[Photography] Tips for Shooting and Processing Better Black and White Photographs

Photography, as you know, is fundamentally the capturing of light; you are not taking pictures of objects as much as you are recording the light that is bouncing off of them. In the early days of photography, the only medium available to capture this light was monochromatic film, commonly known as black and white. In the 1930s, the invention of Kodachrome, the first successfully mass-produced color film, ushered in an age of color to the art form.

Instead of fading away, however, black and white photography remained throughout the birth of color, and even increased in popularity in the following decades, due to its simplicity and ability to display tones more dramatically than color usually can.

What makes black and white photography retain its timelessness? A compelling picture is always based on the same fundamentals; lighting, tonal range, shapes, patterns and textures. A black and white photo breaks these fundamentals down to their basics, and is not hindered by the distraction and complexity that color can sometimes contribute. It is truly an art form. The reality of a scene depicted in color is transformed into an artistic interpretation when shown in shades of grey.

So what do you need to understand in order to produce a great monochrome photo?

Visualize in Black and White

One of the most helpful things you can do is something that takes place before you even click the shutter button. Training yourself to envision a scene in black and white will help determine if it will work in that state, or if it would be better left to color. Since you won’t have color in the final shot, you’ll need to visualize the core of the scene instead:

• How is the light behaving on the objects in the scene?


• What forms are involved?


• Are there lights, darks, and shades in between, giving you a good tonal range?

Scenes that contain contrast and texture will usually provide a good end result when converted to black and white. Fortunately, you can apply monochrome to almost any type of photography, including landscape, portrait, and street photography. The resulting feel of the image depends on the subject; landscape shots of the ocean will have more highlighted textures of the waves, and street portraits done in black and white can have a grittier, more dramatic feel.

Taking the Shot

Many of the basic principles of photography apply when shooting for black and white as well. You’ll need to compose the scene properly, utilizing the rule of thirds where applicable, and properly expose the shot. As always, you’ll want to shoot in RAW, so that any necessary adjustments can be made such as exposure and levels before you begin post-processing.

When composing, pay special attention to the lines and shapes in the image. These components are even more important when the photo is desaturated.

Finally, you may benefit from using a polarizing filter. This lens attachment will reduce, or remove, reflections that may be apparent in water or other shiny surfaces. Since these reflections could take away focus from your subject matter, it’s best to do this during the shooting process rather than post-production.

Post-production

The most important step in this process is actually converting the shot into black and white. While almost all DSLRs have the ability to shoot in black and white initially, you’re losing an important advantage; the photo will permanently be monochrome. Photographers sometimes think that a poor image can somehow be “saved” by being converted into black and white; this is not always the case. If you shoot in JPG format and the black and white (monochrome) setting on your camera, you’ll be producing a black and white JPG image, and lose the ability to convert to color or take advantage of RAW adjustments. BUT if you shoot in RAW in this mode you will still have all the colour data but have the advantage of seeing a black and white preview on the camera screen.

Black and white conversions in an image editor such as Photoshop can usually be categorized in two ways; destructive, and non-destructive. Obviously, destructive methods actually modify pixels and cannot be easily adjusted. Converting directly to greyscale is a long-used example of this method. Preferably, you want to use a non-destructive method that will allow you to make continued adjustments to the image until you have the tone and shading desired.

The easiest method (and the one that I prefer) is to use the Hue/Saturation/Luminosity tab in the RAW importer in Photoshop (the HSL panel in Lightroom also does the same thing). Alternatively, you can accomplish the same thing (albeit with a bit less control) by using a Channel Mixer adjustment layer after you’ve imported the RAW file into Photoshop.

Converting to Black and White with the RAW HSL Controls

Not only does this method offer more control than simply desaturating the image, it keeps the color profile loaded into the RAW (.CR2) file, allowing you to reopen and adjust it as you see fit. To convert using this method follow these steps:

• Select the RAW file you wish to convert and open it. The file will open within Adobe’s RAW import dialog.

