain areas to draw your viewers attention darkroom expert Pavlo an arrow from magnum photos has worked on some of history's most iconic black-and-white photos and if we take a look at some of his marked up darkroom test prints you can clearly see that without the extensive and meticulous dodging and burning these prints were subjected to these images really wouldn't be half as striking as the photos that we know and revere today here are two great quotes by Ansel Adams who was a master of black-and-white

photography the first one says you don't take the photograph you make it I think that's very relevant here in this situation and this next one is quite an amusing one dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes gob made in establishing tonal relationships I love that basically you can't control everything in your frame all of the time so a little creative license can be employed to help communicate your vision to the viewer there occasionally seems to be a prevailing attitude around photography the post-production is in some way cheating and it really isn't it's

as much a part of photography as framing the shot and releasing the shutter and if it's good enough for Ansel Adams then it's good enough for me and it should be good enough for you too six think about light understand how the change from color to black and white affects light and how it affects mood in your photographs in color photography direct sunlight will give you a warm feeling shear image and an overcast day can give you a cold feeling but is all lost in black and white and replaced solely was contrast direct sunlight will

give you strong contrast harsh lights and darks that will accentuate angles and textures in extreme examples of this the image can take on a graphic or abstract feel softer overcast days will give you a softer light will give you more tonal range and make your image feel karma and quieter 7 use HDR now I'm aware that HDR is a bit of a dirty word in photography and for good reason what started out as a technique to help bring out details in the darks and lights has turned into a creative technique where it looks like someone's

vomited on a page and colored it in with fluorescent inks a lot of the time not all the time but HDR can work well in black and white when done properly so try taking multiple exposures and layering them up and seeing what you can do with it have a play around see where you can bring out textures a little bit more and bring back some details and just play around with the image a bit just don't overdo it 8 use black and white to emphasize mood when taking pictures of people when taking portraits the loss

of color can really place an emphasis on the subjects expression and the emotive tone of the photo it can help the viewer make a stronger emotional connection to your subject because of this place extra attention on the eyes eyes are a large part of how we read expressions in people and they also contain extreme darks and lights so really try and bring those eyes out again don't overdo it but that can really help communicate an emotive tone where color would be maybe too much of a distraction number 9 subvert expectations try creating black and white

shots of things you usually associate with strong color this will help both expand your visual sensibilities and also challenge the viewers perception of the visual world they know it can reveal shape and form and texture that was previously overshadowed by strong color but something to remember here is that shots that have little color in them to begin with tend not to make the best black-and-white shots it's the shots that are dramatically transformed by the black and white conversion process that carry the most visual interest and impact so those were my quick black-and-white photography tips I'm

now actually feeling really inspired to grab my camera and tripod and jump on a cheery go out do some black-and-white photography so I think I'm going to do that so I'll see you later I come out to the Barbican which is one of my favorite areas of London to photograph if you don't know it is this weird complex of brutalist architecture which is really quite amazing [Music] you