Black and white makes the picture simple and pure

In this age of vision, we see so many pictures every day, canvas prints and we take so many more pictures every day than we did decades ago. Whether shooting with a camera or a mobile phone, we should think more about things like faster focus, more accurate exposure and better composition. Have you ever thought about the question when shooting: how would it feel if the scene was processed into black and white?

In fact, in the digital age, most cameras come in color and only a few have sensors that can only take black-and-white photos. Therefore, canvas prints online modern black and white photographs are not as pure as shooting black and white film, from color to black and white has become a visual and mental conversion process. How do you turn a color photo into black and white? It's not as simple as desiderating a photo in post-production software, and what makes it look better in black and white?

The subject is always the soul and essence of a photograph or group of photographs. Therefore, whether we use black and white photo, we need to consider from this aspect. To put it simply, the content of the picture can be considered from the following aspects: is the picture concise, does color interfere with the picture, and does the texture of the picture need to be highlighted?

For example, when shooting some pictures with obvious lines, such as minimalist architecture and interior space, more pure black, white and gray tones can be used to emphasize the rhythm and rhythm of the subject itself. Or some such as stone, tree branches, rough skin and so on, if the interpretation of a more full-bodied high-contrast black and white picture, there will be a new flavor and emotional rendering.

And the most important point is whether color can cause interference to the picture. As we all know, color pictures are good at showing the rich and colorful world. Like the picture of a few light and shadow messiness, color can be behaved when presenting very rich and colorful, the picture can appear very "dirty", might as well try to process accordingly black and white picture, through the change between black and white gray 3, make the picture becomes more simple and pure.

Black and white and color can interpret different emotions and textures

As I mentioned earlier, black-and-white images can bring new flavor and emotion. So how can we use black and white to show the emotion you want to express? Street and documentary photography are good examples. The content related to these themes is mostly related to the society, family and characters, and there will naturally be an outpouring of inner emotions. Natural color documentary and street photography, also has its own unique way of thinking and visual presentation. And what we're going to talk about today is the use of black and white.

Black-and-white documentary photography can make the picture more calm and melancholy, so we have to mention a key word -- particle. Unlike film photography's naturally random graininess, digital camera graininess doesn't seem to taste good enough. For example, in the works of Japanese street photographers such as Murayama Avenue and hero’s fukashisa, rough grainy black and white images are presented to highlight a kind of inner anxiety or confusion. Thus particles and black and white are a combination of the mind. In the digital age, the processed black and white images can be appropriately added to the graininess of the picture by means of the later stage, which will improve the visual effect.

Finally, there is the question originally raised in the article: is black and white equal to simple decolorization? In fact, in professional post-production software, such as Photoshop, there will be independent black and white options, providing "gray level" transformation of different channel colors in the black and white context. This idea is more like the color filter in black and white film, which can accurately control the gray level change in black and white photos. Similarly, contrast and black and white field are also important. Whether there is pure white or dead black part in the picture will change the emotion described in the black and white photo.

The choice of black, white and color is also the consideration of personal subjective factors. The ideas mentioned in the article only provide you with a way of thinking when shooting. I hope that you can shoot the pictures you like,  large canvas prints which is the most important thing.