Darkroom printing of Black and White images used to be the main way most photographers created their work. It was a rite of passage and everyone who did it will probably have a host of stories to tell. I know I do, like the time we would create a wall of flames around an unsuspecting printing colleague….. Enough of that now. I’ll tell you the full story later in this post. This post is all about the basics of Black and White darkroom printing and then in the next few posts we will go into detailed tutorials of various techniques – some beginner and some advanced. Like so many photographers who grew up black and white printing, first in a home or college darkroom and then in professional ones, Ally and I have a deep love of the darkroom.

This “how to” post is for those of you who grew up with digital and never experienced the incredible joy of seeing your print appear before your eyes in the developing chemistry. This is also a reminder for those of you who used to print and long for the old days, of how satisfying it was when you emerged from the darkroom, after an evening of printing, with a stack of wonderful B&W prints.

If you are still toying with the idea of black and white photography and haven’t bought a camera yet have a look at the article Best film camera for travel photography on ImageExplorers site.

How does traditional B&W Darkroom printing work?

Black and white printing works by exposing light through a negative to light sensitive paper and then using chemicals to reveal the image.
The enlarger shines a light through the negative and focuses it on the baseboard of the enlarger. The lighter areas on the negative allow more light to get to the paper and produce a darker area. Darker areas on the neg allow less light so the paper remains white.
The photographic darkroom printing process uses paper that has a chemical coating – (this is called emulsion and is usually made up of silver salts) coated on one side that is sensitive to light, but not red light. When exposed to light a latent image is formed and this is then developed in chemical developer. This development process is then stopped using another chemical called a stop bath. Finally the chemical process is fixed using a chemical called fixer and the chemicals washed away with water. The paper can now be viewed in normal light.

Finding a B&W Darkroom to use

We were very fortunate as there is a community darkroom in the middle of our city. For a very reasonable monthly fee you can use the darkroom as much as you need. Ally bought me several months of access for my birthday. Awesome present! I was shown the darkroom facilities, called SPACE in Colchester, UK by the very amiable general manager called Jack Briggs-Miller. 

Many towns and cities have similar setups but if your town does not you might try the local camera clubs. Of course, you could always build your own. A light proof room with running water is all you need. I can’t count the number of times I have blacked out windows in bathrooms to use as a makeshift darkroom. Enlargers are relatively cheap and the whole lot including trays can often be purchased off eBay for a song.

Getting started

For advice on loading the film into your camera have a look at our how to load film post.

Processing your Negatives

We will do an entire post on negative processing with techniques for beginners through to advanced. This will include topics ranging from what chemicals to choose, how to load a negative into a dev tank, times and temperatures, through to advanced topics like chemistry variations for fine grain and Mackie line effects to sharpen your negatives.

For advice on choosing a film for black and white photography we have a post that will help.

To start off though I would suggest sending your film to one of the numerous postal developing labs that will dev your negs. Most offer a push / pull (over or under develop) service as well as contact sheets. some will even do “clip tests” (cut off a piece of film and develop it to see if the remainder of the roll needs pushing or pulling).

Do a Google search but check out the TrustPilot reviews of lesser known labs to see what others think.

You will need to buy some photographic light sensitive paper.

There are 2 main types – FB or RC.

• RC stands for Resin Coated. This resin coated paper is ideal for anyone starting out printing as you can judge the exposure while it is still wet and it doesn’t take too long to wash. The other benefit is it dries flat 

•  FB which stands Fibre based is the usual choice for art or archival prints. The emulsion is coated onto archival paper and will hopefully last a lifetime if washed properly. Most FB papers have an excellent black density. The downside is it takes a lot of washing and it “dries down”. This means the blacks get darker when it’s dry making it difficult to get your exposures correct.

Your next choice is between Graded or Multi-Grade

Graded and Variable or multi contrast papers are as the name suggests, all about contrast.

• Graded papers come in 5 grades. If in doubt start with the middle grades.
• Variable or multi contrast papers are much easier to use however you need to have filters to change the grade. These can be bought reasonably cheaply from photographic suppliers. You can also use a colour enlarger with multi-grade and use the colour controls to change the contrast. I like this option as its easy for me to “dial in” contrast when I’m burning in. I did this with the image above so the sky and background was burned in with more contrast while keeping details in the white stone that had less contrast.

