{"id":291736,"date":"2020-12-16T17:27:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T22:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=291736"},"modified":"2020-12-16T17:39:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T22:39:21","slug":"the-art-of-black-and-white-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/16\/the-art-of-black-and-white-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Black and White Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Art means approach and technique. This is my personal take on black and white photography:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Abstract is better<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To me, monochrome is most interesting when we are not quite sure what we are looking at. This means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Shoot uber-high contrast monochrome black and white to intentionally *obscure<\/a>* much of what is happening in your photo and frame. The Italian painterly notion of ‘chiaroscuro<\/a>‘ literally means clear+obscure. Make what you are shooting clear by making sure there is strong contrast, an outline<\/a> of your subject, separation<\/a>, figure-to-ground<\/a>, or perhaps a silhouette<\/a>.<\/li>
  2. When you’re shooting, deliberately under-expose your photos (-1 or -2) to darken much of the photograph, to make it more mysterious.<\/li>
  3. With post-processing, ‘crush the blacks<\/a>‘ — increase the ‘blacks’ slide in post processing in Lightroom<\/a> or Apple Photos<\/a>, and increase the contrast to the maximum. <\/li>
  4. To make your photos more surreal<\/a>, shoot reflections, abstract shapes and forms on the ground, gritty textures<\/a>, or when the light is unusual.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n