Practical black and white photography tips

I typically shoot with my camera set to Acros so I'm always seeing the image in BNW. I do this to see shadows/light better. It also helps with composition because I'm only seeing the shapes in the composition along with the light and shadows. Your example of the mountain scene perfectly illustrated how in some images the color is not important and can even get in the way. That image was about creating a feeling the majesty and awe of the landscape. BNW did that perfectly. My eye tends to like a shadowy image. Sometimes it makes me underexpose though. To help that I learned recently not to underexpose but then to bring up the black point in the editor. Always learning!! Thanks for the pointers. Have a great day.

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The one take away for me is the great idea of changing the monitor's color mode to BW! Great On the other hand, ideally one is making images with BW in mind from the start and not simply searching for images to convert. Well, life does not always follow the ideal! I'm going on a search!

Has anyone ever said you look like slightly older Matt Smith?

Thanks for the monitor accessibility tip!

Shoot B&W .... it's that simple. Shooting in color ISN'T how it's done. Wrong mind set.

As someone who shoots primarily black and white content, it was nice to get your thoughts on how you edit. It took me a while to get comfortable with the pushing the boundaries of editing a photo as if it were color but now the bold and almost unreal look of that editing style has become my brand. Great video as always!

Hi, Todd.
I only shoot B&W.
What I do is put my camera on B&W and shoot in RAW.
I have set up Lightroom so that the photos are imported with the camera setting.
So everything that comes to me is already in B&W.
But I don't do color work so if the photo isn't good enough for B&W then this photo will be removed.
So I can take pictures at all times, I never have "bad or good" light, only different light.
And it is in any way of shooting Lightroom or Photoshop can never make a bad photo good.
And I work, like you, I believe, with TK8.
I can make very good selections with this, so I get much more out of my photo.
That first photo you show is pretty good for B&W with some work.
You do have to put in some work.
Thank you for this video, it was educational and even confirmed how I think about B&W photography.
Antoine.

Excellent video, Todd.
I only work in B&W so I know what you talking about.
And I agree with every word you say, my friend.
Until the next video,
Antoine.

What software or app do you use as “voice recorder “ ?

Love your videos and viewpoints. Thanks for posting!

Great talk on the benefits of black and white. Love it myself but difficult to get great results. Found your last video on Nik silver really helpful. Learned a lot about Nik software in general. Have never heard anyone explain the different types of structure so well.

Todd that final image was virtually monochrome anyway. It definitely was better as a black and white. That said, how you processed it after making the decision to go monochrome made it a beautiful image!

In addition to setting the monitor to black and white, setting the camera to display raw images in black and white is also immensely helpful in seeing the possibilities monochrome might offer. I also think your color image of the two buildings had more black and white potential than the simple conversion might suggest. I can image it with one building dark and and its windows light and the other building light and it's windows dark. If that were feasible with processing, I think it would be even stronger than the color contrast that exists naturally.

Love the idea of using b&w to be more expressive and dramatic, as well as a way to use midday light to your advantage. I'm a new photographer, so I'm constantly hearing "golden hour/blue hour," which are great but not always practical. Great tips, Todd!

Great job. I had completely forgotten I could change color space of my monitor with puck

In Windows 11, you can switch to a grayscale display. Go to settings, click on accessibility, then click on color filters. Turn on color filters and click on grayscale. I think you can do this in earlier versions of Windows also. Watching this video prompted me to find out how to do it as I never thought of doing it before. Thanks for a great video.

I think taking time with all images works well to see if how the emotions that a photographer wants to convey is coming out or not. Thanks Todd .

Thanks for the viewing many images tip.