Creating A Black And White Print

I get emails periodically about my black and white prints asking how I create them. While there is nothing special about my process there are some "secrets" when it comes to black and white digital photography. First, you should always shoot in RAW and in color. This may sound odd, but shooting in color will give better tones after the image is converted to black and white. In fact, if you are using RAW you can set the camera to black and white so you can see a greyscale image in the viewfinder, but still capture all the color information in the RAW file.

The second "secret" to shooting a good black and white image is to always use the lowest ISO of your camera. Grain, or digital noise, is always greater in dark colors so you want to avoid high ISO settings unless you are looking for grain in your final product. Even then it is best to shoot with as little grain as possible and add it later during post processing.

Composition is very important in any image, but with black and white you will not be able to use color to lead the eye around the image. Instead it is shapes and tones that become the star attraction, especially the shadows and highlights.

Keith Cooper is a commercial photographer that has put together a wonderful article about how to post process a black and white image. If you are interested in converting your images to black and white I highly recommend it.


Pete Hellmann Photography