Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 5 i Black & White Photography The Complete Manual

Although we will be talking about how to train your mind’s eye to see the black and white potential of the colour world around us unaided, there is a great method that helps to kick things off and give you some rapid feedback on how your image might look in black and white. The current crop of point and shoot cameras and the more advanced DSLR’s have the facility to record images in black and white. A lot of them even have the ability to add effects and styles to the images before they even get to your computer. We want to concentrate on the very simple setting that basically turns your device into a black and white camera with the option to add simulated colour filters to affect the…

PORTRAITS The power of the black and white portrait cannot be denied. A wise soul once said: ‘If you want fashion, shoot in colour. If you want emotion, shoot in black and white.’ As we’ve mentioned before, there is a power and depth to a black and white shot that is often swamped by colour. The story behind a shot is easier to comprehend when it is in black and white and the distraction of colour has gone. Even if there is no real story being presented in the shot, you can suddenly find yourself paying more attention to a black and white portrait. Texture, form and tone become important to the shot. It draws you in more than a colour shot ever could. “As we’ve mentioned before, there is…

LIGHTING Over the course of time, as photography and photographic equipment developed, the medium moved from only shooting with available light over the course of extremely long exposure times, to the use of additional light sources such as constant artificial light and flashes. Now that photographers were employing flash in their setups, it became apparent over time, that there were several basic lighting configurations that gave excellent and repeatable results when it came to lighting a portrait or any kind of scene. It was common to note down these configurations and create lighting diagrams that the photographer could refer back to if they wanted to use that particular setup again. As time went on, it was clear that were a few setups that were favoured above all others when it…

“…it is possible to create photographs that stand on their own as works of art without the burden of context.” The techniques of black and white photography are well suited to abstract art. The world seen without colour is already one step removed from the everyday perceived reality. Adding techniques such as selective focus, narrow depth of field, extreme contrast; and by paying attention to composition, contrast and lighting; it is possible to create photographs that stand on their own as works of art without the burden of context. An everyday object or scene, when photographed in a particular way, can take on an unreal appearance, elevating them above the mundane. Something as simple as a supermarket trolley, the branch of a tree or the smoke from a cigarette, shot…

“…a good wide-angle prime lens starts at around 14mm, capturing 114° field of view.” Advanced compact Advanced compacts are designed for more experienced photographers, and offer superior photographic versatility and quality, as well as advanced creative features such as manual exposure controls, manual focusing, optical viewfinders and external flash connections. They are considerably more expensive than other types of compact, with prices ranging from around £300 to over £500. There are relatively few models in this category, with examples including the Olympus XZ-2, the Panasonic LX5 and the Canon PowerShot G15. There is an even more rarefied category that has appeared more recently of advanced compacts with larger sensors. Notable examples include the Sony RX1, the Fujifilm X series and the Canon G1 X Mk2. Prices range from around £500…

While it’s quick and easy to add filters to an image during editing, you can often get better results by adding filters to the camera before taking the photo. Filters have been an essential part of photography since its very beginnings. Used creatively, they can improve a hard-to-capture scene, add an extra artistic element to an image, or just provide a bit of fun. Modern digital photo editing has provided an almost too easy method to add filter effects to an image after it has been taken; but some effects are better when applied by actual physical filters fitted to the camera when the photo is taken, and this is particularly true with black and white photography. Let’s take a look at some of the different types of filter, and…

With the huge popularity of digital photography, more and more people are taking more and more photographs. In fact there are more photos being taken today than ever before. However, most of those photos will never be seen by anyone except the person who took them, because hardly anyone prints their photos anymore. This is very odd, because many people have home computers with photo-quality printers that are more than capable of producing first-class prints from almost any digital photograph. Printers are ludicrously cheap, to the point that when your printer runs out of ink it’s almost cheaper to throw it away and buy a new one than it is to buy more ink. In this section we’ll also take a look at the resurgence in black and white film…

