Black and White Photography Tips & Tricks Many camera lovers adore black and white photography, and it is often thought of an upper-class style of imagery. It is, after all, the very root of modern photography and can make an image look classical and sophisticated. What Makes a Good Black and White Photograph? Capturing a strong, effective black and white image can be extremely satisfying. Great black and white photography relies heavily on a good understanding of tone, texture and contrast. Far from being boring, black and white images can be dramatic and emotive – if you know what you are doing! Before you start on a B&W adventure, you really need to appreciate and understand how tones in B&W work, compared to coloured images. This is because when you take a picture and convert all the colours into shades of grey, suddenly the lighting, tone, contrast, shape, and texture become the major striking elements. Of course, there are some subjects that work better in black and white than others, such as portraits and architecture. Why these subjects though? Firstly, for portraits, black and white enhances emotion and feeling, the distracting colour is all stripped away, and it allows the audience to connect with the subject’s eyes, body and expression. With architectural photography, buildings demonstrate their best shape and form in black and white. Therefore, it can help us to see their strong structural lines in clear definition away from the background, providing you’ve positioned the camera correctly! Subjects such as flowers, food, close-ups and abstract photography don’t always work as well. There is a necessary level of colour...
Low Key Photography Welcome to the Dark Side Low Key photography is one of the most challenging forms of photography, for any range of shooters. Here at iPhotography, we often find our students getting mixed up between Low Key and High Key; therefore, to set things straight, and cast away any shadows of doubt, we have decided that this week we will focus our attention on Low Key photography (dark). The one thing we particularly like about Low Key photography is the ability it holds to add drama and hard-hitting emotion within a shot. Before you start out on your shoot, you will need: • Camera • Tripod (or steady surface) • One light source (natural or artificial) • Black background or dark setting Individual camera settings will depend on you as a photographer, this is under your control. We recommend that you start with a low f number to take in the most light and then adjust from there accordingly. For shot’s like this, depending on what source of light you are working with, it is best to use faster shutter speeds – especially if using triggers. Although Low and High Key photography is covered within the iPhotographyCourse in Module 9 (Black and White), don’t feel that this technique is restricted to only black and white photography; sometimes a pop of colour really brings your photographs to life. To get the best out of your Low Key shot, you need to bear in mind illumination and elimination. Because very little will be visible in the image, it is important to carefully consider where you want the light to...
