This week on Technique Thursday, we are talking black and white images. Black and white images are timeless, gorgeous and one of my personal favorites. We had decided to not feature as much black and white on Let the Kids just because it doesn’t translate as well to the computer BUT we had such a backlash that we scrapped that right away.
So while there are beautiful black and whites, there are tons of variation and a million ways to get there. We are going to show you some beautiful images and tell you how the photographer got there in each one. You pick what look you like.
Kellie Hatcher — from her own L.R. presets “dream” from the BW set.
Makena Gradient — Digital – I used the Nik Software, Silver Effects and chose a high structure high contrast pre-setting.
Fabio Ventura — This is tri-x 400 pushed to 1600, developed in xtol 1+3. Scanned on a epson V600, using silverfast 8. Pentax 67 + 105f2.4 wide open. (minor adjusments in LR4)
Lisa Robinson-Howeler of Pure Photography by Lisa – The photo was converted to black and white using My Four Hens Photography’s “Striking” black and white action. She offers four black and white actions that I absolutely love the tones of. I have used other black and white actions that I enjoy as well, but this one gives the image a beautiful, film-like tone.
Tara Bamford – Nikon F100, 50mm 1.4G, Kodak Tri-X 400. I rated the film at box speed and used my in-camera spot meter on the shadowy part of her skin.
Amy Lucy Lockheart Nikon D90 and Nikon 35 1.4G, Digital PP Method: Clickin Moms Film Art Preset, canvas extension, selective dodging and burning, and sharpening
kate t. parker Lightroom, converted to black and white with Kellie Hatcher‘s “drama” preset…then lightened a few areas with the brush tool.
Jessica Chia – Essence Images -Image is shot on Nikon D700 ISO 320 50mm (Prime) F1.4 1/500 shot indoors using window light. Processed with totally rad’s “boring black and white”
Wendy Laurel – because nobody included 2 of my favorite black and whites. First one is with my all time fav and not a “real” black and white- Kodak BWCN 400. The second is on Fuji Instant Film (negative scanned) 100b.
Mitchel Issel – 1940s Graflex super d 4×5, f5.6 1/400, mid afternoon full sun. shot on Fuji Acros100 developed in HC110. this is a scan from a contact print.
So gang, we got flooded with submissions on this one. If you submitted but aren’t up here, I apologize. We had so many and I tried to do first come, first served with alot of diversity. We appreciate it and will try to include you next time. (we also are looking for images 600 pixels wide and no watermarks).
Maybe we will need more than one on black and white. The variations on both digital or film are endless. There is large format, tons of different film stocks, polaroid and then developing.. thats a whole blog in itself.
On the digital side we are chock full of different pre-sets, actions or techniques. This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg in this post.
Some information on metering for true black and white film ala Jonathan Canlas. — although its through my ears and out my mouth so there may be something left in the translation:
- Use the spot meter
- Point it at the person’s cheek
- Use the zone system to figure out if you need to overexpose and by how much (fair people are usually 1.5 stops over)
- Shoot.
Of course, if you do this often, you start to just “know” your exposures.
For my fav film — Kodak BW CN400 , its actually a C-41 (regular color) film so you expose like most color films, a bit over exposed looks like creamy skins and beautiful tones. Simple. Thats the way I like it.
For digital — well you got me. I’d totally cheat and look at the back of my screen. And get home and try out a bunch of actions. As you can see above you have a ton of options — Totally RAD, Clickin Moms, Kellie Hatcher, My Four Hens, Nik Filters and probably a thousand more.
Come back and see us tomorrow. We will be talking more about black and white shooting with one photographer who decided she loved it so much, she went all black and white. We will see some of her children’s work and see how she attracts and wows clients.
And don’t forget our giveaway! Like us on Facebook and Tweet or FACEBOOK us today and tell us about it below. And we will randomly pick a winner this week and GIVE the winner a Richard Photo discount coupon (50% off for first time or 25% off for returning customers).
the Fabio Ventura image is absolutely amazing.
Would have loved to see some Muirhead and Orr submissions boys. Next week!
love all the images featured! It is amazing the spectrum of B&Ws. I am usually pretty amazed by the range a roll has when playing with exposure.
What incredible variety you’ve featured here! Love this post.
thank you for featuring one of my image. i enjoyed them all.
These film shots are amazing! I have got to get back into film again. I absolutely adore the look and feel of them. I hope I can work toward being consistently as amazing as the photographers featured here — I got all giddy when I saw i was there with Kate T. Parker and Jeff Yeats! Swoon! I agree about that Fabio image. Wow. And Kellie’s stuff. Wow. Trish’s…again…wow. OK. I’m being a photo nerd! I’ll stop. Thanks again for your awesome posts — They are more than eye candy for those of us who love great photography!
lisa — LOVED your image!
Oh my, I love this! 🙂 So many beautiful images and great information about metering and films!
awesome insight, amazing images, great post! Thanks!!
wow. what an honor to be posted with these photographers. Fabio, holy shot and processing….just gorgeous. Trish Barker, so cool! Reggie Cambell, Love the light and grain. And Kate Parker, could you make my presets look any better? Amazing! Thank you!!
they are just awesome presets, kellie! any more coming along??? 🙂
I like Wendy’s image that was shot on Kodak BWCN 400!
oh thank you Allison.. I had to include that film.
loved this post. black&whites are so emotive and wonderful. i was hoping i was going to look at all the images and one process would jump out at me as a favorite, but nope. i just like them all 🙂 🙂