We used a company called AG Photographic in the UK. We bought both our film and paper there. They are very helpful and supply all things for traditional photographic darkroom printing. We don’t get any kickback from this link. We just think they are an amazing company that needs to be supported.

In the Darkroom

Once in the darkroom there are a few things to be aware of. Make sure the room is light tight and then switch on the red safe light. Photographic Black and White paper is not sensitive to red light so it won’t fog (expose) the paper.

1. Place the negative into the enlarger carrier tray. Make sure the neg and carrier are dust and fingerprint free.

2. Focus the enlarger on the baseboard. Open the enlarger lens to max so you can see what you’re doing. This will also help the focusing as it will show a narrow depth of field. There are various focus aids you can buy to help with this.

3. Stop down the lens 3 stops. Switch off the enlarger lamp and place a small strip of photographic paper on the baseboard. Set the enlarger timer. I usually start with 10 seconds. Expose the paper for 10 seconds and then cover a quarter with a bit of card – do another 10 seconds. Keep going so you’re doubling the light every time ie: 10 ,20, 40, 80 seconds etc.

4. There will be three trays of chemicals. Developer, Stop Bath and Fixer (known as Hypo to really, really old photographers). Pop the test strip in the developer and very gently swish it around for about 1.5 mins. Your image will appear before your eyes. Then put it into the stop bath. This stops the developer. Finally into the fixer for a minute and then give it a quick rinse in the water. If your box of photographic paper is safely sealed up, you can now switch on the white light.

5. Look at your test strip and decide on which one is correct. You might need to do another to get it perfect. Also look at the contrast on the strip. you might need to increase or decrease it using different grade papers or adjusting your multi grade filters.

Once you have the correct exposure and print you can then darken in (Burn) areas by adding a little bit more exposure to certain areas. For this, a piece of cardboard with a hole works well, or I cup my hands under the enlarger and just let the light through in areas I wish to burn. You can lighten (Dodge) by stopping light with cardboard during the main exposure. Most photographers use a black circle of cardboard attached to the end of a wire.

You can find out more about Dodging and Burning by looking at this post of ours.

When you have done your final RC print give it a good few minutes was in clean running water. Don’t over wash as it can cause water to seep in-between the rc layers and cause swelling. (FB papers need a lot more washing.) Hang your prints up to dry or pop them in an electric dryer.

That’s it. You have now created your first awesome Black and White darkroom print and are probably, like us, totally addicted.

So lastly the fire in the darkroom story. well…..

When I was a crime scene photographer for the Met Police (Scotland Yard) in London UK, I spent a lot of time photographing finger marks on objects from scenes. This was an art in itself, Sometimes the finger prints were in blood, sometimes dust or if a fingermark was on plastic eg, a car dashboard, then the fingerprint team would put it in a tank and coat the plastic with superglue vapours. We would then photograph the result. We used all sorts of lighting from high power lasers that required heavy duty filtered goggles through to the humble touch. Whatever would do the job. We made the photographs of these marks using 35mm Nikon film cameras with macro lenses and black and white Ilford FP4 or Kodak T-Max 100 film. Sometime we used a Sinar 5×7 large format mono-rail technical camera as well (in the days before digital came along.) We would then dev the negs and darkroom print the final black and white image of the fingermark.

Now this sounds very exciting and it was….for the first few weeks however, anything done in repetition gets boring and when you have boredom you need to find ways to get through it. In our department this was done by playing tricks on each other.

The darkroom housed 9 enlargers ranging from a beautiful Leica 35mm to a huge Durst large format beast. These were situated around the edge of the room with the trays (large 20’x24′) full of fresh chemicals in the middle. As this was a very busy professional darkroom it was designed with a bit of a maze of black painted corridors to keep the light out and no doors or curtain so photographers could rush in and out for a speedy workflow.

So … the perpetrator of the prank would nonchalantly wander into the darkroom whilst squirting a long trail of lighter fluid on the floor. (We used it to clean negatives.) Most people, when printing, go into their own little world and the chemistry smell was so strong it masked the lighter fluid so it was easy to spread it around without being spotted or smelled. After making sure that the liquid was in a ring around the feet of our ‘victim’ and out the door the fluid would be lit…. and a mini wall of flame would shoot down the darkroom corridor and around the unsuspecting photographer concentrating on their work. After much panicked shouting and then swearing the ‘victim’ would storm out the darkroom to be confronted by a sea of laughing colleagues.

