Converting Colour to black and white in Photography

The colour wheel

The basis of understanding about photography begins with an understanding about the properties of light. So practically colour theory becomes the basis for understanding black-and-white photography. In Black & White photography colours can be explained as white light which comprises all other colours of the visible spectrum and black as the absence of all colours. Black-and-white film captures all portions of the visible spectrum. However sensitivity of representation of colours captured by the black & white film differs. 

Additive primaries & subtractive primaries

The primary colours of white light are red, green and blue. These are the colours that cannot be made up by adding light of other colours and which, when added together, make white light. They are therefore known as the additive primaries. 

Cyan, magenta or yellow are colours can be thought of as white light without red, white light without green and white light without blue. Based on the notion of taking away one primary colour from white light, the colours cyan, magenta and yellow are known as the subtractive primaries.

Black

Colours that lie exactly opposite across the spectrum wheel are called complementary colours. A colour filter will darken its complementary opposite, while lightening colours similar to its own. For example, skies in the blue to cyan range will be darkened by a filter from the yellow, orange or red range, and yellow-green leaves will be lightened by a similar yellow-green filter. The rule for filters with black and white is: opposite colours darken; similar colours lighten. 

It is important to understand the presence of tones as representations of colours in Black & white photography. Each tone has a salient impact on the colour representation.

History of Photography

The history of photography is often debated, however the most widely accepted is the assumption that the German chemist, Johann Heinrich Schultz observed that a solution of certain salts of silver darken when exposed to light is widely considered as the beginning of photography. This aspects of certain salts of silver was widely used to create copies of opaque objects. 

It was Thomas Wedgwood, who used paper soaked in silver nitrate in the early 1800s to make images of fern leaves. The area around the leaf struck by light would darken while the leaf’s shadow would remain paper white. This was considered to be the beginning of modern day photography. However unless it was kept in the dark it was impossible to create these photographs.

In 1839, Sir John Herschel, discovered that sodium thiosulphate (hypo) was an effective fixative for the fugitive silver images. It was Sir John Herschel who gave the word photography from the Greek words for light and the act of drawing or writing.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is the first person to expose light-sensitive material in a camera in 1826. Niépce used a bitumen-coated pewter plate that hardened under many hours of exposure to light to give an image. He called his images heliographs – from the Greek words for sun and the act of drawing or writing.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre worked with Niépce, until the latter’s death, on a process using silver iodide on a polished silver plate. This plate was sensitive than Niépce’s heliographs and required an exposure of about 15 minutes. Development was encouraged by fuming the plate with mercury vapour. The image was then fixed and washed. Daguerre named the process after himself – the daguerreotype. Daguerreotypes are mirror image negatives that only appear as positives when viewed at a certain angle where light reflects from the underlying silver plate.

William Henry Fox Talbot, working in England between 1835 and 1845, was the first to produce prints by what we would know today as a negative/positive process. These are sometimes referred to as talbotypes or, more commonly, as calotypes. Fox Talbot used paper that had been photosensitised with silver chloride, exposed in a camera obscura.

The latent image was developed with gallic acid and fixed with common salt. These resulting paper negatives had reversed tones. Fox Talbot overcame this problem by placing an unexposed sheet of sensitised paper in contact with the first negative and exposing it to light. After developing and fixing, this positive copy gave an accurate tonal reproduction of the original scene. What is more, Fox Talbot could use the original negative to make more than one positive copy. He produced the first commercially printed, photographically illustrated book, "The pencil of Nature", in 1844.

The limitations of Fox Talbot’s paper negatives were swept away by Frederick Scott Archer’s wet plate collodion process in 1851, which itself led to the silver gelatin and dry plates by about 1880. The flexible film we know today came in around 1889, opening up photography to the mass market. All were based on the negative/positive process until the arrival of the digital camera in 1975, itself a black and white-only device that recorded pictures on to cassette tape.

Fox Talbot’s real contribution to photography was establishing the principle of the negative/positive process and demonstrating that one negative could make many copies.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

4 point technique for Black & White Photography

Contrast

One of the most striking elements in a black and white photograph is contrast. The absence of colors is balanced in texture, contrast and subject. To distinguish one element of your image from another the tonal variances become all the more important. 

The Right Light

Lighting in a black and white shot is very important. Side lighting will reveal any texture that a subject might have (and in portraits will accentuate features) and light from any one direction will create shadows. All of these techniques can add interest to a black and white image – however they can also be distracting – so play with light with care.

Shapes and Patterns

Patterns or shapes that can sometimes almost go unseen in color (due to the color itself drawing attention) can come alive in a black and white shot. Black and White shots that rely upon pattern can often take on an abstract quality.

Capture Texture

Revealing the texture of a subject can add a new dimension to an image. The sidelight does this by creating shadows.