Despite the rise to dominance of digital technology in both amateur and professional photography over the past 20 years, film photography has never quite entirely died out. I’ve often compared it to recorded music; while CDs and MP3s are more convenient, easier to use, more durable, easier to share and arguably more environmentally friendly, there is still a small specialist market for vinyl records. It’s the same with photography; digital cameras are more convenient and easier to use, and digital images are easier to share, more durable and certainly more environmentally friendly, but there are still a small number of enthusiasts who prefer film. It’s also true that despite all the advances in digital sensor technology, under the right circumstances a good film camera can still produce a better picture…

Note: Always use a red safelight when handling photographic paper. Many thanks to Jeffrey Evans and Exeter College for their generous help and the loan of their excellent darkroom for this article! 01 The first step is to mix up your chemicals. You’ll need enough to fill your trays to a depth of about half an inch. Temperature control isn’t as critical as it is for film, but you should aim for about 20 degrees C. 02 Use three separate trays for developer, stop bath and fixer, and always use the same tray for each chemical to avoid cross-contamination. Use paper handling tongs to keep chemicals off your hands. If you have sensitive skin use chemical-resistant gloves. 03 Prepare your enlarger. Place the masking frame on the enlarger bed, with…

There was a time, not that long ago, when image editing meant producing a black and white print in a darkroom under an enlarger; and when the image was processed and fixed, breaking out the brush and ink and physically painting on the print to ‘retouch’ it to enhance or remove blemishes. Things have changed quite a lot since then. One of the great things about digital images is that it’s very easy to improve or alter them using the right computer software. There are dozens of image editing packages available, ranging from simple, easy-to-use programs costing under £20, all the way up to the professional-standard Adobe Photoshop, which costs over £600. On the following pages you’ll find a selection of tips and techniques for improving and altering your images.…

PHOTOSHOP It is quite popular to convert your images to black and white, but then to return part of the image to its original colour. This is done to create a small splash of colour that is instantly picked out of its surroundings to draw the eye to that point. It is a simple and fun way to enhance your black and white images. We show you how it’s done in this simple tutorial. 01 First of all, you will need a colour original. We have used a shot of some coloured pencils from Shutterstock. We have a great range of colours that should convert to black and white with no issue. 02 Create a duplicate image by pressing Cmd + J. Select that duplicate and convert it to mono…

PHOTOSHOP It is often the case when out on a shoot that you will encounter a situation where the lighting conditions and dynamic range of the scene you are trying to capture are beyond the capability of your camera. If you expose the shot for the sky, your foreground can become too dark; but if you expose the scene so the shadow areas are correct, then the sky overexposes to the point where detail is lost. As long as you have a tripod you can get around this issue by taking multiple exposures that encompass the full dynamic range of the scene. Typically this is achieved by taking 3, 5, 7 or more incremental exposures that can range from -3 EV (3 stops underexposure) up to +3 EV (3 stops…

PHOTOSHOP As with most photographic techniques, it’s possible to duplicate the effect of graduated filters using Adobe Photoshop, and as usual there are several ways to accomplish this. For this example we’ll use an image of the harbour town of Brixham in Devon, taken on an overcast but bright day with a washed out sky. You could convert the image to black and white as it stands, but you may not be able to recover detail from the sky, it makes sense to add all your filter effects whilst it is still in colour to increase your chances of a more successful mono conversion later on. 01 Since this photo was taken using Raw mode, we can use the Graduated Filter tool in Adobe Camera Raw to add the effect…

PHOTOSHOP Even with the sophisticated technology in the light metering systems of modern digital cameras, they are not infallible. Some lighting conditions can confuse them, resulting in pictures that are over- or under-exposed. Severe over-exposure where large areas are burned-out white, or under-exposure resulting in areas of featureless black, are generally impossible to correct; but between those two extremes is it often possible to rescue a badly exposed photo. Over-exposure tends to be more of a problem, since burned-out highlights contain no detail, but digital cameras are surprisingly good at capturing detail in areas that might initially look like featureless black. As a result it’s usually possible to rescue shots that are quite badly under-exposed. 01 The quickest and easiest way to brighten the photo is to simply turn up…

