The Magic Of Black And White Photography

By Author: Matej Michalik
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Do you often wonder what makes black and white photography so captivating? Undoubtedly, such snaps are much more enthralling and evocative than the coloured pictures. The black and white pictures represent the subject in its pure, raw format.

Do you often wonder what makes black and white photography so captivating? Undoubtedly, such snaps are much more enthralling and evocative than the coloured pictures. The black and white pictures represent the subject in its pure, raw format. Some of the best photographers in the world state that this allows the true texture, contrast, shape, form and lightning to come to the fore. In this way these pictures act as an illusion of pure simplicity. They hark back as an illusion of pure, simple times. Artistically speaking, these pictures interpret reality while coloured photos are simply a depiction of it.

Introduction to black and white photos (B&W) is a history lesson than can bring you back to the basics of the art of photography. Earlier these pictures were taken in films however with the introduction of colour films and the processing of black and white negatives, ...
... the B&W became a costly and unprofitable business genre. However, some of the best artists still consider B&W pictures to be an art form. They are considered the best way to train the eyes to recognize remarkable photo composition. This is the reason why many photography courses and schools teach this form. These pictures look simply stunning even in the absence of colours as the lines; shapes and curves of the objects are clearly defined in this format. If you have been trying your hand in this type of photography, you will agree that while colour portraits depict the vibrant beautiful tones, the B&W image represent the contrasting tones that are dynamic in nature.

If you are new to black & white photography and are finding it difficult to choose the best subjects for it, then it is dependent on multiple factors. Photos that convey a strong emotion look great in black and white. In contrast the same portrait if coloured can be a distraction and will not communicate the same emotion. The low contrast images such as snaps shot on dark overcast days look great in B&W. At present there are many photography books that can help you in gaining knowledge about the art of photography. These images can also be created with the aid of a photo editor. Once you have gained experience with the photo editor, you can easily create better B&W images by shooting in colour first and then de-saturating in the editor. This is really beneficial because you will get the flexibility to convert any colour snap into B&W.

Another important criterion to get the best black & white photos is to adjust the white balance of your camera. Though it is easy to convert a colour image into B&W by de-saturating it with photo editor, it does not give the user any control over how the primary colours work together and produce gray scale brightness. By creating a good white balance when taking the picture, you can easily get the best snaps. For creating the best images you can also apply colour swatches for your tones. Though there are no colourful tones in black and white, there are still tones created by colours. Use these techniques to develop a wonderful picture.
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