Health and safety? What was that?
Ahh. Just another day on the job.

The post How to do Darkroom Printing part 1 appeared first on ImageExplorers.

Black and white beach photography can be a really cathartic experience. Standing on the rocks hearing the crash of waves, feeling slight spray whilst watching the sun come down, can help the day’s worries just evaporate! After this blissful experience, you get home hoping for some gorgeous black and white masterpieces that you envisaged, but sometimes you end up with grey, lifeless images.

Let us show you 5 techniques that we use to get around this problem, when doing black and white beach photography. These will ensure that every time you go down to the sea, you will come back with unique photographs to be proud of.

During our recent trip to Cape Town, South Africa, Ally and I took a day trip to a tiny beach called Slangkop. (This means Snake Head in Afrikaans.) If you’re looking to go there, it is right next to a small village called Kommetjie. There is a beautiful old lighthouse there that dates back to 1919. This 33m high round cast iron tower looks so interesting from a distance that we hoped to get some amazing images of the area. We arrived mid afternoon and stayed until just after sunset. As you will see from the images in this article, the lighthouse was probably the least interesting thing to photograph, mainly because it closes at 3pm and is surrounded by a huge ugly electrified and barbed wire fence.

Why use black and white photography

One of the joys of photographing along the shoreline are the subtle colours one gets from the turquoise of the sea to the orange of the setting sun reflected off of rocks to the pale tan sand. It’s a watercolour painter’s dream, so why would we want to give up these amazing subtleties for a black and white image? There are a number of reasons, but the main ones we find are it forces you to look at the shapes of your scene and we end up with much better compositions.

Black and white can give you incredible dramatic images that any colour can dilute.

Everybody has taken photographs of the beach. Sofor your images to stand out you need to present them with something that’s not been seen hundreds of times before. Black and white photography will do this.

The 5 top techniques we use

1: Photography in the Golden Hour

The golden hour is the hour before sunset and after sunrise. It gives colour photographs a beautiful soft warm colour cast that is really desirable but what does it do for black and white photography? Well, we love shooting in the golden hour because the lighting gives objects a wonderful 3D feel with long and dark shadows. All the textures on rocks just come to life and even sand takes on a new textured look.

2: Silhouettes and contre-jour lighting

Of course the golden hour is perfect for photographing contre-jour. For a more in-depth look at contre-jour look at our article here.  By photographing into the sun you will find the scene take on new and interesting shapes as the light just touches the rim of objects, throwing the rest of the object into darkness. With large areas of darkness you can create mystery in your images as it leaves the viewer’s brain to fill in the details. Be careful with the extreme lighting as it’s really easy to totally blow out (lose all detail) in your highlights. If you’re photographing in an auto mode be careful as your camera could be lying to you by giving you the wrong exposure. Exposure compensation is your best friend in these situations.

There are so many interesting things on the beach to photograph and some of them take on a totally different look and feel when photographed as a silhouette. The stacked rocks have almost an alien world feel to them.

3: Details, details, details

The shoreline is like a fractal. The more closely you look, the more detail you see. Worlds within worlds. So why just photograph the big world everybody else is doing. Look at the details and sometimes some of the most interesting landscapes can be found there. Rocks and sand have so many beautiful textures on them but our favourite textures are to be found on old metal. When doing texture photography we look for old rusted structures wherever we go as they always give wonderful detailed images.

4: Polarising the light and filters

One of the must have filters for any outdoor photography is a polarising filter. A polariser will do so many things to both colour as well as black and white images. For our black and white beach photography we use it mostly to darken the sky. However it is also very useful for getting rid of reflections.

Slangkop lighthouse with a dark sky created by the polarising filter

The other filters we use in beach or any landscape photography are red or orange filters. This filter also darkens the sky (black and white photography only). We always have a UV filter on our lens to protect it as well. The protection is not just about damage either. Sea spray on your lens will degrade the contrast of the image and its so much easier to swap to a clean filter halfway through your shooting rather than trying to clean a lens in sandy sea spray conditions.

Be wary however of ‘stacking’ multiple filters on your lens. Unless they are the very expensive multi-coated variety, you will lose quality especially when photographing contre-jour. With wide-angle lenses you will also be adding a vignetting effect.

