Lately I have received a
lot of compliments regarding my black and white photographs, as a matter of
fact, many have asked for an explanation of what I do to arrive at the final
photographs. Unfortunately there is no
simple answer, but it is not an unsurmountable task either. The market offers a number of software
choices, all of which enable the user to greatly improve their photographs, in
color as well as black and white.
My choice has been
Photoshop ever since it was introduced in 1988. I am
fully aware that Photoshop, or similar programs, have a lot of opponents, and
Photoshop certainly offers the ability to alter a photograph way beyond it
original look and purpose. That is not
what I am talking about. My reason for
using Photoshop is to take a photograph as it comes out of the camera and improve
it to offer the best possible end result.
That is nothing new at
all. Analog photography, then as well as
now, requires the same or at least similar approach. Just as a straight print from most any
negative will rarely be as good as it could be, a straight print, right off
your digital camera files will most likely have similar issues.
Arguments that a print
should be exactly like what the camera saw, or similar opinions are frankly a
bunch of nonsense. When printing analog,
from a negative, it is necessary to adjust exposure as well as the correct
contrast level. Then, in addition, it is
often necessary to dodge and burn and to utilize other trickery to achieve as
good a print as necessary. Anyone who
has ever followed some of the great analog photographers like Ansell Adams,
Edward Weston, Helmut Newton and many more will know that taking a photograph
was nothing more than the beginning of the process of creating a great
photograph. As Ansell Adams once said,
“The negative is the
score, the print is the performace.”
The same is the case with
digital photography. Just because we
have automatic features that a generation or two ago could only have dreamed
about, our cameras are incapable of producing the perfect photograph without
any further input.
Unfortunately, that is
where it ends with many camera users these days. The internet is full of lousy pictures that
are not worthy of a lowly Instamatic, leave alone a Leica. The results are pictures of poor composition,
poor color correction and a severe lack of tonality, just to mention a few.
I fully realize that many
photographers simply don’t have the knowledge to see these mistakes. What I don’t understand is when, upon some
constructive criticism, the comeback is,
“But I like it that way.”
I heard that phrase ad
nauseam during my over 13 years of teaching photography. In spite of paying thousands of dollars in
tuition, a valid critique was for many unacceptable.
But enough of being on my
soap box and on to the topic of this article.
I do shoot all of my photographs in color although a Leica Monochrom
just will not disappear from my wish list.
The reason is that quite often I come across photographic opportunities
that lend themselves equally well to be in color as well as black and
white. Thus I prefer to make that final
decision when looking at the results on my monitor.
I am aware of the
advantages of shooting RAW and for very important jobs I certainly do so. I feel my clients deserve that. But for myself, I have no problem shooting
JPEG files, however always with the least amount of compression. After a simple conversion to black and white
in Photoshop, I save the black and white image as a separate file. This allows me to compare both side by side
before making the final decision of color or black and white.
One I have a file that I
want to be in black and white, I make no further manipulations before opening
the image in “Bridge.” A right click on
the chosen image allows opening the file in “Camera Raw” even though it is a
JPEG file. That offers a huge amount of
manipulations, beyond simple Photoshop.
The first thing I do is
click on “White Balance” and switch from “As Shot” to “Auto”. That will switch the image to a very slight
brown or sepia tone which I like better than the cold tones from the Photoshop
black and white conversion.
Next are some initial
“Exposure” or “Brightness” corrections if necessary. The same goes for “Contrast.” At this point the image should already show some
definite improvements over the basic starter image, but further evaluation is
usually necessary.
I always told my students
that black and white means just that. If
at all possible, or final prints should have a tonality from deep black to pure
white. That by itself is not difficult
to do. Simply increase contrast and you
will definitely end up with black and with white. The trick is to adjust the blacks and whites,
but also all tones in between in a manner that no detail is being lost. For this Bridge offers several possibilities:
Clicking on the “Tone
Curve” symbol close to the top allows fine adjustments for “Highlights”,
“Lights”, “Darks” and “Shadows.” How
much of these adjustments are necessary is ultimately a judgment call. Be careful because these adjustments will
influence the image as a whole. But when
used correctly, it is definitely possible to get rich blacks in the shadows,
blacks where only the very darkest areas a totally black, but areas just a bit
lighter will maintain detail. The same
is true for the highlights as well as the lights and darks. What is being done here is simply extending
the tonal range of the photograph beyond what the camera was able to do on its
own.
Next to the “Tonal Curve”
symbols is “Sharpening” and “Noise Reduction.”
This allows isolating especially fine detail from its background and,
when shooting with relatively high ISO values, the resulting noise can be
noticeably decreased. But care must be
taken because noise reduction beyond a certain point will definitely lead to a
loss in detail and sharpness.
At this point the final
image should have emerged, or at least an image that is very close. Earlier I mentioned dodging and burning, a
technique often used with analog printing.
Digital printing is no different.
It offers the same possibilities.
When opening the image by clicking on “Open Image” at the bottom, the
image will open in standard Photoshop.
This offers additional adjustments.
For instance, with the “Magic Wand” tool we can isolate the sky from the
rest of the image and lighten or darken it, if necessary. If more precision is necessary, the “Lasso”
tool or preferably the “Polygonal Lasso” tool will do the trick. The “Burn Tool” or the “Dodge Tool” can be
used to make some final adjustments by allowing lightening or darkening of
selected areas, down to very fine detail.
For the final image I used the dodge and burn tool to selectively lighten and darken small areas to
extend the tonal range of the image
The end result will be a
photograph way beyond what originally came out of the camera. This is not altering the image beyond what
the camera saw or what the camera was supposed to photograph, it is simply a
means to show everything the camera recorded.
We just make it all visible and by doing so end up with much better
photographs.
For other articles on this blog scroll down in the column to the right to BLOG ARCHIVE
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Nice summary of the required steps. But you don't need Photoshop: all those steps can be done in Lightroom and you can import your pics with some presets.
ReplyDeleteI did mention at the beginning of the article that Photoshop is not the only such software and I explained that I have used Photoshop ever since it was introduced in 1988. I never had any reason to change.
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