Originally Posted By: ColeyG


Awesome black and white images are all about contrast. Unfortunately, much of today's camera technology is aimed at minimizing this natural contrast or high dynamic range. Minimizing in the sense of creating less separation between light and dark and aiming for more even exposure throughout the frame. HDR software, highlight and shadow reductions in programs like Iphoto, active D lighting (nikon), etc. To get black and white images to really pop, you need a lot of contrast.

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A bit of post processing goes a long way with regard to B&W these days. In a lot of cases we have to try and recreate some of what the camera is working to eliminate for striking B&W. Tune down your exposure a bit and tune up your contrast and you'll like get an image that pops a little more than a perfectly exposed one in color.



Very helpful Coley.

I totally get what you're saying here. The human eye is really only mediocre when it comes to acuity and resolving fine detail.... lots of critters see way sharper than we do. But physiologically, the human eye ranks extremely high in contrast sensitivity. I completely agree with your statement about modern camera technology... usually there isn't enough contrast in the raw images produced by the camera, at least to my eye. The processor tends to spit out a "perfect" uniformly exposed image that minimizes shadows/highlights.

The first thing I do to almost every pic is to adjust exposure, but I typically try to be a bit cautious about not getting carried away with it in color pics because fine details can get lost in the shadows created. Rather than the Brightness/Contrast adjustment, my two favorite exposure adjustments in PhotoShop are "Offset" and "Gamma".... which I can usually tweak to optimize contrast without losing too much detail.

I can see where I can get a LOT bolder about how far to slide these bars when it comes to optimizing an image in B&W in order to achieve maximum "pop". The fine details in the image can be sacrificed in favor of the more dramatic effects gained by improved contrast.

Thanks!
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