5: Neutral Density Filters for misty movement

Another technique is to use a long exposure to get a misty water movement. An ND filter will cut the light coming through your lens allowing you to do really long exposures that give the water a misty ethereal effect.

Don’t forget to use a stable tripod for these long exposures. Even the smallest bit of wind can cause subtle movement and ruin an otherwise perfect image. Usually, we try to put the tripod on rocks or really hard compacted sand to keep it totally steady.

If you are using film be aware of your exposure and reciprocity law failure and compensate accordingly. Depending on your exposure time you might even end up doubling the length of exposure to compensate. If you are not aware of reciprocity law then just bracket your exposures like mad.

Extra techniques – safety for you and your camera

The coastline and your camera don’t mix very well. Salty sea-spray will corrode your pride and joy so very quickly. Keep it out of the spray or sea mist as much as possible. This might mean keeping it in a bag when you’re not shooting or, if the spray is really fierce then put a clear plastic bag over it. (The ones you get for keeping food in work well.) Just cut a hole for the lens.

Be aware of changing lenses in areas where sand is blowing around. Once again sand and sensors don’t play well together.

Be aware of your surroundings. When we were photographing at Slangkop, I was so busy with an image that I didn’t see a very shifty looking person hovering around eyeing our stuff. Fortunately Ally was there, and some locals arrived too, so he scuttled off but if I was on my own things could have been very different.

Extra techniques – what settings should I use for best beach photography

We are doing a whole series on aperture, shutter and exposure compensation articles in this blog but the main thing about beach photography is that your camera can be fooled very easily. The bright sand and reflections off the sea make the camera think that there is more light than there really is so your images can turn out slightly underexposed. If in doubt, bracket a lot.

370,000 miles of unique possibilities

Around our planet there’s approximately 370,000 miles of coastline from stunning long sandy beaches to ragged cliffs. There is just so much variety and so many options to create unique and exciting images. Be safe, look for the less obvious and craft your own black and white beach photography and masterpieces every time.

The post Black and White Beach Photography appeared first on ImageExplorers.

“But Tim, he is an environmental portrait photographer you know. What is he doing in a travel blog and why would you want to show us how to photograph like Arnold Newman?”

Yes, okay, you got us! We know that, but while most travel photography revolves around places and landscapes, one of the interesting things about travel are the wonderful (and occasionally weird people that you meet). While most photographs of people we meet when travelling are quick images, there are times when we have the opportunity to create more in-depth photographs. The more you know about different photographers’ styles, the more you can develop your own unique one. This is why we’d like to show you how to photograph like Arnold Newman.

Using Arnold Newman’s style to photograph the Pianist

One of the things that Ally loves, is talking to people. Put her on a train, plane or crowded bus and by the end of the trip she will have made a new friend and know their life history … well almost. I, on the other hand, in spite of spending my life talking to groups of people as a trainer, am not so sociable. This means that Ally is far more inclined to create the instant and spontaneous photographs of people whereas I prefer to get to know them first and then photograph them in a very set up manner, so photographing in the Arnold Newman way just works for me.

If you haven’t seen the other articles in our “How to photograph like …” series, we have Michael Kenna , Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.

Not in the Arnold Newman style, this Cape Town Flower Seller was photographed in under 5 mins by Ally, but you can see the beautiful rapport she has with her subjects.

So, here is how to Photograph like Arnold Newman

Now if you don’t know Arnold Newman’s work, then have a look here. I am sure you will recognise many of his images. Whilst he photographed a few images in colour, he is primarily known for his black and white work. See our thoughts on what makes a good black and white image.

So how do we do that?

Let’s start by looking at what makes an Arnold Newman photograph unique.

On looking at his environmental portraits, the first thing that struck me was the overriding dark and haunting feel  that many of them have. Not that all his images are dark per-se, but they ooze that moody and serious feel that seems to personify a lot of the great artists and political figures that Newman photographed.

The next thing that I noticed in his portraits was a wonderful 3 dimensional look that they have. No long lens, no wide aperture, so, very little bokeh here then! (Bokeh = out of focus-ness for those of you who are not au-fait with super-photographic trendy terms!)

His lighting is another area that is very Newman. Very deliberate light and shadows that are perfectly controlled to create the correct ambience and contrast for the individual subject.

So where to start

Let’s look at the subject in their environment.

