50 Examples of Great Black and White Photography

We’ve decided to highlight a different kind of inspiration in this post by gathering outstanding examples of black and white photography. Sometimes, it’s a wonderful idea to keep color aside and concentrate on black and white photos. In the absence of colors, you are able to focus more on the image, see greater details and admire lighting, angles and composition among others.

Here are some basic tips to black and white photography –

a) Shoot in RAW

Many DPS readers won’t be able to shoot in RAW since their camera doesn’t have an option or because they may be ignorant of it. However, shooting in RAW can offer you many alternatives post production.

b) Shoot in Color

If you can’t shoot in RAW because your camera does not allow or if you opt not to, you can shoot in color following which you convert it to black and white on your PC. The conversion to black and white won’t be much difficult on account of various photo editing software.

c) Low ISO

Shoot with minimum possible ISO. This is of utter significance, especially for black and white photos where noise or grain stemming from ISO can be really obvious. If you want this noise, you can add it in the process of post production. However, it gets difficult to take the noise out later.

d) When should you shoot

It’s best to shoot black and white photographs on a dark or dull day. Surprisingly, on these days those who shoot color photographs sit and home and complain.

e) Give your image some silver Effex

With Silver Effex Pro 2, your black and white photographs will look incredible. The program is somewhat pricey, however, is worth the money. You can check it out here.

f) Make use of a polarizer

When you are shooting around surfaces that are reflective like leaves or water, it’s good to use a polarizer to reduce the reflection of light from the sun. When you remove the color from these images, the specular highlights will be distracting to the overall composition.

Check out this amazing collection of black and white photographs.