Black and white photography has almost as many followers as photography in general, or I would almost say more, because even those who are not fond of photography end up using the filters on their mobile or monochrome mode to shoot when saving their photos. visual memories. Because it is fashionable, because of nostalgia, just because… or going one step further, because it falls in love, seduces, attracts and because a good black and white photograph makes you vibrate. Here I have to insist, good Photography. Not everything goes in black and white, in fact it is very easy to spoil a photograph by shooting in black and white or converting it later. There are some very common and recurring mistakes that you should avoid at all costs if you want your grayscale photography to be powerful enough to leave the viewer speechless and unable to stop looking at your image. That is what I am going to talk about today, but if you want to go deeper, be sure to go through our mega guide where you will find all the extended information with lots of tips and tricks for black and white photography.
mistakes that teach
In other articles we have given you tips for better black and white photography and even some tricks to succeed with your black and white photography. Today, on the contrary, as I have anticipated, I am going to talk to you about mistakes, because many times by concentrating on them we learn more.
Mistakes often teach us more than successes, and we should not look at them as something negative, but as part of a learning and improvement process. With each mistake that you learn to distinguish and correct, you will take another step to be a better photographer. In this article I will tell you about them, many with examples, so that on the one hand you review the black and white photos that did not convince you and you did not know why, probably because you have fallen into one of these traps that I am going to tell you about. And on the other hand so that you avoid them from now on and don’t end up like the girl on the cover when you see your results. There they go:
1. Look in color. Sometimes we really like a photo and decide to convert it to grayscale because black and white is so cool. This does not always work well. If an image is sustained by color, it is a huge mistake to remove it. As much as we want a black and white photo… we better compose another one from the beginning thinking about how to stand out.
2. Not having a clear center of interest. A black and white photograph does not have colors that distract attention, that provoke emotions in the public. That is why it has to have something that arouses the viewer’s attention and interest, a clear center of interest, a story to tell. The gaze must know where to go and what to read.
3. High ISO. You have to know that noise in black and white is much more evident. You may want to use it as a creative element, consciously include it in your image, if so, go ahead, it will surely look great. However, if you don’t have that intention, don’t forget to set the ISO value as low as possible when shooting or the noise will spoil the result. If you get lost with this term do not stop reading this.
4. Flat skies. If your photograph includes a good proportion of sky, make sure it has clouds, because otherwise it will be as bland as a meal without salt, or a garden without flowers 🙁 Clouds create contrast and provide information, if a clear sky you remove the precious blue… what do you have left?
So that you can see it clearly, here are two images with different skies, which one catches your attention the most?
5. Shoot in monochrome. This happens a lot and it is a big mistake, because in this case it is the machine that decides for you how to do the conversion and there will be no going back, if the image does not convince you later because you realize that the color was important, you won’t be able to get it back. Always shoot in color and then, in the “safety” of your home, convert it to grayscale and if it doesn’t suit you, leave it in color.
6. Lack of contrast. The ideal in a black and white photograph is that it contains black and white. If your image contains only intermediate grays it will be a rather flat photograph. This does not mean that it has to be a super contrast image, but the different shades of the gray scale, from one end to the other, will make it much more attractive to the eye. Look at the two images below, which of the two do you find more interesting?
7. Always shoot in JPG. Maybe you don’t know that there is life beyond JPG and I’m not talking about galaxies or anything like that, I’m talking about photographic formats. The JPG format results in a compressed file that leaves a lot of information behind. If you shoot with a mobile phone or a compact camera you won’t have more options than this, but if you do it with a SLR you have the opportunity to work in RAW, which is as if you saved the entire scene in your camera and at home, when processing the image you can adjust and readjust the values according to your interests, something that is not possible in JPG. It is not always convenient to shoot in RAW, like everything, it has its advantages and disadvantages, however, when you want to get a spectacular photograph, try shooting in RAW, you will be able to put more of yourself in it, put your signature, your creativity… definitively, you will have more plasticity when working with it.
8. Not composing well. Composition in black and white photography is really important. I have already told you that the absence of color makes you lose tools with which to excite and you have to use other resources. The composition is in this case your most important resource. You can destroy a possible spectacular photograph if you do not make a good arrangement of the elements within your frame. Remember that there are some compositional rules that you do not always have to strictly follow, but you do have to know them well in order to break them with a clear intention. The mistake is not breaking them when necessary, the mistake is not knowing those rules and skipping them due to ignorance.
If you avoid these mistakes, especially the last one, you will achieve better black and white images, I have no doubt. Just as I have no doubt that the best way to learn and improve is to practice and make mistakes. And you don’t have to stop there, at that point, you must be the most critical person with your own work, analyze what the mistakes are and avoid them at all costs. If you leave your camera stored in its case, you won’t make mistakes, of course, but you won’t get exciting photos either.
What are you waiting for? Get your camera and start capturing impressive black and white images, but first, if you found it interesting or useful, you would share this article on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Thank you very much and until the next article!