Photographing in Black and White
Black and white photography is a style on its own. You have to learn to see in black and white, compose differently, look for shadows, contrasts, highlights… Black and white photography is photography on its bare bones and you have to approach it with a different skillset than that used in colour photos. In this blog I’m gonna share my experience taking this type of photos and hopefully I’ll spark an interest in you to maybe try and shoot in mono.
How It started
After many years of being a smartphone photographer, I finally bought a camera and guess what? Exactly, I started photographing in color like everybody else, I followed on IG people that just ride hard the photographic trends, cinematic photos, you name it. So I get carried away. I forgive myself because beginnings are hard for anybody :)
So, anyways, after a few weeks I began looking for something that would resonate with me, with who I am and since I am a very simple guy I thought I would try to simplify my photos just shooting them in black and white. It worked. I got rid of a lot of noise and I could focus way more on composition, which was something I lacked of and I honestly believe it should be a must to any serious photographer.
How it’s going
So, after a few months practising, learning and failing… fast forward to today and I’m shooting 99% of my photos in black and white. Occasionally, there’s the cheeky colour photo when really colour is of the utmost importance. If not, black and white is my default.
As mainly a street photographer, my strongest tendency is to look for people. I think black and white suits my style very well, since I introduce a lot of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and I shoot with low shutter speeds to get this blurry, grainy looks that I love and people seem to ‘move’ in my photos.
I would here divide my style in two categories which are quite different from each other: Day and night.
My B&W Photography during the day
While there’s good natural light I try to look for patches of light, interesting buildings that offer good composition possibilities, how people interact with their surroundings, I also look for some abstracts and also during this time I tend not to push too much my ICM and I keep my shutter speed at around 1/250 minimum. However, this can change at any given time depending on what gets to my eye as we are ever evolving and change is part of the creative process.
So this moment is perfect to shoot some establishing photographies if we are somewhere new, for example. Good photos with no blur to let the viewer get the idea of where you are, what kind of architecture any particular city has to offer… During daytime I also look for small details that couldn’t be photographed at night with low light.
My B&W Photography at night
At night everything changes. It’s like I’m a different person, a different photographer. Here, I generally focus way more on people and most of the times I put the negative space technique to great use. I like these photos that suggest that you kind of spy on people, when you shoot from places where they can’t see you.
Contrary to the common standard among many Instagram photographers, at night I avoid neons and light from crowded places, restaurant, pubs… And I look for isolated places, streets with few people, usually selecting individuals rather than groups. I like my night photos to be really quite dark so I prefer a simple lamp post or a fluorescent light as my light source to create really gloomish and darkish images.
And yes, here all hell breaks loose, I fully step on the gas and I go for my ICM and I lower my shutter speeds since I love to create lots of blur and movement. Also, here I forget about my architecture and detail photography and almost exclusively shoot street photography.
General considerations
When shooting black and white, you have to think in black and white. It seems obvious but it’s not until you really get it. Setting your camera in BW Mode is my way to go and my main piece of advice. You cannot turn off colour in your eyes, but you’ll learn seeing the image in your screen. That’s important.
Once you are ready, look for things that are naturally monochromatic. Shadows, black clothes, scenes with high contrast will look perfect, too. Look for patterns, geometry, emotions in people’s faces… those kind of things are excellent for black and white because colour is insubstantial and even distracting.
In the rare occasions when I shoot in colour, by no means I try later to convert some of the photos to black and white in post. If I shoot colour, I shoot colour. The decision was made on the street, not later at home in Lightroom.
Summary
I think the key to my photographic style is the clear division between day and night. At daytime I’d choose definition and focus to establish where I am and how it really looks and then in low light conditions I’d try and push my ICM game and look for blur and movement thanks to low shutter speeds to create this more evoking gloomy images.
Finally I would like to urge you to actually shoot in black and white mode to really understand the full potential of an image right when you take it rather than import the images at home to Lightroom only to realise that just a few of them actually work in monochrome.
