Learning to think in Black and White

Many professional photographers will choose not to do their work in color but just black and white, sometimes referred to as monochrome or mono for short. Using black and white will often give your images a classic look and can rescue a shot that otherwise looks washed out and lifeless. For the beginner black and white photography can also make you concentrate more on light, composition and character, rather than color. Consider black and white photography especially when shooting outside on overcast or rainy days. Look at puddles which may have distorted reflections in them. They may look grubby in colour but in black and white contrasting tones may well create a memorable image.

Being able to think in black and white is certainly an asset to wedding photographers in Northern Ireland. Our "unsettled" weather can be challenging and overcast skies often appear as washed out, boring pale grey expanses. A quick conversion to mono can reveal tonal depth which is not evident in colour and can create wonderfully atmospheric moods in your wedding photography.

You will find that black and white is a good choice for portraits too. Skin tone is a tricky thing in many color photographs; people tend to dislike close-up shots because they can clearly see any skin blemishes. Black and white can be very flattering and blemishes are easily removed without the added complication of colour matching. The stark contrast between someone’s bright face and a dull background is also more easily coped with.

In this portrait the skin tones are just a little too warm for my taste. It's fairly easy to deal with this but what if we convert the image to black and white?


 Now we have a much more striking portrait; the eyes, almost always the desired focal point in any portrait are much more prominent. The contrast between the light and dark tones causes the model's face to be clearly framed by her hair, an effect that is less obvious in the colour shot.

Using black and white pictures will also help you to focus on shapes and lines, details which are often overshadowed by bright colours. After a while you will develop an “eye” for what will look good in black and white. As mentioned above, overcast skies can look pale and boring in colour but when converted to black and white they can show great tonal contrast. A good example is this photo I took of Stonehenge. Take a look at some of your own photographs and try to pick out some which you think might look  more interesting in black and white. Don't wait for perfect weather to get out and about with your camera, you may have a long wait after all. Get out under cloudy skies and try to find your own monochrome masterpieces.