A Tip for Black and White Landscapes

When shooting black and white landscapes look for ‘active skies’. Having skies with clouds, textures and light variations add mood and a create a dynamic look and feel to  the photographs. If a large part of your image is the same tone the image can look quite lifeless (unless of course you’re going for a more minimalist look.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Tips for taking low angle shots

Low angle shots or worm’s eye view offers a different perspective of the world and can deliver a mesmerizing image of the reality. Since we are adjusted to looking at things from the eye level, a ground level perspective brings in a new flavor to photographs.

Wider lens ranging from 10-40mm can deliver amazing perspectives from the ground level. Fisheye lenses can be used for wider view and to capture amazing totality of the perception.

It is vital to position the subjects and the objects so that they fit the picture. To show the perspective by including foreground objects the right Aperture and depth of field must be chosen. A proper understanding of the camera and lens will assist to find the right image.

It is a priority to ensure that the camera is level with the subject so that the aesthetic balance is preserved. By ensuring the right level, the framing can be made perfect and the right perspective can be portrayed in the photograph.

During sunny days it is a salient feature that the skies are bright and the texture and patterns of clouds are not visible. Adjusting the right exposure, white balance and using a filter can ensure that the entirety of beauty is captured in the image. A filter can be used to underexpose just the sky and to capture the effects.

 

Since the camera must be positioned at a lower angle it may no be always use the viewfinder of the camera. In such cases the frame can be ascertained through the LCD monitor. It is an added advantage for DSLR cameras because the image is viewable as soon as it is taken. Also the flaws can be found out immediately. DSLR cameras also facilitate multiple shots of the same frame so that the best could be selected from the choices.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Framing the right background for your subject

Understanding the background and observing the background along with the texture ensures that the framing and composition are apt for the photograph. Pay attention to detail not only on the subject but also to the four corners of the background as well as colors that don’t fit with the rest of the image, bright patches that might distract the eye, lines that clash, people that don’t belong etc.

Be sure to move the subject to the right spot until the composition of the image is perfect. By this any distraction can be removed and framing can be perfected. One other option is to change the angle of the frame. This might mean rotating around your subject but could also include getting down low to make the sky the background or even getting up high and shooting down onto your subject to make the background the ground.

Aperture can be used to blur backgrounds. At wider apertures the subject will be given prominence blurring out the background, giving prominence to the subject. One of the most useful things to learn as a way to combat distractions in backgrounds (and foregrounds) is to use the power of your lens to throw the background out of focus using depth of field. The easiest way to do this is to use a wide aperture (the smaller the number the wider the aperture). The wider your aperture the more blurry your background should become. Longer tele-photo do help a little to get narrower depth of field. In actual fact the impact is smaller than it seems and the main reason for the change is that with a longer focal length the subject actually takes up more space in the frame.

One of the most effective ways of removing distractions from backgrounds is to remove the background altogether by totally filling the frame with your subject. Get up close and/or use your zoom lens to tightly frame the shot and you’ll not only remove distractions but could end up with a high impact shot as well.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Using objects and foregrounds

Photography is the art of perception, what you perceive can be created and presented in photographs. Though photoshop made image manipulation easy, many complicated image manipulation tactics can be done without photoshop. One of the most important among these are the use of foreground and objects to manipulate the image. 

Let us take the example of the image I have shot in an abandoned graveyard. I have used a filter, however I have not used photoshop to create the image and the image is 100% real. Now I would be amused to know some explanation for the "divine light" that radiates from the heart of the statue. However I have to answer what I started. It is nothing but a thin piece of cotton which is placed at a range where it is out of focus while the subject (statue) remains in focus. So the thin cotton layer remaining out of focus creates an effect that it seems to appear like a sours of light. The real object disperses the light to create a photoshop effect within seconds. Similarly, window glass, plastic wrap, aluminium foils can be used to create various visual effects effectively.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Colour Filters in Black & White Photography

It is a general notion that Black & White Photography doesn't include use of colours at all. However I have different thoughts about this point. Well visibly Black & White are the only shades present in the resultant image, however it is possible to use colours in Black & white photography by using filters. For instance the dark skies and puffy white clouds never looks natural so as the dark flower facing the sun. Such effects requires the use of color filtering to produce the desired effect.

Using colour filters give the required tone and definition to the image by accepting certain colours meanwhile blocking certain colours. However filters cost a lot and it may not be always feasible to use a filter for each effect you would require. A coloured piece of cloth, transparent sheet of coloured paper, sunglasses, tinted glass can all be used as filters. In fact filter is any medium that filters the external light. Use of filters also save much of unwanted time with photo-manipulation and showcases the creativity of the photographer.

~Hari Bhagirath Photography