how do i shoot good black and white photographs?

Answer 1

A professional quality camera and the right film. Maybe even a photography class.

Answer 2

Let's assume you are talking about B&W film. If you are creating images, developing the film and printing the photos in a darkroom the effort can be difficult to master. If you concentrate on each stage of the process you can display work that viewers will envy.

First, pick a subject that you enjoy photographing. If you like people create a portrait. If you like scenics work on your landscapes. If you have a manuel camera be careful with your exposure. Over exposing the film blocks the highlights, under exposure blocks the shadows. You want to capture a broad range of detail in the image. You want to show the detail of the cloth or the small object hidden in the shadows.

Pick the right film speed to do the job. If you are shooting in low light situations use a higher ASA (ISO) film 400+. There is a trade off with this. Faster speed means more grain. Somewhere in the past "grain" became a dirty word. The efforts to reduce grain in film are captured in numerous books. I never let grain bother me too much. I was more concerned with capturing the event on film.

If you have plenty of light or are shooting with flash or hot lights you can use a slower speed film. The advantages are smoother texture and more detail in the shodow and highlight areas of the image.

When you develope the film pay attention to temperature and agitation. Set up a consistant method of processing the film so you have predictable results. There are tons of different developers on the market (that is rapidly changing due to digital) to process the film. You might want to explore them and note the differences they make. Use fresh chemistry. Use an acurate thermometer.

When you print the images (after a careful edit) begin with fresh chemistry. You can stretch the life of the fix but dump the developer and start new each day. When you print I would suggest using a variable contrast paper. This gives you a little more control if you haven't performed any of the above steps. (When you get a little more experienced you can go to graded paper.) I like my prints to snap with contrast. This is were you get to interpret what the image will look like. This is your vision. You choose to print in high contrast or flat grays. (I hate flat prints...drives me nuts!)

This was what I did for decades. I learned the physics of light and the basic use of chemistry but the entire process of photography turned magical as I watched the image appear in the developer tray. I was hooked at 14 years old.

If you are digital, that is a whole different story.
You still need to watch expose. If you blow out the highlights (the detail in the lightest part of the image) there is very little you can do to fix it. Learn to play with light. Observe the world around you and watch as the light changes during the course of the day. (generally early in the morning and late in the afternoon are best) Page through books and magazines and see what other photographers are doing. Experiment.....photography is a very personal form of communication. What do you want to say to someone looking at the image hanging on the wall. Have you removed any clutter from the image with good cropping (this also means there are more ways than one to crop an image)? Is there a good tonal range in the image (clean whites to black blacks)?

All of this goes into making good B&W prints. (It also means that if you are using photoshop you can do better that just converting an image from RGB to grayscale!)

Sorry for being so wordy. Good Luck.

Answer 3

Practice, Practice, Practice! Use lots of film, the more the better. Start in color (cheaper) always take pictures of different places, different scenes, or hell, just a different angle. Most people don't know, but a camera can only take you so far. Look at something with a lot of light, the more white in the photograph the better. Get something old or just old looking to begin with, like... a train, or just railroad tracts, trees, grave stones... old buildings, stuff like that always looks good in black and white. Just keep Practicing, as much as you may hate it, it helps.

Answer 4

As a photography student I have found that this differs from film and digital. If you are usingh film then you are obviously using black and white film, make sure your shots are very well lit and white balances are done correctly. If you are suing digital then it is much easier if you shoot colour and use software such as Adobe photshop to alter the shot to black and white. This is better because you can manually take out colour and light as apose to been stuck with a black and white original. Hope this helps

Answer 5

For higher contrast, use a red filter. And (as stated before) set your camera to black and white mode rather than doing it later in Photoshop. Above all, remember that without color the most important things are shape and shadow. Without either, your photos will be very boring.

-- Richard Rasner
Nakayama Studios

Answer 6

Avoid shooting when there's strong sunlight or cloudless skies, as black and white landscapes look far better with lots of sky detail. (Clear blue sky comes out pure white).
Get some inspiration by looking at black and white photos in books and photography magazines.

Answer 7

I had experience with black and white photos, it always seemed to turn out better with fresh chemicals, instead of days old ones. Also you can adjust the lighting with a different lens to get different results. Basically it's an expirement.

Answer 8

Firstly, you have to see and read more of other people's photos.

Second, have a good understand of structure, lighting, theme.

Third, practise more by using your digital camera (change to Black and white).

I like taking photos, too.
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Answer 9

Good llighting and shadows besides the proper exposure, not to mention plenty of experience and apretiation for the art.

Answer 10

if you have a really good camara then you can change it to black and white and then take it like a regular picture. and if you dont have a good camara then you can take it to like walmart or something and put it in black and white where there you take the picture regular