Create a vivid black and white portrait

A good black-and-white portrait isn't just about turning color into black and white. Black and white itself is an art form, it has very specific rules, if you want to take a good black and white portrait, you need to constantly learn and understand the rules of the black and white world. What should we pay attention to when shooting black and white works?

1. Focus on shadows

We all know that for a color photograph, color is an effective way to separate the subject from the background. At the same time, we can also guide the viewer to make the subject more prominent by using complementary colors and color jumping. However, in black and white photography, as each color is converted to different degrees of gray, the effect of separating the subject and background by gray level may not be so obvious. In order to avoid this, it is particularly important to use the brightest and darkest parts of a photo to make it the most important area in the whole vision.

For black and white photography, the simplest form is to use light to quickly identify the light in the picture, so that the shadow part and the strong contrast area can stand out in the picture, so as to highlight the main body.

2. concise

Black and white photography itself is a simplified form of photography, it removes color from the picture and makes the picture more simple and clear in this form. If we don't have the confidence to handle complex images, we might as well make the picture a little more concise, by simplifying the photo and composition of the main body of the picture at a glance.

It may be very simple to shoot in the arranged studio, but it may be a little troublesome to shoot in the outdoor environment, because there will always be some inevitable interference elements in the background that will affect the simplicity of our picture. While looking for the right background, we can still separate our subject and background by making use of shallow depth of field to achieve the effect of highlighting the subject.

3. Symmetry and texture

Of course, not everyone likes a simple or blurred background, which requires us to creatively use the background in the scene to make the composition look more interesting. There are many elements that can be used in the background, and symmetry and texture are one of the easiest ways to do this. Just as with color photography, we also need to look for the right background and apply it to the image.

4. Increase contrast

Black and white photography usually requires a higher contrast than color photos. Maybe many people like to use low contrast in the post-processing of color photos to make a photo similar to Japanese style, but for black and white photos, higher contrast can make the picture more impact.

There are many ways to increase contrast in the later stage. Take Lr as an example, we can enhance contrast by increasing contrast or raising the highlight area and lowering the shadow area. There is no exact value for adjusting contrast, so go ahead and look for the right contrast for your current image.

5. Capture emotions and expressions

A good picture is not necessarily a technically perfect picture. A good picture is always about emotions. Even if our composition is the best, the light is the best, the exposure is the most accurate, but the picture of the characters without god is meaningless.

The expression of the model determines his character and the success of this photo. Before the actual shooting, we should understand the model and determine the style of the model through our understanding of him, because not all people are acting, the real reveal is the most moving.