When I first started doing photography, I was not a huge fan of B&W ("black and white") at all. In fact, I like to use B&W as my back-up plan. If the colors are still not working out in my favor after countless trials and errors, I'll simply switch a photo to B&W mode, hoping that I'll be able to salvage it. A lot of photographers choose to take their photos in only B&W. I've always wanted to take a photo with the B&W vision in my mind and be able to tell myself confidently "okay, this view in front of me will make a great B&W photo" instead of "oh, let me use B&W on this mediocre photo". In my opinion, I think black and white deserves more credit than simply being a photographer's back-up option. I always associate B&W with sadness which makes it challenging for me to fully appreciate B&W (maybe because I am a generally happy and non-edgy person). My struggle with B&W photography is how to express emotions through such a limited color palette. I decided to start off by editing at least one or two B&W photos from my set. I tend to pick photos with interesting textures or photos I want to emphasize the subject. While I still occasionally use B&W to salvage a photo with bad colors or bad light, I can also see the appeal in deliberately using B&W to edit a photo. Removing colors from a photo and turning it to B&W can stop viewers from getting distracted by the colors The one thing that I try to avoid when editing B&W photo is making my white look too white and my black look too black. While I do edit the photo for contrast and clarity, I try to be careful in terms of highlight and shadow to avoid losing important details.
I am by no means an expert when it comes to B&W photography but here are a few things I like to keep in mind when I edit my B&W photos:
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About FahFoodie and lifestyle photographer based in Los Angeles, California. Archives
February 2018
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