You cannot talk about black and white photography without talking a little about the history of photography itself. The two are inextricably linked because all we had to begin with, at the dawn of the medium, was black and white. It goes without saying that the equipment and techniques we have today are a far cry from those early days when the pioneers of photography were experimenting with how to collect light, light-sensitive materials and equipment to capture and focus the image. The story of black and white photography, although cited as beginning sometime in the 1800s, actually goes back much further in history to the days of Aristotle around 384-322 BC. Aristotle understood the principle of the camera obscura (dark chamber), although at the time there was no known…

TOP TIPS 1 Shoot in colour and in Raw A lot of modern cameras have socalled creative functions that give you the option to capture your images in black and white at the outset. Doing this may actually result in a loss of tonal range. If you shoot in colour and especially in Raw format, you will be capturing the full gamut of tonality that your camera’s sensor can see. This is a much better starting point with more control than an in-camera mono image. It won’t stop you if your camera can’t shoot Raw, and you have to use jpegs instead; just keep them in colour. 2 Keep your ISO low The lower your ISO, the less grainy the images will be. If it means you need a tripod…

If you find you are getting serious about shooting portraits, but you have been limited to shooting with available light only, why not consider getting yourself a couple of flashes? The ability to control your own lighting is key to adding an extra level of creativity that shooting with ambient light alone can’t offer. There is a saying that if a serious photographer is shooting a portrait with ambient light alone, and standing next to him is a complete amateur with a similar camera and lens setup, chances are high that they could produce broadly similar shots (we will forego the fact that chances are equally high the amateur’s sense of composition and ability to focus accurately may have a bearing). The fact is, you may find you need something…

High-key lighting was originally developed for the film and television industry back in the days when the available technology was not capable of capturing high contrast ratios. A scene that had a large range of tones from deepest black to brightest white would have been impossible to capture with old technology. So, they came up with high-key lighting. The idea is that increased lighting reduces the range of tones between black and white, or eliminates the darkest shadows altogether, making it easier to capture and display those tones that are in the image. Simply put, black and dark tones are reduced, mid-tone areas become much brighter, and bright and near-white areas are pushed to white. Over time, though, it has become a stylistic and creative option for filmmakers and photographers…

Whereas high-key photography is seen as the process of ‘shooting to the right’, where all the brightest tones are packed on the far right of the histogram. Low-key, as you might imagine, is the reverse of that. A proper low-key shot will have the majority of the tones in the histogram far to the left, even to the point where shadows are ‘clipped’ and therefore totally black. It is perfectly suited to being converted to black and white, often looking more striking than its colour counterpart. Bear in mind that, although you are capturing a predominantly dark image, it is how you control those tones that will create a striking and memorable low-key image. Because you are normally using a one light setup, it is easy to keep moving the…

You can find abstract images in the most commonplace locations; in fact it’s a useful educational exercise to go to a place you wouldn’t think of as a photographic location and see if you can shoot at least three good photos there. This shot of a battered shopping trolley casting a stark shadow on a concrete wall was taken in a supermarket car park in Bournemouth. The contrasting textures and strong lines make a striking composition; and by zooming in and isolating just a small part of the subject, those qualities are emphasised. The photo definitely has a distinct mood despite its humble origins. It was shot in raw mode on a Minolta Dimage 7Hi at close range and nearly maximum zoom, and converted to monochrome in Adobe Camera Raw.…

Most of the cameras mentioned on the previous pages can be used for portrait work. To be honest, if you are always going to be shooting in natural light conditions and don’t require large apertures and high ISO capability, then even the cheapest Compact System Camera will produce acceptable results. As you grow in confidence and experience as a portrait photographer, however, you may find that your once do-it-all compact camera may be lacking in certain abilities, and that non-interchangeable lens is limiting your creative choices. You’ll feel like you’ve outgrown your camera and need to step it up. This is where the Digital SLR can help. There are a number of major manufacturers such as Sony, Pentax, Olympus, Nikon and Canon. They produce a range of crop-sensor and full-frame…

