What will Black and White have for nearly 200 years after the first photograph (200 years of advances, plates, revelators, expanders and reels; from analog to digital and what’s left?) Should we go on?How is this possible, if we see in color, we dream in color, dress in colors, if the world is in color?Why does black and white awaken something so deep in us and overwhelm us so intimately and deeply, even more than many color images?
This may be because black and white is not just the addition or absence of color, or the passage from one to another, there is a world of shared universal associations and sensations around these colors, white is the sum of colors, the positive, the light, purity, innocence, it is clean and the one that has the greatest sensitivity to light , black, on the other hand, is the absence of color (although at the same time a color in itself), is associated with mystery, death, evil, and at the same time elegance and nobility. And the gray, which passes from one to the other, to neutrality, sadness, melancholy, doubt?That’s what we call color psychology (or color theory); in short, how colors affect feelings and reason.
- And having said that.
- How can we not provoke deep sensations by seeing in one image the combination of all this symbolism so inherent to the human being.
- So instinctive.
- So universal?.
And now that we have more or less why, let’s see how, with some tips you can enjoy when you’re thinking about solving a black and white image:
Filming in analog had (or has) many drawbacks compared to digital (it’s more expensive, bulkier, etc. ), but one of the most obvious drawbacks was when it came to choosing the film. Black and white or color? Black and white Okay, there you had 36 black and white photographs, like it or not. Would you like to have taken this image in color? Bad luck. Either you were loaded with two cameras or that fantastic color image, you weren’t going to get it. With the digital age, we have solved this problem, but we have entered another. Unless you choose a black and white mode on your camera, which is not highly recommended (I’ll explain why later), you will always see images in color. This makes, or has made, that training our eye in black and white photography has become much more complicated. This limitation that the reel brought you was at the same time the best ally to get used to “seeing in black and white”, to get used to this exercise in abstraction that requires learning to see in levels of gray. Am I painting it too black for you? ? Don’t worry, the solution is very simple and within your reach. In the following points, I leave you some tips that you can use to learn to see in black and white.
In my opinion, there are no good or bad themes for color or black and white photography, at any time it is likely that each image is a good image or color in black and white, it depends on the “grace” of everyone, your style. or anything you want to convey. But yes, if you want to train your look in black and white, you’ll have to dive into it.
Black and white filters have the ability to radically change the initial tone of the shot. They are based on complementary colors and essentially what they do is selectively darken the colors; clarifying its own color and accentuating the opposite.
For example, if you have a slightly dull blue sky, using a red filter on your image, red will darken the blue because they are complementary, and if you also have beautiful clouds, they will detach from the sky you just darkened, offering an image with more tonal range, more contrast and, ultimately, more interesting.
Some of the most commonly used filters are
Think of each color as its grayscale equivalent, for example, red doesn’t have the same equivalence as yellow (they won’t give you a gray look). Even if we are talking about black and white photography, we must take into account all the tonal variety that exists between pure white and pure black. Knowing which colors will translate into gray levels will help you preview the image and its result; This will help you know which areas will be lighter or darker not only based on the light that reaches them, but also depending on how the color will translate into gray levels.
“In my mind, I visualize how a particular view and feeling can be printed on paper. If I feel euphoric, it’ll probably be a good picture. Is it intuitive, a skill that comes from a lot of practice?Ansel Adams.
In a black-and-white photograph it is important that it contains (forgives redundancy) black and white, that is, it must contain pure white and pure black, because if the image is based only on intermediate tones, the result of its image will be a gray image, what we call “glue”.
If, on the other hand, your image lacks intermediate tones (black and black only), it is what we call high contrast image, these types of images are characterized by a range of intermediate tones practically null. Contrast photos can be more impressive than the previous ones, although you need to be clear about the message. Not all images will be better because it increases contrast; This will depend on what you want to express in each image. Low contrast images are smoother and have a higher tonal range and therefore have less aggressiveness, less force, than high-contrast images.
As I mentioned in the introduction, white, black and intermediate grayscale have a symbology, consciously using them in your images will help you add value to your message, for example, a black-and-white portrait with homogeneous illumination throughout the surface. face is not the same as a portrait with half the face in the shadow and the other half illuminated, don’t you think, don’t you think the message is radically different from one portrait to another?When we add black, darkness, lack of light, do we add that air of mystery, of evil, of the unknown?, so inherent in the black color. Or if on the contrary you decide to reflect purity, kindness, innocence?White and light will be the protagonists of your image Remember the article about high-key and low-key photographs?They rely on the same principle to convey different sensations or emotions.
This advice is particularly mandatory in black and white photographs, think you’re stripping the color image, and therefore very valuable information, of a message, of a part of the history of that image, so you’re going to have to make up for that one way or another?
You’ve heard this advice a thousand times. The explanation is simple, the RAW file collects and stores all the information collected by the sensor, this means that the RAW format does not process the image, and therefore does not lose information. Of course, before you start using it as crazy, make sure you have a memory card with enough capacity (nowadays a large capacity doesn’t mean too much expense) as they take up much more space on your card than a JPEG format.
What if my camera doesn’t have RAW? So color photography and then do the treatment. The different color modes of the cameras (black and white, cuttlefish, etc. ) process the image and do not support the rest of the information, so if you use it, you will lose this information, and you will not be able to recover it later. The more information you have to process, the more space you have to correct.
Good exposure is particularly important in black-and-white photography, as shadows in this type of image are harder to recover than in color; Black and white tends to cause more image noise when trying to recover than a color image.
Each moment of the day will provide you with a type of image, the hours of least illumination are always the first and last hour of the day, these hours will offer you a wide range of intermediate tones, as well as cloudy days, which will offer you a diffused light that will allow you to capture all the tones of the scene.
The intermediate hours, on the other hand, will offer you images with very marked shadows and great contrast between light and dark areas, if you like high contrast photos, you can take advantage of the opportunities offered by this type of natural lighting.
Textures tell us many things, the passage of time, youth, broken walls, new objects, newborns and the elderly, wrinkles and the passage of time. . A textured object or subject weighs more than one without it because it contains more information. If you want to draw attention to an aspect, taking care of the texture is a good way to do it, with a good composition, of course. .
It’s easy. All the classics of black and white photography, all those that have created the standards that we follow today, all those who have broken them, adapted them, sought perfection and found their style, do you have them all in one click?On your computer?
Black and white is like a journey, a mysterious journey to the depths of things, to the raw, to the essence, is a journey through feelings, through forms in their purest and most timeless appearance. It’s a journey that starts with you, with your memories, with your knowledge, with everything you’ve read, with everything that’s excited you, with everything that’s made you who you are and see how you see. It’s a deep journey within you. If you manage to convey the magic you take, let yourself be carried away, be yourself, your black and white photographs will be a beautiful version of yourself.
I hope you liked the article, and you know it?If you liked it, share it with friends, friends, family?And in short, someone who can take the camera someday?