AsiaPaul Loc: Vietnam

Going to try and focus ( excuse the pun) on only using my new 35mm 1.8 during an upcoming photo walk and shoot in black and white.

Living in a small town in China there are scores of photo opportunities. Any suggestions on shooting in black and white? Weather will most likely be cloudy or raining.

Thanks

AP

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Cloudy, rainy, and overcast are perfect for B&W. I'm looking forward to your shots.

AsiaPaul Loc: Vietnam

Thanks Jerry. Any suggestions on ISO?

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Here are some notes from Outdoor Photographer magazine. Be sure to shoot in color, as you will get better tonal ranges when you convert.

So much of b&w is about contrasts:
1. tonal contrast - contrast in brightness of objects in your scene, and light vs. shadow.
2. textural contrast - sidelight and backlight can be useful here.
3. sharpness contrast - using telephoto at wide apertures, with good distance between subject and background.

How to visualize a scene in black & white
1. Focus on light, highlights, shadows, tonalities, form. Take a step back from looking at a scene literally and focus on seeing in the abstract of shades of gray.
2. Be aware of the sky. Use a polarizing filter on the camera, or in pp. Accentuate the effect with a subtle gradiant filter in pp.
3. Look at shadows as forms. View camera users saw the image upside down, which helps with this visualization. Digital camera users need to force our brains to do it. With practice, becomes easier.
4. Colors tend to be midtones. When viewing a landscape, focus on seeing the colors as midtones, then determine the best composition as a combination of midtones and shapes.

Shooting in diffused light allows you to shoot in any direction, and capture lots of detail. Then in pp you can build up contrast. If you want to bring out subtle details in shadows and highlights, try dodging and burning by using a very small brush (with image zoomed to 400% or more), and Overlay mode with black and white...NOT the dodging or burning tool.

Deciding on black & white or color in the field:
- A black and white image shot in bright mid-day sun will usually be better than a color version.
- Scenes or subjects that rely strongly on hue, saturation and luminance will make color images stand out.
- Photos consisting of shapes, forms, textures, patterns SHADOWS and LIGHT will likely look better in b&w than color.
- Harsh lighting with sharp contrast that provides distinct separation, depth and dimension between objects and edges will work very well in b&w.
- Gray, overcast skies do not usually look good in b&w, whereas solid blue can render as black. Dark blue skies with puffy white clouds also great b&w.

Filters for the field when shooting b&w: graduated neutral density, polarizer. Leave rest for pp.

Shoot in raw. In initial pp, may be best to adjust chromatic aberration (sometimes better to do once converted; try both). Adjust white balance and tonality before converting. Also might need to darken highlights, lighten shadows.
These edits are NOT recommended before convert to b&w: vibrance, saturation, luminance. Save the file before converting to b&w and keep a copy as a point of reference.

Foreground/background relationships:
When color is lacking, it's things like brightness, contrast, pattern, sharpness that instructs viewers where to look first and how to explore the rest of the frame. The human eye is drawn to the brighest element within the frame. Dodge and burn to control the viewer's experience of the photograph.

AsiaPaul Loc: Vietnam

Thank you. Lot of information

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I think you will enjoy shooting with your 35mm, I love shooting with my 50mm on my Df. Shooting with a prime lens can give you a whole new outlook on perspective, composition and framing.
As far as shooting in B&W, you may want to consider shooting in color and converting to B&W in post. If you shoot B&W in the camera, all you will have is B&W. If you shoot in color then convert in post, you will still have the color original as well as the B&W conversion.
Have fun.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

A lot depends on your camera, but getting the shot is better than avoiding all noise. Go as high as necessary to maintain a good shutter speed.

Michael Hartley Loc: Deer Capital of Georgia

I would say tones are most important. When you convert to B&W, you're just working with tones of Black, to almost White. At least that's what I tell people who send me something b&w to print. Sometimes, they have to redo a couple times, some like not having any tonal contrast.

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

:thumbup: :thumbup:
I might add that if you set your camera to monochrome and shoot in raw, your in-camera previews will be in B&W, but when you import them they will be in color. It's a great way to get on the scene feedback while shooting and still have all the color data for B&W conversion in post.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Mirror this comment. The tones of the red of a red apple and the green of the green leaves might be close in monochrome so as to be virtually the same. Having the "colors" available by shooting the scene in raw, allows you to individually adjust the tones for red & green (in this example).

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I did not know this, thanks for the tip. I try this next time out. :thumbup:

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

You're welcome. Like you, I love to shoot with my Df and a 50mm 1.8. Great combo, and the monochrome view trick is great when I head downtown for some B&W city shots.

AlMac Loc: Newcastle Upon Tyne - UK

When shooting in monochrome mode, your JPGs and preview are converted in camera to B&W. The RAW files are as recorded by your sensor without the pp.

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

+++++++++++++++

Good points for sure...

I have found that capturing any image in COLOR and later, if one has the desire to, convert it into a Shades of Gray (B&W) image in post-editing.
In Fact - I have found the use of an H.D.R. program to really "grunge" it up -- Then convert to B&W in another program.
I too feel that the B&W photographs which I have done, reflects MORE of my true feelings into the photographic print.

bweber Loc: Newton, MA

I agree with those who wrote that you should shoot RAW and set your camera to view the image in B & W. This will let you see an approximation of your final image but will give you the complete RAW file to work with in pp. I like to correct the exposure and other basic settings in the raw color image before I work on the B & W image. Be careful with your histogram when shooting. You should be able to bring out most details in the blacks from the left side of your histogram, but you will have trouble bringing out any details in your whites if you go beyond the right side of your histogram. I would "shoot to the left". There are a number of good applications for post processing raw images into b & w. I used to use silverEfex pro and I liked it a lot. I recently moved to Capture 1 and like it even better.
Good luck. Please share your work.