The Cokin Creative Filter System A more affordable alternative to circular filters is the versatile Cokin system, which uses square acetate filters and a special screw on holder [1]. Invented by French photographer Jean Coquin and introduced in 1978, the Cokin Creative Filter System has grown to become the most popular filter system in the world, and has spawned many imitators who make filters and other accessories that are compatible with the Cokin system. The idea is very simple; rather than buying separate filters for every lens, the Cokin system has a single filter holder into which rectangular plastic filters are slotted. The filter holder is attached to the front of the lens by an adaptor ring which has a thread to match the diameter of the lens’s filter thread.…

Home photo printing from digital images is a cheap and easy way to share and display your photographs. Let’s take a look at the two main types of home photo printer. There are two main types of photo printer in common home use. By far the most common is the inkjet printer, which includes most of the models from most of the major manufacturers, including Epson, Canon, Lexmark and Hewlett Packard. They operate on a fairly simple principle. The printer has a head which moves rapidly over the surface of the paper. In this head are a number of tiny nozzles, through which minute droplets of ink are forced, spraying onto the paper in small but precisely measured quantities, as many as 30,000 droplets per second. The actual method by…

PHOTOSHOP There’s a lot more to the process of converting a colour picture to monochrome than simply removing the colour. Photographers shooting on black and white film will use coloured filters to produce certain effects in the finished photo; a yellow or orange filter will darken a blue sky, while a green filter will brighten trees and grass. When editing digital images, since colour is present in the original image some conversion methods allow you to apply similar filtering effects during the conversion process to change the tone of objects in the image. By changing the filter settings you can make clouds stand out against a dark sky, highlight trees and foliage, or change the relative contrast of objects in the composition. Let’s take a look at some of the…

ELEMENTS There will come a time when your widest lens just won’t be wide enough to capture the scale and grandeur of a particular landscape. This is where the ability to capture a panoramic sequence of shots and combine them into a much wider or higher resolution image comes in very handy. The process is pretty straightforward and just requires a little bit of thought regarding the approach to the sequence you are about to capture. Essentially you are going to take a number of stills, rotating the camera a few degrees left to right with each shot taken, while allowing enough overlap from image to image so that they can be stitched together. This can be achieved with programs like Photoshop, PT GUI or Hugin, that rely on features…

PHOTOSHOP 01 We will show you the Photoshop method first. Firstly you will need to open your Raw file from Photoshop. Go to File > Open and navigate to where your target Raw is kept. 02 Choose the Raw file and double-click it to open it. Our example is a sunrise image that is underexposed. It can be useful to choose images that are underexposed, rather than overexposed, as you can usually recover more detail. 03 Because it is a Raw file, it will open in Adobe Camera Raw ready for processing. Make only basic adjustments, try not to overdo brightness and contrast. Click Open Image when done to open it in Photoshop. 04 We have our base image ready to be given an HDR makeover. It is underexposed and…

PHOTOSHOP Sometimes a digital photograph can be the wrong size. Maybe you’ve got too much of the surroundings in the picture, when you wanted to concentrate on just the main subject; or maybe the whole image is too big, and you need to make it smaller to send via email or publish on a website. Doing both of these things is very quick and simple in Photoshop. As a starting image we’ll use this moorland picture. What we want to do first is crop it down so we just have the granite tor centred in the frame. 01 The best tool for the job is, not surprisingly, the Crop tool. You’ll find it in the tool palette, fourth down from the top. It looks a bit like two set-squares. 02…

