Monday, October 3, 2011

Flattering Photographic Effects With Black And White

By Carl Drotsky


In the days when monochrome photography was all that there was, people couldn't wait for color photographs to become a reality. Now that it is here and affordable for all it is almost all that we use. Such that we have become curiously drawn to black and white photos. There is an enigmatic effect that these black and white images have on our emotions. The limited color palette represented by these pictures appears to bring the images closer, more open, timeless and most certainly more touching. Read the tips below so that you can make your black and white photography more effective.

One drawback with the type of digital technology on offer today is that one does not receive WYSIWYG pictures. This means that whatever the image that the sensor of the camera captures, it does not ultimately give you access to the whole thing. it shows you a processed or compressed version of the image you shot. Although some modern cameras do give you access to these raw images hidden in a file somewhere, otherwise called a digital negative. They are called raw because one is unable to edit them with any graphics editor. But with black and white photography, this is the image that you want. One sees spectacular effects with these raw prints. More depth and contrast is revealed. Even if editing them was possible, you would find that you may not want to even touch them, they would be perfect.

We really need to look at color photography and black and white photography differently. Portraits for example, have a special quality about them when taken in black and white. Without flesh colors to bring evenness to spots and blemishes, every contrast in skin texture is brought out. In this monochrome look, these features are not unsightly but bring an element of vulnerability and beauty to a photo. Textures, wrinkles and patterns are brought out in vivid and touching ways. As you plan each shot, you can attempt to frame your subject in order to enhance and reveal those fascinating features. Shadows and light work really well with black and white. Back lighting your subject brings great drama to a photo and setting up sharp shadows onto the subjects face is a great effect.

Getting to know your settings on your digital camera and changing them according to your shot will bring great results. The ISO adjustment tells the sensor in the camera to be more sensitive or less sensitive to light. This setting can be easily changed from shot to shot. With black and white photos set your ISO as low as possible, this makes the sensor the least sensitive to the light coming in. this produces a great effect. Setting this ISO too high in this case would give you grainy pictures.

Subject choice is quite important when looking for good results in black and white. Pick the correct subjects and you should get fantastic results. Portraits for instance, are particularly stunning and captivating when shot in black and white. If you are taking a close up of your child or loved one, if you choose black and white, you should get some very worthwhile shots. Remember that with color, you can click away at anything. But with the grey scale of black and white it is quite difficult to tell the difference between every single shade and therefore sometimes the contrast is poor between one thing and the next. You would need to take care to pick a shot that would show up lots of contrast. Why not learn to see the world in black and white.




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