• Click the HSL/Greyscale tab on the right side of the dialog box (this should be the 4th tab).

• Tick the “Convert to Greyscale” box.

• You will be presented with eight color sliders. Adjust these sliders individually (ensure the “Preview” checkbox is ticked near the top) to see real-time changes in those color channels, and how those changes impact your desaturated image. With a color image, moving the “yellow” slider would modify the yellow in your image, but here, it will make the portions of the image that were yellow change in shading, either lighter or darker depending on which direction the slider is moved.

That’s it, you’re all done. Few accomplishments in photography are as satisfying as producing a well-done black and white image. You have discarded color, and envisioned your story instead with shapes, lines, shadows, and textures. You’ve opened up a new world of imagery to yourself, and exponentially expanded your repertoire.

Now…what will you do with it? Share in the comments below if you have anything to add or would like to show us your new black and white images.

The post Tips for Shooting and Processing Better Black and White Photographs by Tim Gilbreath appeared first on Digital Photography School.

it's from Digital Photography School http://ift.tt/1kcoiDl

via Tim Gilbreath

[Photography] Using Focus Creatively with Food Photography

There are ways to use selective focus, or shallow depth of field, to completely control how you look at an image. Selective focus is using a large aperture, like f/4.5 or wider, to show only a small part of your image in focus. You can control where you want your viewer to look in your image by using this technique.

Eliminate Distracting Elements

If you have a potentially busy scene or environment, you can use selective focus to calm things down a bit and get your viewer to look where you want.

The left image was shot at f/16 while the right image was shot at f/5.6

When you compare the two images above pay attention to what you are looking at first, and how your eye moves around the images. There’s a lot going on in the image on the left. You really don’t know where to look at first. In the image on the right your eye goes right to the olive oil in the front, which is exactly where I wanted you to look. I wanted to make sure you didn’t get distracted by the text on the jar on the left side, so I focused on the garnish in the olive oil and blurred everything else out. I wanted the first read to be the olive oil, then all other items become secondary. Your eyes naturally look at what is in focus in an image.

Which Element is the Hero?

You can use focus in some shots to clearly show which element the image is about – this element is your hero element. In food photography we call this the hero food.

In each shot the focus is shifted to change which jar of pickles is the hero jar, the one I want you to look at.

Here are some pickles that I made. You can use selective focus to tell the viewer where they should be looking. If this image was for a recipe of dill pickles, then you would use the image on the left. If this image was for a recipe on golden pickled beets, then you’d use the image on the right.

Pick Your Focus Point

The image on the left was shot at f/8 while the image on the right was shot at f/4.5

I focused on the dill pickle laying on top of the cut pickles. In the left image you really can’t tell where my focus point is so your eye goes all over the place. In the image on the right, it’s a little more obvious. My hero food is the cut dill pickles.

All the images including pickles were styled by my good friend and prop stylist, Amy Paliwoda. We work on a lot of jobs together. Amy is always talking about using props to tell your story. It’s my job as the photographer to make sure I use the proper aperture to have the props help with the story, not cause distractions. With everything in focus, a simple prop can take away from your story. Once you pick your focus, take several shots at different apertures to see which one works the best to tell your story.

When One Aperture Isn’t Enough

Now I’m going to show you a technique I use a lot. I take two images at different apertures, with different depth of fields and then I composite them together in Photoshop by using layer masks. I use this technique when I want the background to be more out of focus, yet keep the food or product in focus.

I have to mention that I ALWAYS shoot with my camera on a tripod. This type of compositing would be very difficult with files that were handheld.

The image on the left was shot at f/8 and the image on the right was shot at f/4.5

For this image I really like how the jars look at f/8, but I prefer the background shot at f/4.5, so I’m going to put the two together in Photoshop by creating a layer mask and put the best background, on top of the preferred foreground.

Making a Layer Mask

There are many ways to do the same thing in Photoshop. My favorite way to do a composite of multiple images is to use layer masks.