Abstract photography A means of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the real world. AMOLED Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode. A new type of display technology used in mobile devices and televisions, and in the monitors of some digital cameras. Has several advantages over LCD, including using less power. Aperture Behind the lens of your camera is a movable circular iris which opens and closes to control the amount of light falling on the sensor. This is usually controlled by the light meter, although some cameras have a manual aperture control. Altering the aperture also changes the depth of field. Aperture priority This is one of the semi-manual exposure options found on some cameras. The user sets the aperture according to the depth of field…

“It seems nothing can diminish the power and allure of the black and white image.” From its distant origins and development through the 1800s, right up to todays’ most modern digital cameras and software, the black and white image has left an indelible legacy. It seems nothing can diminish the power and allure of the black and white image. Indeed, it can be noted that some of the greatest and most iconic images ever captured, were done through the medium of black and white. From a projected image appearing within a darkened room or box, to the daguerreotype, to gelatin-silver prints, to modern day advanced digital imaging, this whole technology needed a name. The term ‘photography’ is said to have been proposed by the scientist and noted astronomer Sir John…

LANDSCAPE For many people new to the world of photography, one of the easiest and most accessible areas first explored with a new camera is the great outdoors. And why not? You don’t need a studio or masses of expensive equipment; there is plenty of available light, unless you’re feeling adventurous and want to try night photography; and beautiful seaside or countryside scenes are usually not too far away by car or a brisk walk. Landscape photography is an amazing and rewarding experience for both novice and seasoned professional. Whether it’s just a record of a day trip you’ve made to a new location or a more serious professional endeavour, landscapes, when taken well, are able to instill all sorts of emotions in the person looking at the shot. Even…

LIGHTING 1 Unmodified flash This is our default with which to compare the other types of light modifiers. Shadows falling on the subject are quite sharp and dark. The flash also creates a fairly well-defined and deep shadow behind the subject. Flash coverage can be altered to a certain degree by being able to ‘zoom’ the flash tube back and forth inside the flash head housing to match zoom settings on your lens. 2 Flash with wide panel The wide panel is a small built-in diffuser that can spread the flash output wider. Particularly useful if you are shooting a large group of people with a wide angle lens and need wider lighting coverage. Note that the shadows are largely the same as the unmodified flash with perhaps a slight…

Choosing a camera and lens for landscape or portrait photography may seem daunting at first because there is so much choice out there. Manufacturers inundate us with features and gadgets that they tell us make their camera so much better than everyone else’s. The truth is, if you strip away all the marketing ploys and technobabble, there is a wealth of choice available for every budget and skill level. The trick is cutting through all the hype. With a little research and keeping a budget in mind, there are some great camera systems waiting for you. So dive in and begin your photographic journey. The next few pages will give the low-down on the various camera systems out there. Here are some of the things you need to know. “With…

If you want to take better photographs, the single most useful accessory you can buy is a good quality tripod. By using a tripod you can completely eliminate camera shake, the number one cause of unsatisfactory photos. A tripod is also essential when using long exposures, powerful telephoto lenses or when shooting in low light conditions. There are many different makes and types of tripod, from cheap budget models costing under £15 up to professional-grade tripods made of carbon fibre and magnesium alloy which cost hundreds of pounds. They come in all sizes too, from pocket-sized mini-tripods suitable for small compact cameras, to heavy studio tripods mounted on castors. The type that you should buy depends on how much you want to spend and what sort of photography you’re going…

Even though the final result is a colourless monochrome image, colour filters have a very useful role in black and white photography. Regardless of whether you opt for circular screw-on filters or the Cokin Creative Filter system, there are certain filters that you’ll want to have with you when you shoot in black and white, and ironically these are colour correction filters. Even though the final image will be in colourless monochrome, the scene you’re photographing is in colour; and by using coloured filters it is possible to alter how different colours will appear in the final image. For instance, if you shoot through a red filter, anything in the scene that is coloured red will appear brighter, while anything that is coloured blue or green will appear darker. Many…

