Seeing in Black and White

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Learning to see in black and white has changed. Prior to the 21st century, black and white photographers developed a heightened sensitivity to intensity and direction of light as well as tonal relationships between highlights and shadows. For the most part, they discounted the appearance of hue and saturation, with a few exceptions.

These perceptual skills are still very important for 21st century digital black and white photographers. But, today, previsualizing possibilities becomes much more challenging. Because you can make any hue light or dark, globally or locally, dramatically extending the variability of an image's tonal structure, the two additional variables, hue and saturation, need to be factored in rather than factored out.


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Many Ways To Convert Color To Black & White

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 There are at many ways to convert an image from color to black and white. Here's a roundup and evaluation of the top seven plus a set of considerations to help you choose the best one for your needs.
1          Desaturate
Desaturate or use the Saturation slider to make all the channels the same without control over the mix. Desaturaton is useful for near neutral images, otherwise it produces compressed tonal structure.
2          Convert Mode To Grayscale
Grayscale conversions eliminate all channels but one. The default mix is 59% Green, 29% Red, 11% Blue. This can be customized by targeting a single channel before conversion, to get 100% of any channel in any color space, including Lab. Quick and direct, this method eliminates future flexibility; its limited use is to create Grayscale images for reproduction but it's not the best way to make a conversion from color to black and white.
3          Channel Mixer
The Channel Mixer set to Monochrome allows you to customize the mix of channels and can be used as an adjustment layer, which allows you to change the mix at any time in the future.


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Amazing Solo Bass Performance By Mike Manring


Mike Manring demonstrates his musical virtuosity with his custom made bass capable of switching to different tunings mid-performance.
In this extended video, after his first astonishing performance he eloquently celebrates the instrument he loves, before playing two more pieces.
He’s a musical pioneer who continues to break new ground. In my humble opinion, he is the world’s finest bass player – ever.

10 Quotes By Photographer Irving Penn

 
Enjoy this collection of quotes by photographer Irving Penn.
“I can get obsessed by anything if I look at it long enough. That’s the curse of being a photographer.” – Irving Penn
“A good photograph is one that communicate a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.” – Irving Penn
“I myself have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel.” – Irving Penn
“A beautiful print is a thing in itself, not just a halfway house on the way to the page.” – Irving Penn
“Over the years I must have spent thousands of hours silently brushing on the liquid coatings, preparing each sheet in anticipation of reaching the perfect print.” – Irving Penn
“I’ve tried a few times to depart from what I know I can do, and I’ve failed. I’ve tried to work outside the studio, but it introduces too many variables that I can’t control. I’m really quite narrow, you know.” – Irving Penn
“Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is the one they would like to show to the world… Every so often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe.” – Irving Penn
“Many photographers feel their client is the subject. My client is a woman in Kansas who reads Vogue. I’m trying to intrigue, stimulate, feed her. My responsibility is to the reader. The severe portrait that is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader.” – Irving Penn
“What I really try to do is photograph people at rest, in a state of serenity.” – Irving Penn
“I feed on art more than I ever do on photographs. I can admire photography, but I wouldn’t go to it out of hunger.” – Irving Penn
View more 12 Great Photographs By Great Photographers.
Read more in The Essential Collection Of Quotes By Photographers.
View more in The Essential Collection Of Documentaries On Photographers.

How Gray is Gray?

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In the vernacular the phrase “black and white” can be used to describe definitive answers, while the use of the phrase “gray areas” often means an area defies easy definition making it difficult to draw hard and fast lines.

While there is a general consensus as to what constitutes the colors black, white and gray, opinions vary significantly when it comes to identifying absolute blacks, whites, and grays.

Which of these colors is absolutely neutral? Which are warmer than neutral? Which are cooler than neutral? All of them are nearly neutral when compared to fully saturated colors. More importantly, which colors do you prefer? Which colors would most enhance the images you are producing?

It‘s helpful to sensitize yourself to these many possibilities and to identify your personal preferences.

Read more in my Black & White lessons.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

7 Quotes By Photographer Harold Edgerton

 
Enjoy this collection of quotes by photographer Harold Edgerton.
“If you don’t wake up at three in the morning and want to do something, you’re wasting your time. ” – Harold Egerton
“When I was a boy, I read with great interest but skepticism about as magic lamp which was used with success by a certain Aladdin. Today I have no skepticism whatsoever about the magic of the xenon flash lamp which we use so effectively for many purposes.” – Harold Egerton
“The trick to education is to teach people in such a way that they don’t realize they’re learning until it’s too late.” – Harold Eugene Edgerton
“We worked and worked, didn’t get anywhere. That’s how you know you’re doing research.” – Harold Egerton
“In many ways, unexpected results are what have most inspired my photography.” – Harold Egerton
“Don’t make me out to be an artist. I am an engineer. I am after the facts, only the facts.” – Harold Egerton
“Work like hell, tell everyone everything you know, close a deal with a handshake, and have fun.” – Harold Egerton
Read more in The Essential Collection Of Quotes By Photographers.
View more in 12 Great Photographs By Great Photographers.
View more in The Essential Collection Of Documentaries On Photographers.

Black & White Photography Styles

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high key

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mid key full scale

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mid key high contrast

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high contrast

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low key

Most successful artists define a consistent palette for their life’s work, for periods during their careers, or for individual bodies of work. It’s one of the primary things that creates an easily recognizable signature style. This is as true for black and white photographers as it is color photographers.

You can precisely describe black and white palettes by identifying the overall lightness or key (high – light, medium, low – dark) and the amount of contrast (high, medium, low, none) held in three ranges of tones – shadows (zones 0-3), midtones (zones 4-7), and highlights (zones 8-10). Put more broadly, the dominant range of tone is identified first and then each range of tone can be described as expanded or compressed; a range of tone that does not exist in an image could be described as fully compressed.


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