Black and White Photography: Sound Ideas That Make It Tick
Although images in color is quite dominating, artisans and people in the know pick black and white photography as a better medium.
The reason could only be attributed to color being easy to pull the attention of the viewer around. Black and white photography is much tougher because it requires excellent rendition of lighting to achieve a similar effect. Imagine, projecting grief, death, love, hate, jealousy and mystery is not easy to pull through with monochrome, but is child’s play using color. It takes the  interplay of shades and shadows to achieve a desired effect on the viewer.
To make the most entertaining black and white photographs, some tips as mentioned below needs to be part of the final images:
- Contrast is a defining factor – as the absence of it makes the composition dull while a big contrast spoils the effect and is never encouraged. To achieve a dramatic effect, look at the elements first and train the lens on the deep blacks that can grab attention to the focal point in any imagery.
- Make the blacks darker – is to make the lights appear brighter and make the central element to microburst and really pop. This is an artistic rendition and is a favorite trick used by most photography enthusiasts.
- Create drama – is achieved by using vanishing lines as in a perspective to project a visually powerful image. Picking out a lonely rural road for instance with rows of lamp posts interplayed with lines of trees along the length, lends credence to an Architectural imagery and creates heightened drama in black and white.
- Clean black and clean white – should capture and finish a photo to do away with a muddy image. An image in mono is a bunch of grays, when a clean black and clean white is added like simple twig or a roof will be enough to compensate and achieve balance of character.
- See and think black and white – is tougher to tinker with because of the color world around. It stands to reason that imagining and capturing an image in black and white is a long shot because of the influence of color around.
- Filters makes a lot of difference to a photo, as it allows part of images to darken to increase the overall drama within the composition. This is done in purpose to increase the mysterious effect of the imagery towards the viewer.
- Software and apps help – to achieve the magic of a black and white photo. There are apps in the web that allow enthusiasts to play with black and white photography to reach the desired end.
Remember, adding small details can add up to the big drama of black and white photography. It could mean a slight darkening of a huge background or maybe adding up touches to a dull brickyard,
Black and white photography will remain a powerful medium as images are shrouded in mystery and needs to be taken in context to understand, feel and appreciate the message it carries.
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