There is more to an environmental portrait than popping the subject in a scene related to their hobby or occupation. Arnold Newman is a master at composition so let’s start by composing our subject in a pleasing way.

Design features to look for:

• lines that lead in to the subject
• symmetry
• repetition
• negative space
• rule of thirds.

For my pianist I saw the repetition of the strings leading to her, the reflection of her in the black piano lid and the lines as my main environment composition elements.

I also really like the large white negative space like silence just waiting to be filled by the piano sound.

Subject on the thirds

Lines pointing to main subject

Triangle holds the subject in the negative space

I removed the distracting wall hanging with the content aware fill tools in Photoshop

Lighting

To photograph like Arnold Newman you need to have control over your lighting.

Adding light

If like us you are traveling light you probably don’t have a full lighting kit with you however there are other ways to get light to do what you want it to do. Reflectors. Anything can be a reflector from a travel fold up circle type to an old white shirt you have in your backpack.  A reflector can be highly reflective and harsh ( think tinfoil) or soft and gentle (old white T-Shirt).

These reflectors can be used in your scene to add light to darker areas and augment details you wish to show the viewer.

Subtracting light

This is the opposite effect. Use a black reflector to remove light from overly bright parts of the image or to darken down areas to get that unmistakable Arnold Newman heavy shadow on face signature look.

We used a reflector to add to the face details and then used burning in at the processing stage to darken down some unwanted details. See our tutorial on dodging and burning.

Although we used softer lighting as we didn’t have a full lighting kit with us, these techniques enabled us to increase the image contrast. However, to truly photograph like Arnold Newman, we should have had more side lighting.

Silver reflector to add harsh light to the subject

Subject’s demeanour

Most of Newman’s subjects are serious to the point of being sombre. These images are not ‘happy snaps for the family album’ and the serious look, directly into the camera, helps us to see into the subject’s soul.

We find asking the subject to think about their art, music or profession usually brings a deep look into their eyes and also helps them to relax and not concentrate on what we are doing with the camera.

You are unique

As with all our ‘How to photograph like….’ series, use your favourite photographers to help you find your own style. Learning from them might mean mimicking their work at first, but after a while you will add your own uniqueness to your images. Arnold Newman’s portraits look the way they do, not because of his technique, but because he had an amazing way of seeing his subjects. Every one of us has a unique way of looking at people and we should embrace that difference and use it to create our own unforgettable images.

The post How to photograph like Arnold Newman appeared first on ImageExplorers.

I, Tim, have 2 favourite photographers. I could sit and contemplate their work for hours on end. Both these photographers are landscape master craftsmen and artists of the highest order and their images bring me untold joy. One of these photographic genius’ is Michael Kenna who is still creating beautiful, thought-provoking images from around the world. The other is Ansel Adams, a legendary landscape photographer famous for his spectacular images of Yosemite National Park in The United States. As part of how ‘How to photograph like…’ series that includes Michael Kenna and Edward Weston I’d like to show you how to photograph like Ansel Adams or at last get your digital colour images to look like his beautiful prints.

Drag the slider left and right to see before and after

A purist photographer?

Ansel Adams photographed mostly using black and white film and large format cameras. His beautiful landscapes were enhanced using yellow or orange filters to darken the sky and despite being seen as a photographer who never manipulated his images he was never shy about dodging and burning to create the image he wanted.

The Zone System

Ansel’s one overriding concern was to create beautiful prints that had a full range of tones and to do so he worked out the zone system with Fred Archer. This system works by measuring the contrast of a scene and processing the film accordingly. A lot of ‘pre-visualsation’ is used to determine dark and light areas of the image. The ‘zones’ are 11 tones ranging from black 0 through to white 11.

Describing the zone system in 2 sentences is like explaining string theory using a colouring book and crayons – can’t be done, so for a full and proper explanation go to the Zone system wiki page.

Here is how I created my version of the legendary 1941 Ansel Adams image ‘Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico‘

Ansel Adams’ Moonrise, Hernandez, appears to be fairly contrasty as it’s probably a late afternoon, sunset image.

Open in Raw and convert to Black and White

This is my original image taken in the Drakensberg, South Africa, near Champagne Castle which was taken early morning. We were staying at a beautiful place called Spionkop and this was a couple of minutes walk from there. For more information on exposure for the moon look at our moon tutorial.