There are many brands and styles of photo printing paper on the market. Which one is right for you? There are many different kinds of paper that you can put through a domestic inkjet printer, but not all of them are suitable for printing photographs. If you’ve ever tried printing a photo on ordinary copier paper you’ll know how terrible the results can be. The paper ends up saturated with ink which runs together giving a blurred and muddy picture, the paper crinkles as it dries, and the result is a messy, chalky finish. What you need to use is proper photo printing paper. It is designed with a special coating that absorbs the ink and bonds it to the paper, producing sharp rich colours and a smooth even finish.…

Note: Steps 1-5 must be carried out in complete darkness! 01 In darkness, use a crown-cap bottle opener to remove the end cap from the film canister and remove the film. Unspool the film and detach the end from the reel, and use scissors to carefully snip off about a quarter of an inch from the corners of the end of the film. 02 Still in darkness, thread the snipped end of the film into the track of the developing spiral and push it in a couple of inches until the sprocket holes engage with the two ball bearing ratchets indicated by the red squares. 03 Once the film has engaged with the ratchets, twist the sides of the spiral backwards and forwards, alternately gripping the sprocketed edge of the…

SILVER EFEX All the previous mono conversion methods we have shown you have their place, and many of them work extremely well. However, there have been a number of Photoshop plug-ins developed recently that are designed for black and white conversion alone. They eke out every last pixel of data from your image to turn it into a beautiful monochrome photo. One of the most highly regarded plug-ins is Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro. It is one of a suite of plug-ins they make that are designed to convert and enhance your images at the touch of a button and the tweaking of a slider. Recently bought by Google, it is still the premier set of plug-ins for image enhancement. Silver Efex Pro has become the go-to plug-in of choice…

PHOTOSHOP Dodging and burning have their roots in the days of analogue photography, long before digital cameras and computers were in use. Dodging refers to the technique of lightening an image at the darkroom stage by reducing the exposure of a photographic print in specific areas. Burning is the opposite, where parts of the image are exposed for longer onto the print, making those areas darker. With the advent of digital technology the process is done on a computer, but the basic principle and its terminology remain the same. In our example we take a basic black and white image that is lacking in contrast and, using the dodge and burn techniques, we can selectively add brightness and contrast to produce a much stronger image. 01 Open the image you…

PHOTOSHOP There are plenty of tutorials out there showing you how to restore old photos, but what if you want to do the exact opposite? How can you take a modern full-colour digital photograph and make it look like it was shot 80 years ago? The classic look for old photographs is something called “sepia toning”. Sepia toned photographs have a distinctive yellow-brown colour. It was popular up until at least the 1930s, so you’ve probably seen examples of it in old photo albums. Any photos of your grandparents or great-grandparents in their youth will probably be sepia toned. BEFORE 1 The Hue/Saturation method This sepia effect is quite easy to reproduce using any of the popular image editing programs. We’re going to use Adobe Photoshop CS6 of course, but the…

PHOTOSHOP The term vignette comes from the French for ‘little vine’. It is a reference to the decorative designs in books used to separate chapters or adorn the borders of pages. These days, the term is associated with the graphic process that creates a loss of clarity, or change in brightness of the corners and sides of an image. In photographic terms, vignetting is an unwanted change in edge brightness created by certain lenses; but to create drama in a finished image, or to focus our attention to a specific part of an image, it is a positive boon. In black and white images particularly, the vignette is a useful graphic device to add focus and drama. There are quite a few ways to add a vignette to an image…

ELEMENTS When you’re shooting landscapes or architecture, or even when just taking snapshots of your family on holiday, if you don’t keep your camera level you’re going to end up with a sloping horizon or buildings that look like they’re leaning over. Unless you’re holidaying in Pisa this is something you want to avoid, but accidents will happen. Fortunately it’s possible to correct tilted shots using Photoshop Elements by rotating and cropping the image. It’s very easy to rotate an image in Photoshop Elements, to bring the horizon back to the straight and level, and to stop buildings looking like they’re about to topple over. In fact it’s such a common operation that the program provides several different ways to perform it. Which method you choose depends on the particular…