8 Great B&W Tips

The Editors, September, 2001

Black-and-white photography can be very rewarding. Here are some easy ways to expand your B&W capabilities.

1. Check It Out For enjoyment and inspiration, go to a local photo show, gallery, or art museum and check out some great black-and-white photographs up close. You can also view great B&W photos in coffee-table photo books, but there's nothing quite like the beauty of a real-life fine black-and-white print. And while Ansel Adams always comes to mind, there are many fine black-and-white photographers whose work is well worth a look. Images from Michael Childers' show "Famous" at the Randall Erickson Gallery in Palm Springs, California. The exhibit also runs from October 19-November 24 at the Apex Gallery in Los Angeles. Photo by John Agner

2. Try Different Film(s) There are three basic categories of black-and-white film today: the "classic" films such as Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP5 Plus; the "new-technology" films such as Kodak T-Max and Ilford Delta; and the chromogenic films such as Ilford XP2 Super and Kodak T-Max T400 CN. The new-tech films are much finer grained and sharper than the classics for their speeds—they generally have the grain and sharpness of classic films 1/3 their speed. So why are the classics still around? Because many B&W photographers love their "look." The chromogenic films offer lots of exposure latitude, great image quality, and the fact that you can have them processed at any lab that does color-print film, since they use the same process. You should try an example or two from each category, to see which best suits your artistic taste. (A tip: You'll get much better results with chromogenic films if you have prints made on conventional black-and-white paper instead of on color paper.) Ilford XP2 provided a nice balance of tonality, sharpness and fine grain for this winter image. Photo by Mike Stensvold

3. Colored Filters In black-and-white photography, a colored filter will lighten subjects of its own (and similar) color, and darken subjects of complementary color. You can put this to good use when photographing a scene that contains subjects of similar brightness but different colors. For example, if you photograph a green plant with red flowers in color, the strong color contrast between the red flowers and green leaves makes for a striking shot. If you photograph the same plant in black-and-white, the red flowers and green leaves will both reproduce as about the same shade of gray, because both reflect about the same amount of light. However, if you put a red No. 25 filter over the lens, the filter will transmit almost all of the light from the red flowers, while absorbing most of the light from the green leaves. The result? A photo with light flowers and dark leaves—much more interesting than the all-gray rendition. Or you could use a green filter over the lens instead of the red one—then you'd get a photo with dark flowers and light leaves. The red No. 25 filter is also popular for darkening a blue sky so that white clouds stand out dramatically. When shooting through the No. 25 filter, you have to increase exposure by three stops over the no-filter exposure, to compensate for the light it absorbs (your SLR's built-in meter will pretty well take care of this for you, but for most-accurate results, meter without the filter, increase the metered exposure by three stops and lock it in, then put the filter over the lens and shoot). A red No. 25 filter darkened the blue sky, making the white thunderstorm stand out dramatically. Photo by Mike Stensvold

4. Grain Effects Grain effects used to be easy—just use Kodak Recording Film 2475, the grainiest film around. Unfortunately for grain enthusiasts, 2475 is no longer available. But you can still produce great grain effects. Use Kodak's T-Max P3200, expose it at EI 3200 or 6400, and develop it in Kodak T-Max developer per the instructions for EI 6400. The key is to use a wide-angle lens, and compose so your subject occupies only the center portion of the frame. When you crop into the frame and blow-up the image of the subject, you'll have a veritable grainstorm (along with much better sharpness than 2475 produced). Grain effects were easy with Kodak Recording Film 2475 (used for this portrait), the grainiest film around. But it's been discontinued, so the "hot" grain-effect films now are Kodak T-Max P3200 and the ISO 1000-and-up color-print films. Compose so your subject occupies only the center portion of the image, then blow that section up to fill an 8x10 print, and you'll have grain galore. Photo by Mike Stensvold