Original colour photograph for Ansel Adams conversion

The first thing is to get your landscape image open in Raw. If you have a Raw file you can just go ahead and open it, If you have a jpeg image you will need to open it from bridge by right clicking and choosing Open in camera Raw.

In Raw convert to Black & White.

Increase contrast

Push the Contrast, Whites and Clarity to the right. Experiment until you’re happy with the result.

Darken the sky

Using the Magic Wand make a selection of the sky.

Then using Select and Mask (along the top), ensure that the Contrast is pushed a little to separate.

Now, darken the sky – I used Levels and pulled the bottom slider from the right to the left.

And voila! You can photograph like Ansel Adams too.

Final Ansel Adams style photograph

Have a look at our other  ‘How to photograph like…’ series that includes Edward Weston and Michael Kenna to see how to create images like they have.

The post How to photograph like Ansel Adams appeared first on ImageExplorers.

“TOAST! Tim and Ally…. Really?” “Erm yes…It really does help with Dodge and Burn tools. We’ll get to that later but first things first.”

Dodge and burn tools have become a bit old hat to many photographers. With so many quick and easy digital ‘fixes’ it’s easy to see why, but these tools, although going back to traditional printing times, are some of the best ways to make your black and white images (and colour too) look amazing. We can safely say that there is not an image on our blog that doesn’t use at least one of these in some way or other. See our tips and geeky explanations for what makes a good black and white image.

Dodge and burn in traditional printing

In traditional printing, you have an enlarger which projects your negative onto paper. The more light you expose the paper to through the negative, the darker the print will be. After you’ve done a test strip, which helps you work out the required exposure, you would then expose the light from the enlarger onto your paper. Depending on the exposure, there can often be areas of the image that would be too dark or too light. You would then do another test strip over those areas to work out that exposure time. Dabbling or jumping into film photography – see our post on the best film for travel photography and filters for black and white photography.

Dodging

When it comes to the final exposure of the print, you would expose for the final image with adjustments, but for the area that was too dark and needed less time, you would use a piece of card, normally attached to a piece of wire to wave madly over that area to prevent light getting to it – well maybe not madly, but moving enough to prevent a hard edge being projected onto the paper. This lightening technique is called dodging.

Dodging the print with cardboard ellipses on sticks

The further away from the paper you manipulate the light, the softer the dodged or burnt area edges will be.

Burning

For the area that needs more light, you would expose the image with the normal exposure, then you would give the area the needs more light, the extra light that it needs. How do you do that? Well, depending on the size and shape of the area, you can use your hands cupped together to block out the light and only allow certain areas to get extra light, or you could also use a piece of card with a hole cut in it to give that area more light … directing (or burning) the light. Again you wave it gently between the enlarger and the paper (to prevent getting a hard edge).

Burning in areas by giving them extra exposure through the cardboard hole

Pro tip:

Now one of the advanced traditional techniques used by traditional film printers is to dodge or burn with a different contrast. This is done by using multi-grade paper and changing the grade filter on the enlarger lens before dodging or burning. This technique allows you to have a combination of high and low contrast so for example in your scene you might need more contrast in the sky to get awesome looking clouds but the foreground needs sensitive shadow and highlight detail so a lower contrast.

Dodge and burn in Photoshop or Affinity photo

Now digitally, the darkroom effect can be applied in Photoshop. In your toolbar, normally down the left-hand side, you should see what at first glance looks like a lollipop. This is in fact a version of the round piece of card on a piece of wire or stick, used in dodging. Click and hold that and you’ll see 2 other icons and the text. We’re not going to look at the Sponge tool but the Burn tool has a hand with a hole made with the fingers and the thumb. This is depicting one of the options you can use when burning in!

When you choose any of these you will see your options along the top menu change to something like this.

This means that you can control how much dodging / burning you will do to your image with the exposure, and what tones you will affect, such as Highlight, Midtones or Shadows.

Most of the time you will need midtones, but if the area you wish to adjust is in the highlights or shadows, you then choose the appropriate Range from here. Choose a brush size and click and drag around the area you wish to lighten / darken. Be careful not to overdo it and use a brush bigger than you think. Undo is your friend here!

So where on earth does toast come in?

Well a lot of people get confused with which one darkens and which lightens.

The easiest way to remember this is:

If you burn the toast it will go darker – hence Burn darkens – easy to remember now.

