Contrast, Shape, Texture and Patterns
With the exclusion of colour you'll have to rely on these elements to create, define and attract your audience to your images. You will need strong black and white points and a range of mid-tones to replicate the range of colours you would typically have with a coloured image.
With black and white photography you have to acknowledge subjects in their natural forms requiring you to pay close attention to textures in brick work and trees and shapes and patterns in architecture, tile work and landscapes.
Filters
There are 5 filter colours that are commonly used in black and white photography - red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. Each lets through its own colour of light and blocks other colours to varying degrees. The result is that colours matching the filter colour appear brighter in the final image, while other colours appear darker.
Image courtesy of https://www.photographymad.com
Red Filters
Red filters are commonly used to greatly increase contrast. They are often and effectively used for landscape photography to give great contrast between blue skies that are darkened because of the red filter and the lighter elements such as light green grass or the orange and yellows of a vast crop field.
Orange and Yellow Filters
Orange and yellow filters provide a more even distribution of black, whites and greys and help to give a slight boost and edge to your images. Available to use for most genres of photography.
Green Filters
Often used to create separation and contrast between flowers and there background. Since it renders greens lighter you would think it would be perfect for landscape photography, however this isn't necessarily the case as it also makes skies a lighter grey so care will need to be taken in order to avoid to much loss in detail.
Blue Filters
They are the least common out of the five filters. This is because they darken most colours giving you little contrast and a rather flat image. However, they could be useful depending on the emotion your trying to convey or the subject your shooting.
If you’re looking for some colour filters for your black and white photography I would highly recommend Gobe Filters .
Shoot RAW and JPEG
This is useful for two reasons. If your like me you like to see what your image will look like in black and white whilst your taking the photo. If you shoot in RAW and JPEG you will be able to see what you image looks like in black and white whilst saving a RAW colour version allowing you to use this if you prefer the colour version. Additionally, if you use the colour version to create your black and white images you will have control over the individual colours that contribute to the image.
The other reason is that you'll be able to have greater control over your image. JPEG is a lossless format meaning you lose quality in your image through compression, whilst RAW images save all the information from your image meaning you have more control and scope for adjustments to major settings such as exposure, highlights and shadows.
Make a photo, don't take a photo
One of the main things I learnt through my short six week photography course is the power of pre-visualisation. This basically means what you would expect and involves you planning and visualising your shot before you shoot it. This helps to get across the themes that you want to come across.
For example the image below is a self portrait of me. I wanted this image to convey the theme of beauty growing from the inside. As a result I planned for me to have flowers coming out of my mouth to represent beauty, whilst my body position was about 45 to the camera with a open stance to convey pride and the sense that I’m proud of who I am.
This type of photography allows you free reign and is the literature equivalent to creative writing, giving you absolute control over the theme, ideas and emotions you want to come across.
This is a really powerful tool if you want to stand out as a photographer as often locations, landmarks and models are photographed in similar ways. By focusing on the message your trying to convey you can approach images and the entire process in a more original manner.
Long Exposure
Long Exposures are perfectly suited to monochrome photography and help to embellish a real visceral feeling.
By lengthening your shutter speed for several seconds or minutes the movement of water or cloud smoothen, helping to create a sense of peace and tranquility. The blurring of the movement also adds textural contrast with any solid objects in the frame.
Its advised that you use a tripod and a remote shutter release to reduce any unwanted shake and blur in your scene.
Dodge and Burn
Photoshops Dodge and Burn tools offer you an element of control that film photographers could only dream of.
The dodge tool allows you to brighten areas in your image whilst the burn lets you darken. This means that you can use the Burn tool to darken highlights when they are too bright, or the Dodge tool to brighten them to increase local contrast.
Check out my previous post on Instagram Photo splitting tools to create an Instagram profile that stands out.