Basics of Digital Black and White : Video Tutorial

[Matthew Gore]

Hello Everyone,

This may not be anything new and interesting to those of you who have been around digital photography for a while, but for those of you who are just getting interested in digital black and white, this may be a good place to start.

I originally started making this as a short clip for my blog in response to a question, and then I thought I'd add a little more, then I thought I should add another example, etc... and now it's about ONE HOUR, FORTY MINUTES long.

It covers the basic 9 or 10 methods of black and white conversion with photoshop/ACR , some tonal adjustments, and use of the gradient map for toning.

I thought I might as well share this with someone other than the few people on my blog that it was originally intended for... I hope that some of you find it useful

On Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/channels/lightandmatter

On YouTube:

http://youtu.be/ALcAqaTlYzM?hd=1


As Ever,
Matthew Gore

[Stormsong]

Hi Matthew,

I shoot 95% of my images with B&W in mind (I love it and think it has so much more to offer than colour) and this link is absolutely fantastic. Thank you for posting it here!

Regards,
Denise

[KeithT]

Hi Matthew,
I just had a look at your video and thought it was very good. I have been a an enthusiast of the b/w image for many years and usually work with that genre for the majority of my street and landscape work. I only shoot for colour when the image would benefit from it.

I have been through many good tutorials on the web, but a book I like at my side when working on an image, is Michael Freeman's "Digital Black and White." I also have a copy of Ansel Adams' greyscale chart, which I often open side by side with an image I am about to convert. I find that, combined with the eyedropper in CS4s B/W conversion tool very useful.

If you care to look beyond the first five pages of my Flickr site, you can see quite a few examples of my early b/w work. Page 7 in particular. My next project is to try some long exposure b/w landscape work.

Thanks for posting the link. Some very useful hints for people to digest.

[Matthew Gore]

Thanks Denise

I was like most amateur photographers in the days before digital; I started with black and white so that I could do my own darkroom work, and for the first couple of years, I just viewed it as a stepping stone to color.

Then something changed, and I really started to love black and white. It may have been that I started seeing some really good black and white photos (I went to an Ansel Adams / Edward Weston exhibit at the University of Washington around that time). Anyway, I've loved black and white ever since, though I don't use it as much as I'd like these days.

I do strongly believe, though, that EVERY photographer should spend a year or so shooting nothing but black and white, just so that they start thinking more about composition and light quality than finding bright colors. Shooting black and white really helps you get over that initial desire to shoot sunsets all the time (Not that there's anything wrong with sunsets, but I think they're better when they're part of a composition, not the focus).

- Matthew Gore

[Matthew Gore]

Keith,

You have some beautiful photos, black and white and color... thanks

- Matthew

[ABERS]

Do you have a web site of your images that I can visit? As someone who works almost entirely in monochrome, and have done for some 30 odd years, I'm always interested to see how other photographers approach and use the medium.

Alan

[KeithT]

Thank you for looking, Matthew, and your comment is much appreciated. Like Alan, I would love to take a look at your website images if you have one devoted to them.

[Matthew Gore]

I actually don't publish too many of my images online; there are several reasons for that... but I suppose the primary one is that I just haven't taken the time to do it.

I do occasionally publish brief trip reports with attached image galleries on my blog, Light And Matter. Just go to the "Categories" menu and click on "Photo Expeditions" (or scroll down to the "Photo Expeditions" category block and click on the "See All Posts" button. Most of the photos are color, but there are some black and whites mixed in too.

Incidentally... thanks for the warm welcome at this forum I made similar posts at 4 forums, and this is the only one that received any response, despite the fact that there were many more "views" on other forums.

- Matthew

[GeoffWessex]

By coincidence, I spent a couple of hours this afternoon writing a PDF guide to B&W for the members of my photo club, in Ontario..... and now I've recommended they take a look at the video. It stresses all the points I was making and makes a great learning tool. I've got some assignments lined up for the members in the next few months which concern the proper use of B&W and how it can best be recorded.... so this video was exactly what was required.

Thanks Matthew.... super job!

[Matthew Gore]

Ahh, good! I'm glad to hear that this will actually be helpful for someone Thanks Geoff.

Incidentally, I'm going to be doing a little editing... I think that there are a few minutes that I can take out of the early portions that will make it a little more watchable, so sometime today or tomorrow, it might be offline briefly while it updates.

- Matthew