Photo Adventure Transcript
Download the photo here.
Welcome back everyone! And here are the photos to vote on. Cast your vote by clicking the poll (at the top right corner) or leave a comment below of your favorite photo. Now let's take a look at the other photos.
Today, we are going to photograph black and white photos using 4 tips.
- Tip #1 - Pick contrasting colors. Let's take a look at the color wheel. You'll want complimentary colors that are opposite of each other to bring out good contrast in black and white photography. Or you can even go simple and pick a subject that is already black and white.
- Tip #2 - Harsh light is a plus. Are you tired of waiting for that "golden hour" to photograph your subject? Use that sunlight and shadows to your advantage.
- Tip #3 - Use "monochrome" in live view. This will help you visualize what the black and white photo will look like instead of trying to guess how your colors will look like as black and white. This is how I switch my settings on my Canon 80D. Go to menu, picture style, and change it there.
- Tip #4 - Keep it simple. If there's too much going on in the frame, your photo could look muddy. So remove what you can to keep your contrast simple with your subject.
Now, let's build our studio. First, I'm going to lay white poster board on this stool. Next, I'm going to use a variety seashells to photograph. Some have color on them. Some don't. And this is why I like macro photography so much. You can capture a great photograph without having to spend money traveling to exotic places like you would have to for landscape photography. And, even though I'm outside, I'm going to use flashlights to help give me more direct harsh light. These flashlights are neat because they have clips on the end of them and the neck can move. I bought them at home depot. I have them clamped on my tripod. And finally, one last thing to take care of. This guy right here is so white that I'm going to need a good black background. For that, I just placed my lens hood behind it. That was easy. Now let's see what I can do. Start the music...
Alright, lets jump into Lightroom and I'll show you some before and after. Here you can see the black and white looks much better with this photo. Since this shell is basically black and white already, it translated over well. Here you can see I added some additional vignetting to pop it out more. Here you can see that I darkened the right and left sides to keep the background simple. This one, I filled in more of the bottom black area to push the photo up more. This one I also added more black to the top to level it off. This one I did all sorts of exposure changes to the background. Some vignetting. This was just basic contrast corrections. Same with this one. This one also has the vignetting. It gives it a spotlight look. This one is just basic contrast editing. This one darkened up nicely compared to the original photo. And lastly, the one with the lens hood as the background is probably the best example of a simple black and white photo.
Alright, there you have it, don't forget to vote on your favorite photo by leaving a comment below, or clicking the poll to let me know. I'm going to give you my favorite pick out of these three as a free download, so you can do whatever you want with the photo. Enjoy, guys, and don't forget to like and subscribe to my channel for upcoming macro photo adventures.