Black & White Photography 3 - Behind the Shutter

Using Selective Color to Create Black & White Images in Photoshop

Post author:Unmesh Dinda
Post category:Black & White Photography Post Production Shutter Magazine Workflow
Reading time:17 mins read

Black-and-white conversion is an art, and the art is in determining how each color is rendered in black and white. Say you have an image of a beautiful landscape with a deep blue sky full of fluffy clouds. When we convert that to black and white, the blue sky loses its color. Now, I have a question for you: How will the blue areas look in black and white? Will they look light gray? Dark gray? White? Or maybe light gray with a slight gradient of dark gray? Making these decisions for how each color will be rendered is what makes black-and-white conversion fun.

Creating Window Light with Strobes

Post author:Michael Corsentino
Post category:Black & White Photography Commercial Photography Lighting Shutter Magazine
Reading time:7 mins read

Nothing beats window light. It’s broad, diffuse, indirect, soft light that’s flattering to anyone in its path. But what do you do when the sun has set, there is no window or Mother Nature isn’t cooperating? With the right tools and techniques, you can re-create it. I’ve seen this sun-drenched looks-like-daylight-but-isn’t look used often in Gap ads. The light created for these images has the open, airy quality you get from daylight streaming in through a large window. It’s perfect for Gap’s brand. I’ve always loved this quality of light and wanted to use it in my own work. How they did it was the big question mark.

Documentary Photography: The Art of Capturing the World in Black & White

Post author:Chris Lettner
Post category:Black & White Photography Shutter Magazine
Reading time:7 mins read

Most great documentary photos are the result of preparation, time and relationships. Street photography isn’t about luck; it’s about forcing chance. It’s not enough to have a camera on you. You need to go out of your way, get up early for the sunrise and stay up late for the action. Sometimes you might stand in the rain for hours on some street corner because the reflections are nice and it’s a great backdrop, but you have to wait for the right kind of protagonist to appear and complete the scene.

Glamour Photography in Black & White

Post author:Nino Batista
Post category:Black & White Photography Glamour Photography Shutter Magazine
Reading time:8 mins read

Photographers often find themselves torn between the color version of their edit and a black-and-white conversion of the same shot (you even see photographers post both versions on social media, asking their followers which one they prefer). This is almost certainly indicative of a photographer making the unfortunate mistake of not having a complete vision for a shot up front. While you can convert an image to black and white arbitrarily and find success with it, I find far more consistent results when you set out to shoot monochrome from the start. But where do you start?

Shooting for Black and White with Craig LaMere

Post author:Sal Cincotta
Post category:Black & White Photography Shutter Magazine
Reading time:8 mins read

About 90 percent of the time I create a black-and-white image, I specifically design it that way. The other 10 percent of the time, I shoot for color and decide later it would be cooler in black and white.

Black and White and Why? with Melanie Anderson

Post author:Sal Cincotta
Post category:Black & White Photography Shutter Magazine
Reading time:7 mins read

As I filmed the video for this month’s segment, I asked myself: Why am I photographing these people? Why am I drawn to these subjects? What is the significance of what I am shooting?