bertnie

Hello All...
I have been in digital for several years now...shoot with a Nikon D700 and a D7100...
Have recently become intrigued with black and white images...How to make "wow" black & whites?
Any and all advice appreciated.

Thanks,
Bert

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I have three ways that all produce slightly different results. They are Lightroom, NIK Silver Effects Pro 2 and Topaz B&W Effects 2. I get better results shooting RAW and all three have more than enough "slider" controls.

The "trick" with black and white is to get all the way to a print that has a little detail in the darkest of black and a little detail in the brightest of white.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Along with any technical advice you receive, keep in mind that black & white is about light, texture, shapes, shadows. Many images shot in color do not make an impact as b&w.

Here are some tips (scroll below the images): Also, the August issue of Outdoor Photographer magazine had some wonderful articles.

http://webneel.com/25-best-black-and-white-photography-examples-and-tips-beginners

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

Keep in mind that higher contrast scenes will lend themselves better to B&W than more even toned ones will.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

If you are shooting with b&w in mind I recommend you shoot RAW and in monochrome. Your image will still be captured in color with the RAW data. I process mine with NIK. Good luck.

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Look at images by Ansel Adams the master of B/W photography. Read and understand his zone method and choose your subjects so that they have plenty of contrast.
NIK is a great mono converter.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

A good way to learn the basics of monochrome is to do conversions in Lightroom in the HSL section. Lightroom is a better monochrome converter than most folks realize and doing conversions this way helped me learn about colors and tonalities so that when I added Silver Efex I understood what it was doing and wasn't just dependent on the presets.

pterosonus Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio USA

I agree with Eric H. Shooting in B&W is also good for harsh mid-day sun when color pics don't look so hot.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Download a 30 day trial of TopazLabs.com B&W2. Does more than just B&W does many classic photography antique looks.

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

Very good advice. Shooting in raw monochrome will give you instant feedback while in the field and you still have all of the color data for post.
I plan on going out tomorrow with a friend to do just that, one camera, one lens, all day in mono. Should be fun.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

They can if treated properly during conversion

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

Go take a course or two on B&W.
I don't and haven't done anything like anything anyone described here.

1) I could care less about angel Adams zone system. If I did know (and focused on it)it wouldn't make me any better. I would recommend you look at a lot of quality images and understand what good is. Trying to replicate a technique or system that was done a half century ago may make you feel good, but in the end you'll probably end up with just a bad copy of something that your friends will all lie to you about,
2) having good light is just as important for B&W as it is shooting in color. The probability of you getting a good portrait shot in bright sun is about 0 whether it is in color or B&W.
3) I haven't found a plugin for photoshop yet that can consistently produce a quality B&W. All of them may help but the way contrast is added to an image to form contrast is truly an art. A plugin with all of its presets and tweaking capability is still not enough to create consistently impactful B&W's.
subject matters...subject matters... subject matters.
4) if you still want to incorporate plugins into your work I recommend NIK or OnOne's. I use them both about 50% of the time in forming a base for B&W images.

How good you get is going to be determined by what your view of quality is. Don't become a legend in your own mind. Struggle to improve by looking at quality images and discovering in your own mind why those images are good.
If you try to follow to much of a process your images are going to inevitably turn bad. Quality B&W imagery is truly art not a process.

Good luck on the never ending journey!
Russ

KennyMac Loc: Lynchburg, VA

Bert, I found a great B&W instructional video pkg, thru an advertisement, at www.udemy.com. "The Art of Black & White Photography" narrated by David Nightingale. They periodically have great specials and I decided to try it at a significant discount. David uses Photoshop exclusively and divides 6+ hours into 19 segments. His presentation is fantastic if you are familiar with Photoshop. You can download the pkg and work at your own pace. Check it out !
Ken

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

To study quality black and white work on UHH to get some ideas you should have a browse at the images of the person I think is the best mono worker on UHH. Graham Smith
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-237691-1.html

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I'm a believer in visualizing what you want while shooting, rather than the popular approach of "shoot now, figure it out later". At time of shooting, already think about how the image will translate to black and white, and compose the image accordingly. In other words, shoot with a clear vision of the final image in mind, and work with your camera towards that goal.

If it's not too inconvenient, train yourself by shooting with black and white film for a period of time. Soon enough, you will be able to see any given color scene in terms of black and white tones.