The Theory

I love black and white photographs – plain and simple. If you've read my "This Poptographer Rocks" article, you'd probably gathered from it that contrasty black and white images are sort of my "thing". Black and white photographs are classic, timeless, beautiful, alluring, artful and highly emotive, among other things. Seriously, I could go on and on, but I'm sure you didn't stop in to read black and white propaganda. Color images are great, don't get me wrong; however, I feel that color can (and does) complicate things at times. Black and whites have nostalgic, artful and graphic qualities, which is why I love them so much. Further, when a photograph lacks color, as a black and white inherently does, it makes up for it with power, impact and emphasis on the subject and their emotion.

In 2001, I was taking my second photography class, and it was during that time that I fell in love with making high-contrast black and white images. The prints that I'd made during the early part of the course were deemed too "muddy" by the instructor, and he thought I should work on getting darker darks and lighter lights – and with that, I did. What I found was a stunning (and addictive) quality of black and white photography that I just can't seem to stop doing. I saw the light in the most literal way, and I hope to shed some of it on the subject here on The Momtographers. That said, onto creating punchy, high-contrast black and whites.

There's no real secret to achieving good, high-contrast black and whites in post. As long as you've nailed (or at least gotten close to nailing) your exposure, you're in good shape. The idea is to play around and shift the sliders to match the images to the vision in your head. It also helps to squint a lot when creating your images. I squint all the time, whether in the field or in post. During my stint in art school, one of my drawing instructors drilled down the importance of contrast, and told the class to squint (and to do it often) to see the lights and darks. It is, without a doubt, applicable to photography, as it helps you see the potential for black and white. The key to high-contrast is seeing where the darks and lights are, and knowing where they can be pushed to get the look and mood you want.

When shooting digital, I typically work in Lightroom, and I shoot in RAW to ensure better control over my images. Once I've imported my images and have figured out my black and white candidate(s), I start to squint. Typically, I target solid shapes, negative spaces, lights and darks and the transition of grays in between. Once I've got a good idea of where I want to push my tones, I start moving the sliders.

There is no right or wrong way to process a black and white image.  What it boils down to, is personal vision and experimentation to reach that vision. Don't be afraid to take your images where you think they should go. Feel it. Pat some soul onto it, and knock yourself out. I'll be honest here – I'm not a technical photographer. I basically shoot and process by feel. If what you've done to your images worked, then great. If it didn't, do your best to make it work without wasting time on an image that has you beat.


The Approach

The following is a Lightroom 2 tutorial, probably at the most basic level. If you're a novice, then this may uncover some Lightroom mystery or even reaffirm techniques that already work for you. If you're an advanced, super-duper power user – my apologies. Either way, I hope that this down-and-dirty piece of help will spark an idea that you can grow and build upon.

1. This is an unprocessed image, captured in RAW format. If you observe the Histogram, you'll see that the majority of the tones sit more or less toward the center of the curve, which makes for a fairly well-balanced exposure. Note, too, that sliders affecting the tone curve are the defaults and have not been altered.




2. Here I've made a direct grayscale conversion. As well, no sliders have been moved. The Histogram is essentially the same, minus the RGB curves.

3. I've achieved what I'm looking for – deep shadows, intense highlights and grays that recede smoothly to black and vice-versa. And look at the histogram. Notice that more of the tones lie on both extreme ends of the curve, and is relatively flat in the middle, which means that there is a higher degree of difference between the shadows and highlights; thus, higher contrast. I realize the fun happened between screenshot #2 and this one. But it shouldn't matter much – the process was my own, and chances are, you'll develop yours. The key is to push values and massage your images in a manner you see fit to reach your level of perfection. And the only way to do it, is by... say it with me at your screen... experimenting!




4. Alright, I've gone this far, so I may as well polish the image a bit further by cropping out as many distractions possible.




5. And, presto change-o! That's pretty much it as far as Lightroom is concerned. Simply export the image for further tweaks and retouching in Photoshop.




That's it for now, Ladies (and Gents, if there any here). My hope is that I've been helpful in taking some of the mystery out of making black and whites. And that I've inspired and/or encouraged you to venture into the deep shadows and brilliant highlights. If there are any burning questions, feel absolutely free to send me a PM. Thank you.

No, thank YOU Marc!!!  For more from San Francisco Bay Area Poptographer Marc Javier (okay, he's actually a real geniune professional photographer with design tendencies) go to www.marcjavier.com and  Marc Javier has a blog, too.