Seeing in Black and White - Take better B&W pictures by learning how to see like a photo film - Page 2
© Dan Osborn
Another quality of B&W is that it simplifies the photo. In a situation where ancillary objects or surfaces distract from the main subject you may find that by converting to B&W brings the main subject out more while deminishing its surroundings. Again, you don't always know until you try.
[sunbeams_water_BnW.jpg][sunbeams_water_rgb.jpg]Take this photo of sunlight falling on the water's surface. The color version of it is, well lets face it, dingy. At first thought I would say to myself, "Why did I even bother taking this photo?" But, the beams of light falling on the water do make a diagonal across the photo to give it direction and depth and they lead to the dark subject of the rocks and water fountain. It may not be a great photo but by converting it to B&W it becomes much more dramatic. Take a peek through some of your past photos and see if there might be a few that could go from "ho-hum" to "wow" after being converted. I'll bet you have, at least a few times, looked at something and thought, "that would make an interesting photo" but once you got a look at the result you found that it didn't quite meet your expectations. Go back and find that photo. Chances are that by converting it to B&W it will become what you were hoping for, maybe more. A mistake in color could be great art in B&W.
Just give me skin
[sleeping.jpg]Another favorite subject for B&W photos is skin. We've all seen countless photos of people with wrinkled, weathered skin or the smooth skin of a model with gentle gradients of dark to light playing across their contours. It's pretty hard to go wrong. Most of the time you'll want the light source to be at an angle between 45-135 degrees, give or take. The more you rotate to have the light source nearly behind the subject the more they will appear in shadow - if the ambient light is low. This will leave them with only thin outlines of skin exposed to light and the rest hidden in darkness. This leaves their shape more as a suggestion which can be quite effective. On the other side you can have the light source nearly behind you which will work more to bring out textures in their skin. Personally I'm fond of taking pictures of my fiancé sleeping but I may be partial.
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