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Dear Subscriber,
Black-and-white is back because it’s part of the power of photography.
In a world where we're accustomed to seeing color images B&W offers a fresh look.
Black-and-white is back because brides want to see black-and-white photos in their wedding albums.
Black-and-white is back because it’s a great way to show images as pure in tone, shape and form.
The bottom line: Black-and-white photography is back because it’s beautiful.
Here are some shooting tips, courtesy of our friends at Kodak. I think you'll find them interesting and useful.
Dale
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 What Works in Black & White?
If the colors in the scene are turned into shades of gray, from pitch black to brilliant white, other aspects of your photograph—shape, lighting, contrast, texture, tone—become the dominant elements.
Let's explore factors that make or break successful black-and-white pictures.
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What To Shoot in Black & White
If your scene is already bland, removing color totally could elevate a boring snapshot to an interesting landscape. Or perhaps you want to recreate the nostalgia of a bygone era.
Black-and-white photographs have a way of conveying an antique, sentimental feeling that isn't possible in color photographs.
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Color vs. Gray Tones
Learning how film and pixels convert colors into gray tones is perhaps the hardest part of black-and-white photography. Then again, if the perfect Kodak moment occurs while your toddler is wearing totally mismatched clothing, black-and-white quickly becomes your best friend!
Ask yourself whether the scene before you would look better in color or black-and-white.
For instance, flowers almost always look best in color. But if your emphasis is on a dew drop hanging from the flower, perhaps black-and-white is the answer.
You might also imagine a stop sign against a green background. If you want to emphasize the sign, keep the color. To minimize it, use black and white, because green and red convert into nearly identical gray tones.
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Contrast & Key
If you are using picture-editing software or a traditional darkroom to make your black-and-white photos, contrast and key are aspects you can emphasize or minimize in ways that are impossible in color pictures.
High-contrast (an extreme range between bright and dark) scenes may confine a viewer's attention to one element, while a low-contrast (with a narrow brightness range) scene may convey serenity and peace. You may also hear the terms high key (predominately light tones) and low key (predominately dark tones) in relation to black-and-white photography.
Contrast and key are not synonyms. A photograph may be low in contrast, yet high in key, such as a blond, blue-eyed girl against a white background.
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Texture, Line, & Shape
Maybe there's an interesting weave in your son's sweater. Or the leaves of your hosta plant have an interesting texture. Imagine how the lack of color would emphasize the texture, and how that might change the visual impact of your photo.
Likewise, lines and shapes lead our eyes through a black-and-white picture in ways they do not in a color picture. A meandering fence, rows of corn growing in a field, and layers of rock on a cliff wall all have strong lines, and removing the color from these scenes may improve them.
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Lighting
Take the color away and light does become a much more important part of your picture.
Imagine a weathered picket fence with an old barn in the background.
Waiting for an overcast or even foggy day will result in a soft, romantic landscape.
However, shooting it late on a sunny afternoon when the sun is low on the horizon and the shadows from the fence are long and dark will accentuate the texture of the fence. The mood in this picture will be totally different.
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Black-and-White Prints From Digital
Converting color digital images to B&W is really easy.
Pros & Advanced Amateurs:
- Convert to grayscale in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Or...
- If using our iPrintsPro.com ROES program just click on the Options button. You'll see Image Tone as one of your options. Click a radio button to choose either B&W, Warm B&W or Sepia. Your picture will convert to the black-and-white effect you choose.
Amateurs & Beginning Photographers:
- Order online from iPrints.com.
- Beneath each photo on the ordering window you'll see three icons. The center one is "Edit this photo." Click on the Edit icon.
- Then, click the Edit button on the window that will open and choose Grayscale.
- Your picture will be converted to black-and-white. Now, just order the sizes and print quantities you want.
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Black-and-White Prints From Film
You probably own a high-quality 35mm camera and lenses. Perhaps you'll want to pull it down from the shelf and load some 35mm B&W film.
We recommend Kodak Professional BW400CN Film.
As the finest-grained chromogenic film in the world, BW400CN delivers smooth, neutral tones with amazing highlight and shadow detail—even when it’s enlarged.
- Developed in a C-41 color process. Processing is readily available.
- Ultra-fine grain with incredible sharpness and resolution.
- Better prints from digital printing machines - Unlike conventional silver-based B&W films, the Digital Ice software in our printers can filter out light scratches, dirt and other imperfections on BW400CN negatives. This results in far "cleaner" prints.
- Picture CDs from our laboratory give you excellent digital images of your film negatives for archiving and future enlargements.
How to buy BW400CN in 36 Exposure 35mm rolls:
You won't find this professional film at your local retail store. So, as a service to photographers, we will stock and sell it to you, delivering the film by mail.
Prices (postpaid):
- $7.00 per roll in the United States.
- $8.00 per roll in Canada & Mexico with a minimum order of 6 rolls.
- $8.00 per roll worldwide with a minimum order of 10 rolls.
To order, please telephone us at (800) 327-1776 or email your order, with your credit card information, to info@dalelabs.com.
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A Few Lab Tips...
Cropping is essential for good B&W prints. We give you the ability to crop your digital images on both our iPrints.com consumer site and iPrintsPro.com for professionals.
When submitting negatives for enlargements it's important that you give us precise instructions for cropping. If no instructions are given our technicians will use their best judgement.
Though we print on color paper our digital printers produce beautiful, nearly neutral B&W. Since we're using Kodak color paper you can also get excellent warm black-and-white or sepia prints.
Paper surface is important with black-and-white. Choose professional Lustre, Glossy or Metallic paper. All look good. But, Metallic paper is unbelievable for strong B&W compositions. So, consider ordering Metallic prints for your best shots.
The bottom line...whether your shoot B&W or color...is that your job is just to capture great shots.
You snap the pictures ... we'll do the rest!
Best wishes,
Dale
Dale Farkas
President, iPrints.com & iPrintsPro.com
(Online services of Dale Laboratories)
Questions? Call (800) 327-1776.
We're here to help!
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Our sincere thanks for photos and copy to Eastman Kodak Company. For more information and tips like those above we recommend visiting kodak.com!
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