Creative Black and White: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques

Black-and-white photography poses unique challenges; without color to guide the eye, contrast, lighting, and composition take on even more importance. In Creative Black and White, 2nd Edition, renowned photographer Harold Davis explains these elements and demonstrates the basic rules of black and white photography, as well as when and how to break them. He breaks through the complexity of this photographic medium, explores opportunities for black-and-white imagery, and shows how to capitalize on each and every one of them. This new, revised, and expanded edition brings the tools up to date with extended sections on monochrome in Lightroom, Photoshop, and related plugins.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Past, Present, and Future

Thinking in Black and White

Contrast

Color Implied

The Tonal Landscape

Visual Implication

Seeing in Black and White

Pre-Visualization Techniques

Black and White Composition

Framing

Patterns and Lines

Shape and Form

High Key

Low Key

Shades of Gray

Finding Monochromatic Subjects

Black and White at Night

Photographing People

Portraiture in Black and White

Digital Black and White Roadmap

The RAW Advantage

Black and White in Adobe Camera RAW

Black and White in Lightroom

Grayscale Conversion Using Presets

HSL Conversion

Exposure Gradients and Adjustments

Exporting Virtual Copies into Photoshop as Layers

Multiple Layers and Masking in Photoshop

Multi-RAW Processing in Photoshop

Black and White in Photoshop

Blending with Black

Using the Channel Mixer

Black & White Adjustment Layers

Silver Efex Pro

Topaz B&W Effects

OnOne Perfect B&W

The Digital Analog to the Analog Zone System

Combining Conversions in Photoshop

Lighting and Monochromatic Photos

Creating High-Key Effects

Creating Low-Key Effects

HDR in Black and White

Shooting for HDR

Using HDR Software

Toning and Tinting

Tinting with a Black & White Adjustment Layer

Split Toning

The Ansel Adams Effect

Selective Color

Hand Coloring

Using LAB Color

Inverting the L Channel

Equalizing LAB Channels

Swapping Tonalities

Using Blending Modes

LAB Inversions

Soft Focus

Adding Soft Focus

Pinhole Effect

Solarization

Using Curves to Solarize an Image

Simulating the Blossfeldt Effect

Duotone and Tritone Effects

Adding and Reducing Noise

Film Effects

Infrared Camera Conversions

Infrared Conversion without an IR Camera

Creating X-Ray Images

Black and White using a Cell Phone Camera

Working with Snapseed

Toward a Monochromatic Mobile Workflow

Notes and Resources

Glossary

Index