When film and photography first came into existence about a century ago, all that was available were two basic colours – black and white.
Despite this, people were always eager and happy to enjoy the beautiful images that were created using the basic phenomenon.
Over 100 years later we can now boast of having more complex devices that makes available to us a wide range of colours devices like mobile phones with dual cameras even many other gadgets that can take pictures of us and have us see them on our screens.
Despite this, a lot of people still prefer to have their pictures taken in monochrome, and we cannot understand if it is a feeling of nostalgia or just simplicity.
I am one of those persons who love monochrome pictures and the reason I love this is that it brings out the beauty you never would have seen sometimes in coloured pictures it’s just everything magical.
A simple black and white picture can speak a thousand words more than it would have spoken if it was in colours and that might explain why even some marketers and Instagram influencers are tapping into the black and white concept very fast.
Are you interested in photography? Or just maybe you’re looking to understand the best ways to take perfect black and white pictures, below are a few tips that you might find useful.
Easy tips on shooting the best black and white images
1. No matter the kind of picture you need to take the first thing you must have in mind is light. Your light source has to be on point, and if you have natural light, it makes it all the more easier and gives you a very lovely picture without much effort. A little bit of sunlight is just great to help you achieve the right contract and the light to dark transition that would give any image the mind-blowing effect.
2. Achieving the right contrast is also a very important thing when it comes to photography and when it comes to black, and white photos contrast is a piece of cake. you need to set your camera right and take a few shots for trials to see what the contrast looks like when you can get numerous times of black and white and see how they fit into your image making the right one will not be so difficult. Just always remember that the more colourful the setting is naturally the mountains of black-and-white you have in your picture, and that will make your picture come out magnificent.
3. Also, remember that if what you’re trying to do is to express some specific lines edges and shapes then the black-and-white technique of taking pictures is your best bet. One thing I have come to discover about black and white pictures is that they draw your attention to what is right in front of you while diminishing the atmosphere behind.
4. Once you have mastered the black-and-white technique of taking pictures and you begin to convert coloured images into black and white, you would then discover that even pictures that look terrible at first can begin to look like a masterpiece once they are converted to monochrome. This is why I said earlier said black and white images are magical because they help to hide all the flaws and bring out the beauty that you would never have thought was there.
5. Finally, it is OK to take as many shots as you possibly can. Handle and play with your camera, play with the environment. You can decide to snap a specific setting from several angles then once you are done, you can look for a nice spot to just relax and peruse through the pictures you have taken till you find your favourite one. It’s even possible for you to make a picture collage of coloured pictures and black and white ones so that you can enjoy the beauty of both worlds.
One thing that is undeniable is the fact that black and white images have come to stay regardless of how sharp our cameras become or how beautiful will learn to edit our colour pictures black and white photographs will remain in the heart of a lot of people for a long time.
So if you decide you want to start making money from taking pictures or you just want to do it for fun, it is best to begin to learn the perfect ways to take beautiful black and white pictures and make people see all the memories they want to see in monochrome.
I wouldn’t call myself a professional photographer or even an amateur. but I do think you would find the above tips helpful and if you have any other tips you are willing to share please leave them in the comments section and we will be glad.
