Get the black & white film look
Transform your digital images into black & white analog classics by using simple tools. James Paterson gives you a masterclass
Why is the appeal of black & white photography so enduring? Perhaps it’s because a monochrome treatment lends our photos a nostalgic, timeless feel that’s difficult to achieve in this pristine, high-resolution digital age. It creates an aesthetic link to an earlier time and a rich heritage of film photography. Or maybe it’s because the absence of colour can draw attention to other things, like the stark shape of a building or the texture of a person’s skin. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that, as a medium, black & white photography is as strong today as it’s ever been. But things do change. These days there are lots of tools and techniques for achieving that classic black & white film look, from Lightroom tools to in-camera tricks and plug-ins that replicate particular film stocks, right down to the specific grain structure. Over the next few pages, we’ll explore some of the best options.
When it comes to image editing, the term ‘effect’ is sometimes seen as a dirty word. But an effect is exactly what a black & white conversion is. Granted, it’s probably the most universally accepted of all image effects, but in the digital age it’s an aesthetic choice rather than the practical necessity it was in the early days of photography. As such, if we want to replicate the characteristics of black & white film then it’s helpful to think of it as a combination of three image-editing tricks. First there’s the removal of colour; then there’s the control of contrast and tonality; and finally there’s the addition of monochrome tropes like film grain, vignettes or split toning.
Why go mono?
Of course, there are lots of apps and plug-ins that can apply these effects for you (a few of which are listed here), but you can also do it manually in Photoshop, Lightroom or any competent imageediting app. However, before we delve into how to make an image black &
white, perhaps we should first consider why. Some images just seem to work better in monochrome. But which ones? There are no firm rules, but there are a few factors to look out for. Removing colour draws attention to form, shapes, textures and patterns. Images with bold contrast tend to work in monochrome, as do stark landscapes, and photos with a strong shape or an interesting balance between light and shade.
‘Seeing’ the world in black & white takes practice, but it can help to set your camera to a monochrome picture style to give you a better idea of how the finished image will look. Be sure to shoot in raw quality, otherwise the colour information will be stripped out of the file – and that colour information is very useful for
controlling the look of the black & white image.
The conversion
As anyone who has ever experimented with lens-mounted colour filters will know, colour is very important in black & white photography. We can use the colour information in our original digital image to control brightness as we convert to black & white. Lightroom and Photoshop both offer an excellent tool for this: the HSL/Black and White Panel. It gives us eight sliders that control the luminance of different colour ranges (we can also drag within the image to adjust the sliders). These let us control the tonality of our black & white photo by, for example, darkening the blues to make a sky more dramatic, or lifting the oranges to give skin tones a bright, airy feel.
Contrast and tonality
Traditionally, different film stocks would display characteristic levels of contrast, and that contrast would increase if the film was pushed during processing. When our digital images are first converted to mono they can often look disappointingly flat, so a quick boost in contrast is usually necessary. There are a number of tools for boosting contrast, but the most intuitive has to be Curves. Available in Photoshop, Lightroom and numerous other editors, Curves lets you alter brightness by affecting different parts of the tonal range. By plotting two or three points on the curve line to form an S-shape we can
boost contrast by lightening the highlights and darkening the shadows. What’s more, we can control the brightness of the black & white points by dragging the top and bottom points of the curve line up or down, inwards or outwards. It’s an essential skill to learn – not just for black & white photography, but all image-editing.
Gorgeous grain
These days we refer to noise in our images, but in the days of film we would instead have to consider the film grain. Just as a high-ISO digital image displays greater noise, a high-ISO film stock (and with film, anything above 400 was considered as such) would display noticeable film grain. Both result in a loss of detail, but while the former is considered to be unsightly, film grain is often thought to add character.
If you want to get the look of black & white film then the biggest challenge is achieving a realistic grain. It’s complicated by the fact that different film stocks display varying grain, and it would be more prominent if the film was pushed in processing to gain an extra stop or two. The apps and plug-ins mentioned here let you add grain to your black & white photos. In Lightroom, head to the Develop Module’s FX panel and adjust the grain sliders. Keep in mind that the appearance of the grain will be dependent on the resolution of the image, so if you intend to print it then resize to the proper print resolution first before adding a grain effect.
In- camera grain
Grain lovers might also try emphasising grain in-camera by intentionally using a high ISO, even if the conditions don’t demand it. To take it even further, you can try intentionally underexposing the image so that it appears very dark, then recover it in post. This leads to increased noise to give your photos a lovely textured look if you find the right sweet spot between underexposure and recovery.