Have you heard? Black and white is the new black. Although it’s always been represented in classic and iconic shots, it seems that black and white is now hip again.
In this episode, Gina and Valerie discuss how to “see” in black and white, why you need to understand the colour wheel for best results, whether you should shoot in black and white or convert in post-production, how B&W can enhance and transforms some shots from meh to amazing, and much more.
Hope you enjoy the podcast.
#ginachallenge #blackandwhite
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Show notes
Useful Links
Quote
“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!”― Ted Grant
What’s so good about it?
- Timeless
- Black and white takes away the distractions of colour and forces the viewer to focus on light, form, texture, contrast
- Black and white strips away distracting details e.g street scene of people the focus is on the colourful closes or women wearing a bright pink tracksuit.
- Sexy
How to see in black and white
Before you can understand black and White you need to understand colour. Check out the colour wheels.
- Red, magenta and green look very similar in black and white
- Yellow and light blue do too
- Light green and blue look identical as do green and red
- An image can “pop” in colour and once converted to black and white the contrast is lost.
Contrasting colours like red and green look amazing in colour but once converted to BW the image loses contrast
Contrasting colours like blue and yellow look amazing in colour but once converted to BW the image loses impact
Is the colour of light important to setting the mood of an image?
Sunset
Warm light
Exercise:
For images on your smartphone: convert camera to black and white and spend a day seeing in black and white.
Digital camera Switch to Raw and Full-size Jpeg and convert camera settings to BW.
- The camera will only convert jpegs to BW.
- Raw files will be in colour
What are the best subjects for black and white photography?
Easy subjects for black and white photography
Images that are high contrast and lack colour will look awesome in black and white
Light and shadows
Contrast
Patterns
Texture
Image by Gina Milicia.
Long Exposures
Exercise
Find 20 of your favourite images and convert them to BW using LR or snapseed of conversion software of your choice
Use of filters on Camera
Polarizer or Neutral grad filter to darken skies
Post-production
Burn Dodge ( adjustment brush in LR) or Photoshop
Filters in lightroom
Masters of Black and White
#ginachallenge #blackandwhite