الاثنين، 19 نوفمبر 2018

How To Create Intriguing Minimalist Black And White Photography

By Linda Harris


There is something especially dramatic and compelling about a photo that has to rely on tone, shape, texture, contrast, and shadow rather than vibrant color design. You may have poured over prints by Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz and wondered how they managed to capture such amazing, and deceptively simple, images. Minimalist black and white photography is something anyone can try, but only a few manage to master the techniques necessary to make it great.

If you're serious about trying this, you will have to learn to ignore color. You teach yourself this in a couple of ways. There are monochrome viewing filters you can buy for your camera. You can also go out and buy some inexpensive sunglasses that have dark gray lenses. Monochrome will work with almost any subject matter that interests you, people, cityscapes, landscapes, or still lifes.

A lot of instructors put primary emphasis on composition. Composition is important, for sure, no matter how many colors are involved. Compositions that work in color however may not work in monochrome. You must learn the elements of composition that make monochrome so distinctive.

The foundation of good monochrome photography includes several elements. One of the most important is tone. There are subtle differences between tone and contrast that you must be aware of. When you are taking pictures of something like a street scene that is full of vibrant colors, you may be surprised to learn that the color doesn't translate well if you change it to monochrome. It can become an uninteresting muddle of different gray tones. You will improve the photo with colored filters or by adjusting the lighting.

You must be aware of shadows. Shadows are powerful tools in your arsenal when you are creating minimalist art. The stronger your shadows the higher the possibility you have of taking a good picture. It is just a fact that people are drawn to shadows. Not all shadows are black and empty of shape. You should consider how shadow, and what's contained in the shadows, will affect the observer.

Shapes are parts of shadows, but they also create contrast. They may be the elements that define your photograph. If you consider it, shape is how the human brain processes what it sees around it. The way objects are shaped helps us determine what we're looking at. When you're shooting monochrome photos, it's important to identify shape and work with it in its relation to contrast and tone.

Texture is part of light and shadow. It can be tricky. If you eliminate it in an effort to get a stark effect, you will have something more abstract than if you had included it. You can emphasis texture by lowering the level of the light source. Light creates shadows and highlights that will reveal the texture in your subject.

Eliminating color can be risky. Color serves as a crutch sometimes for those unsure of their technique. Artistry is more readily revealed when you strip away the color.




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