In the final composite I will be putting the background of one image onto another image, and also making a duplicate of one light bulb and pasting it onto the background.

I first open both files that are to be put together in Photoshop.

Next, I copy the image with the desired background and then paste the entire image into the file with the jars that I like. Now I have one file with two layers.

Now I need to make the top layer into a layer mask:

1. Go to the top menu


2. Click on “Layer”


3. Scroll down to “Layer Mask”


4. Scroll over to “Reveal All”

Now, look in your layers palette. Your image should look similar to what you see below – the two files, with the top one having a white box next to the image. That is the layer mask.

You can see the new layer masked circled in red.

To start working inside the layer mask, you have to use the brush tool. Then make sure your color palette is set to black on top of white for masking through the image. If you mask too far in one area, you can correct it by reversing the color palette to white on top of black and then go back over the area.

In this image I am using a soft edge brush (brush set to a hardness of “0″) for masking through the foreground of the top layer so that only the red background with the lights are left. The image below is how my layer looks mask work completed.

This only took me a few minutes to create in Photoshop.

Now for the final composite below. I also added some text, then copied and pasted an additional light bulb in Photoshop to balance things out in the background.

The additional light bulb was also turned into a layer mask so that I could blend the edges of the image I pasted on top of the file.

Here is what all the layers look like. Layer “2″ is the extra light bulb. If this was a file with a lot of layers, I would name each layer so that I knew what they were. In this case it’s easy to figure out, so I didn’t do that. You can see in the mask of layer “1″ that the bottom half of the frame is black. This is the part of the image that I masked.

So, next time when shooting on a tripod, experiment a little and take your shot with multiple apertures to bracket your depth of field, and maybe you’d like to composite a couple of files together.

The post Using Focus Creatively with Food Photography by Christina Peters appeared first on Digital Photography School.

it's from Digital Photography School http://ift.tt/SirW2r

via Christina Peters

[Photography] The Contest Winners of the Tamron Lenses Are…

Tamron SP-17-50MM F/2.8 Di II VC

Tamron 18-270 Di II VC PZD

Tamron SP 70-300 Di VC USD

A HUGE Thank You to everyone who entered our recent competition to win one of three lenses from our friends at Tamron.

The response was absolutely AMAZING with over 1,300 entries! In fact, it was so great that we here at Digital Photography School decided to add a new category of winners – Honorable Mentions – and provide each Honoree with a dPS eBook of their choice. But now, on to the winners.

Here are the 3 winners of the competition:

• Caleb Ward wins the Tamron SP-17-50MM F/2.8 Di II VC


• EthanKPhotography wins the Tamron 18-270 Di II VC PZD


• Patrick Kulwicki wins the Tamron SP 70-300 Di VC USD

A note to each of our winners:

Caleb, we value your service and do hope that you can and will change the lives of those in need.

Ethan, keep up the great work, and we also hope that you will become a professional photographer.

Patrick, hopefully, this is the beginning of much good luck.

Honorable Mentions:

Bartosz Szkatula, Juli Vz, Igor Danajlovski, Dylan Balagtas, Todd Carpenter, Joseph MacDonald, Randi Willett, Aniqe, Henry Greyner, Jennie Hallock, Bram Smits, Ioan Stoev, Aly Wonderland, Michelle F and Dana.

On a side note: Alison Hopkins, we hope you’ll take this little mention as a sign and follow your dreams.

We were all thrilled with the entries – you tugged at our heartstring, made us laugh, made us smile, but most importantly, you made us keep wanting to do more of what we are doing; providing you quality information and guidance to become a better photographer. We were so pleased to see that you came from every part of the world, young adults to grandparents, and everyone in between. Thank you all for your entries.

Now, for those of you that didn’t win, Tamron has invited ALL dPS readers to download their new eBook series! You can find those HERE.

For all of you residing in the USA, when you do purchase your next select Tamron Lens, please make sure to take advantage of the Tamron Rebate. Find additional information HERE.

