SIX SUBJECTS THAT SUIT MONO

Black & white is a powerful creative medium and it’s incredibly versatile, probably with far more versatility than many photographers give it credit for. Next time you’re out shooting give it a try and select the mono picture mode. Shoot raw + JPEG so you get a mono preview but still have the colour option.

You can explore black & white right now on existing files in software. In Adobe Lightroom, a single click takes you from colour to mono so you get an idea of the potential, and if you like what you see, work on the conversion for the best result.

Architecture

Interiors or exteriors, modern or classical, overall view or detail – whatever your taste, black & white is a good option.

One advantage when tackling interiors in black & white is that you don’t have to worry about weird and not so wonderful colour casts created by artificial lighting. Church and cathedral interiors, for example, can have very warm lighting and the vivid orange cast is almost impossible to neutralise satisfactorily. No problem in black & white, though.

Night

Vibrant colour abounds at night with office lighting, street lamps and car trails so shooting colour is the obvious thing to do, yet monochrome can be successful too. Blackness and deep shadows inevitably dominate and any highlights present in the scene are often intense and can burn out. But the high contrast, relative lack of delicate mid-tones and darkness can work very nicely in black & white. Shoot raw to give more flexibility when it comes to dealing with the highlights and pools of darkness.

Close-ups

Details, patterns and texture can look wonderful in black & white and even better when side-lit to add an extra splash of contrast – but not too much!

Such images in full colour can look a tad too busy with different hues competing for attention or look unsettling with clashing colours. Of course, this can work in your favour, so be prepared to explore both options. In mono, try the halfway option and tone your shots in editing.

Scapes

Seascapes, landscapes and urban scapes all suit the monochrome approach. Whether you envisage your final shot to be in colour or in mono, good light to bring out texture or add warmth is always a benefit. But when the lighting is flat and there’s lots of cloud cover, taking the mono route for mood can work really well. Make more of a cloudy sky by taking one correct exposure and then one underexposed by one or two f-stops, so the sky shows greater detail. The two shots can be merged in editing.

Portraits

Nothing beats black & white for character portraits, whether you use natural light, LED lights or flash.

Unless you are going for a beauty shot with diffused lighting, try Rembrandt or split lighting for contrast. Be brave and put away the reflector and keep the shadows deep.

In editing, use the highlight and shadow recovery sliders sparingly to keep the contrast high. Adding digital noise for a film-like grain effect can be very effective too.

Street

Shoot mono and explore your inner Cartier-Bresson. Few can get anywhere close to the work produced by the master of street photography but taking the mono option is at least a start and can add a unique mood to your shots.

A popular form of street photography is using full sunlight, bold shapes and contrast. This approach can be very powerful in monochrome, especially if you keep the contrast high and perhaps recover the highlights a little in editing.