5 Photographers With Signature B&W Styles
You can learn a lot just by looking at great photographs.
Want to learn more about black and white images?
Start by studying these five photographers.
Alfred Stieglitz explored the softer sensibility of platinum with muted blacks, very full highlights, and a surprising range of tints.
View 12 Great Photographs By Alfred Stieglitz here.
Ansel Adams epitomized the modern sensibility with deep blacks, bright whites, and a full smooth range of tones in between.
View 12 Great Photographs By Ansel Adams here.
Brett Weston moved modern photography towards abstraction with extreme contrast often eliminating shadow and sometimes highlight detail.
View 12 Great Photographs By Brett Weston here.
Huntington Witherill advances the classic modern sensibility into the contemporary by achieving extreme separation in even the deepest blacks and the brightest whites, often side-by-side.
View 12 Great Photographs By Huntington Witherill here.
Joyce Tenneson has explored many high key black and white palettes over her career – neutral in her early years, semi-neutral tints mid-career, and more recently gold-leafed.
View 12 Great Photographs By Joyce Tenneson here.
View more 12 Great Photographs Collections here.
Read more in my Black & White lessons.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
5 Strategies For Adding Color Into B&W Photographs
There are as many reasons to add color back into black-and-white photographs as there are ways to do it.
You can change the emotional tone of photographs when you add warm or cool tints to them.
You can separate areas of a photograph by toning them differently.
You can enhance the illusion of volume in a photograph by adding different colors into highlights and shadows; typically highlights are warm and shadows are cool.
You can increase volume further by adding gradations of hue in specific regions of a photograph; typically this is done with brushes.
You can add still greater realistic complexity by restoring trace amounts of the original color.
If you increase the saturation of any of these treatments beyond a low level, you turn black-and-white photographs into color photographs.
Read more in my Black & White lessons.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
John Sexton Celebrates Black & White Printing
John Sexton Celebrates the black and white print.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.
Read more with my online Printing Resources.
View more with my Printing DVD.
The Weston Stories – Westons On Westons – 3 Videos
Kim Weston takes an historic trip down memory lane.
Edward Weston as remembered by his sons Brett, Cole, and Neil.
Brett and Cole Weston describe their work and legacy.
Explore 12 Great Photographs By Great Photographers
Explore The Essential Collection Of Quotes By Photographers.
Explore The Essential Collection Of Documentaries On Photographers.
Photographer Charles Sheeler – American Precisionist – Video
“Charles Sheeler was a key figure in the American Precisionist Movement in the early 20th Century. He had careers as both a successful painter and as a photographer.” – Ted Forbes
Manhatta a short movie by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand.
Explore 12 Great Photographs By Great Photographers
Explore The Essential Collection Of Quotes By Photographers.
Explore The Essential Collection Of Documentaries On Photographers.