Black and white photography has almost as many followers as photography in general, or would say almost more, because even those who don’t like photography end up using their mobile filters or monochrome mode to take photos when saving their photos. . Because it’s fashionable, out of nostalgia, why is it? Or go further, because it falls in love, seduces, attracts and because a good black-and-white photograph makes it vibrate. Here, I must insist, a good picture. Not everything happens in black and white, in fact it is very easy to spoil a photo by making it black and white or converting it later, there are very common and recurring mistakes that you must avoid at all costs if you want your photo in The gray levels must be strong enough to leave the viewer fascinated and unable to stop looking at his image.
In other articles we have given you tips for better black and white photography and even some tips to succeed in your black and white photography. Today, on the contrary, I will tell you the mistakes, because many times when focusing on them, learn more. Mistakes often teach us more than success, and we should not regard them as a negative thing, but as part of a process of learning and improvement. With each mistake you learn to distinguish and correct, you’ll take one more step to become a better photographer In this article I’ll tell you, many with examples, so that on the one hand you can review the black and white photos that didn’t convince you and you didn’t know why, probably because you fell into one of those traps that I’m going to talk about and on the other hand so you can avoid them now and don’t end up like the cover girl when you see your results.
- 1.
- Look in color.
- Sometimes we really like a photo and decide to convert it to gray levels.
- So black and white is so great.
- It doesn’t always work well.
- If an image is locked by color.
- It is an error to delete it.
- How much do we want a black-and-white picture?Let’s start another one from the beginning and think about how to stand out.
2. Net has a clear approach. A black-and-white photograph has no colors that distract attention, that provoke emotions in the audience, so it should have something that attracts the attention and interest of the viewer, a clear approach, a story to tell, the eye must know where to turn and what to read.
3. ISO high. You should know that black and white noise is much more obvious, you may want to use it as a creative element, consciously include it in your image, if that’s the case, go ahead, it looks great, but if you don’t. If you have this intention, remember to adjust the ISO as low as possible when shooting, otherwise the noise will spoil the result. If you get lost with this term, don’t stop reading it.
4. Flat sky. If your photo has a good proportion of the sky, make sure there are clouds, otherwise it will be as bsy as an unsused meal, or as a flowerless garden?Clouds create contrast and provide information, if you remove the precious blue from a clear sky, which you have left
To make it very clear, here are two images with different skies, which one catches your eye the most?
5. Monochrome photography. This happens often and it is a big mistake, because in this case, it is the machine that decides for you how to do the conversion and there will also be no turning back, if the image does not convince you afterwards because you realize that color was important, you will no longer be able to recover it. Always photograph in color and then, in the “safety” of your home, turn it into gray levels and if that doesn’t convince you leave it in color.
6. Lack of contrast. Ideally, a black-and-white photo contains black and white, if your image contains only intermediate grays, it will be a fairly flat photograph, this does not mean that it should be a super-contained image, but the different shades of the grayscale, from one end to the other, will make it much more attractive to the eye. Look at the two images below, which one do you find most interesting?
7. Always shoot in JPG. You may not know that there is life beyond JPG and that I am not talking about galaxies or anything like that, I am talking about photographic formats, jpg format gives a compressed file that leaves a lot of information. You’re photographing with a mobile phone or compact, you won’t have more options than that, but if you do it with an SLR, you have the ability to work on RAW, which is like recording the whole scene on your camera and at home, when it comes to processing the image, you can adjust and adjust the values according to your interest, which is not possible in JPG. It is not always convenient to photograph in RAW, like everything else, it has its pros and cons, however, when you want to get a spectacular photo, try to photograph in RAW, you can put more of yourself, put your signature, your creativity?In the end, you’ll have more plasticity when it comes to working.
8. Net to compose well. The composition in black and white photography is really important, I told you that the lack of color causes you to lose tools to excite and you have to resort to other resources, the composition is your most important resource in this case, you can destroy a possible spectacular photo if you do not make a good arrangement of the elements in your frame. Keep in mind that there are composition rules that you don’t always have to strictly follow, but you need to know them well to violate them with a clear intent. The mistake is not to break them when necessary, the mistake is not to know these rules and take them out of ignorance.
If you avoid these mistakes, especially the last one, you will get better black and white images, I have no doubt, nor do I have any doubt that the best way to learn and improve is to practice and make mistakes. You don’t have to be there, at this point you have to be the most critical person with your own work, analyze what the mistakes are and avoid them at all costs, if you leave your camera in its case, you won’t be wrong. , of course, but you won’t get exciting photos either.
What are you waiting for? Find your camera and start capturing amazing black and white images, but I’d appreciate it first if you find it interesting or useful if you could share this article on Facebook, Twitter or Google. Thank you very much and until the next, article!