*Current offers end June 30, 2014. US RESIDENTS ONLY.

Winners will be emailed with details of how to collect their prize. Please make sure to look for our email. Thanks you again for all the wonderful submissions and to Tamron for sponsoring this competition.

The post The Contest Winners of the Tamron Lenses Are… by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

it's from Digital Photography School http://ift.tt/1kNZr7t

via Darlene Hildebrandt

[Photography] Tips for Great Beach Sunset Portraits

Beach sunset portraits are always so beautiful; they make for a unique backdrop as each sunset is a little bit different from the next. With an hour long portrait session photos with the sunset over and over can sometimes get a little repetitive. This article will show you how to create diverse images out of a beach sunset session, and also explain how to use off-camera flash to expose for the background and capture the true colors that you see.

To plan this right, you first need to know exactly what time the sun dips behind the ocean horizon. The time and date website allows you to look up this exact time for different cities all over the world. For an hour long session, have your clients meet you at the beach 45 minutes before the sun goes out of sight. The lighting at this time is just perfect for photos, it is known as the golden hour because of the warm hues it casts.

The 15 minutes immediately after the sun sets also offers a wonderful soft light.

Before you begin posing your subjects you need to get your exposure right. Turn off all flashes, set your camera to Manual Mode, and simply expose for the sunset. If you take a picture of your subject in front of the background like this you will see that they are very underexposed, if not a silhouette. In order to get a proper exposure for the sunset, and for your subject, we need to add light to the subject. Since the sunset is so far away, your flash will not affect the exposure of the background.

You can use an on-camera flash for this, but an off-camera flash will make the lighting look more natural and is therefore the ideal. To setup an off-camera flash you will need a flash, a light stand, and a way to trigger the flash. There are many different ways to do this, but I would suggest wireless radio triggers. Once you have your light setup, place the stand about 10-15 feet away from where your subject will stand, and about 4-5 feet to the right of the camera position. This will have the light coming at your subject from the side, instead of straight on which will create a much more flattering picture.

Turn your flash on and switch it to manual mode. Set the flash strength to half power and take a test shot. If your subject is too bright try moving the flash back a few feet. If the face is too dark increase your flash power or move the flash a little closer to the person. Adjust the flash power and distance from your subject until they are nicely exposed. Your flash can be bare, without any modifiers, or with a shoot through white umbrella for a softer light.

Once everything is setup you can pose your group or subject, facing away from the sunset, and take a set of images. Vary the pose and take a few more. Next look around and see what else is available to use as a backdrop. Large rocks, palm trees, sand dunes or greenery all make for diverse images. A boardwalk leading up the beach can also be a great spot. Aim to use two to three different backgrounds.

By this time the sun has gone down quite a bit, and the colors have changed a lot from your first set of photos. Adjust your lighting and exposure to match the new conditions and take a few more portraits in front of the ever changing sunset.

Turn your flash off, adjust your exposure and take some beautiful silhouette images of your subjects.

Just after the sun dips down below the horizon, turn your subject towards the sunset and capture the beautiful soft light that spills onto their face. Make sure your flash is off for this, as the natural light is perfect, and adjust your exposure as needed. This is a great moment for candid shots of the group walking along the beach and laughing, or of parents tossing their children up in the air.

Lastly, try to look for where your subject’s reflection falls on the water when the tide pulls out. Capture an image with your subject and their reflection, or just their feet and the reflection.

During a one hour session, at only one location, you can capture a diverse set of images for your customers (or friends) that they will love. Just remember to always be on the lookout for a different background, or unique area of the beach. Also if you will be taking pictures that will get them sandy or wet, make sure to save those for last so they their clothes aren’t wet or full of sand in the rest of the photos.

Have you done any beach portraits? Do you have any other tips you can share, please do so in the comments below.

The post Tips for Great Beach Sunset Portraits by Madison Baltodano appeared first on Digital Photography School.

it's from Digital Photography School http://ift.tt/1oGfeWs

via Madison Baltodano