Photography Foundations: Black and White

Ben Long shares strategies for capturing the best black and white images and techniques for converting to black and white in Photoshop.

1. Introduction

• The world in black and white
• Why black and white?
• Seeing in black and white
• Image editor choices

2. What Is Black-and-White Photography?

• Is it really black and white?
• How gray corresponds to color
• The medium of black and white
• The vocabulary of black and white
• The physiology of black and white
• How a camera's image sensor captures an image

3. Shooting in Black and White

• Preparing the camera
• Light revisited
• Seeing in black and white
• Taking a black-and-white expedition
• Finding and shooting a black-and-white image
• Shooting a tone-based subject
• Exposing for black and white

4. Black-and-White Post-Production

• Deciding whether to convert to black and white
• The nature of grayscale images
• Converting to black and white using Lightroom
• Converting to black and white using Photoshop and other Apps
• Histograms and converting to black and white
• Converting to black and white with AI masks
• Selective edits for black and white conversion
• Selective edits with PS adjustment layers
• Vignetting on a black and white image
• Editing the Trestle image
• Toning in Lightroom

5. Printing in Black and White

• Selecting a printer
• Configuring the Print dialog
• Evaluating a print

Conclusion

• Next steps