Dodge and Burn in Raw (adjustment brushes)

There are a number of reasons to dodge and burn using adjustment brushes in the Raw file converter but the 2 main ones ore these.

• This is a non-destructive technique so you can always come back and re -edit the image at a later stage.
• You can use the dodge and burn with contrast adjustments like the advanced traditional film technique mentioned above.

In Adobe Photoshop (CS6 or CC) Open your Raw image in the Raw file converter and navigate to the adjustment brushes. It’s along the top.

Paint the area you wish to dodge and burn and then adjust the settings on the right hand side. We usually use the clarity slider to add contrast when needed and the contrast slider to reduce contrast.

Do a new adjustment for each area you wish to work on. (Not sure about Photoshop or Affinity – see our post which gives the lowdown on them). See also our Top Photoshop shortcuts.

Putting it into practice

We photographed the tower on the City wall in Dubrovnik, Croatia, but the original looks so uninspiring that a bit of Dodging and Burning was required.

• The sky was quite tricky as while the whole area needed darkening, some parts needed less contrast and some more. We did this with 2 large burning in areas with adjustment brushes. Both darkened with the Exposure slider but one added contrast with the Clarity slider while the other reduced contrast with the Contrast slider. See our post about dramatic skies.
• The sea was burned in and had added clarity
• The tower was dodged to lighten it but with added clarity to show detail in the texture.

Original image

Areas we adjusted with the brush

Final result

Revolutionise your new images and give new life to old ones

Dodging and burning has been used by film photographers since photography was invented and it’s still one of the best ways to get what you want from an image. Give your new images that exquisitely beautiful look you have admired in the masters printers work or add new life to old photographs.

Mostly, enjoy what you do.

If you are in the London / Essex / Suffolk area, we run training at your office / premises in Photoshop. Want to buy Photoshop – click the Adobe image at the bottom of this page from this link.

The post How toast can help you to create awesome B&W images with Dodge and Burn tools appeared first on ImageExplorers.

Occasionally, in your photographic life, you will find that creativity comes to a grinding halt. A bit like writers’ block! You are bored of looking at super sharp, over-saturated, perfectly grainless travel images and your creative soul longs for something more. As amazing as digital is, it can be too perfect and our humanity likes imperfections. Of course, maybe you just want to try something different. Possibly you yearn for analogue film days but have a digital camera, or sometimes a specific subject just cries out for the vintage look. Whatever the case, we would like to show you how to reinvigorate your photography with 5 professional techniques to make a photo look old.

Here are the techniques we will cover so grab your software and follow along.

1 – Sepia or blue tone (cyanotype) using black and white Adjustment layers
2 – Split toning using raw files or raw filters
3 – More accurate tone types using Gradient Maps
4 – Adding grain
5 – Adding a photo border

What software can you use?

Although for these techniques to make a photo look old are done in Photoshop Creative Cloud, you can do most of them in any other software. We recommend either Photoshop, Lightroom or Affinity Photo, but there are so many different image editors available to you at different price points. Most tend to work in a similar way and use the same terminology.

1 – Sepia or Cyanotype tone using Black and White Adjustment layers

What is it?

A Black and White Adjustment layer allows you to non-destructively colourise your image to a tone approximating a Sepia or Cyanotype photograph.

How to do it

• Open your image in Photoshop. It doesn’t matter if it is a colour, black and white or even a scan. You will need to then apply an Adjustment layer so go to the Layers panel and click the new Adjustment layer at the bottom. From the list chose Black and White.
• Click the tint button and choose a suitable colour.
• If you are adding this adjustment layer to a colour image then adjust the sliders to lighten or darken various colours in the image to taste.

Choose Black & White from the Adjustment drop-down menu

Click the small tint button above the sliders to choose a toning colour

Why are we using an Adjustment layer rather than doing this from the image and adjustments menu? If you use Adjustment layers and save as a PSD file you can always come back and adjust your settings later, as nothing is set in stone. You can also delete or hide the Adjustment layer to get back to your original image.

This black and white tint process enables you to do a very rough approximation of a Cyanotype or a Sepia image. Later in this post we will do a more accurate version of toned images. See our previous post on how to make a digital cyanotype including making the background! 

2 – Split toning using raw files or raw filters

What is it?

Split toning is a technique that allows you to tone the highlights of the image with one colour and the shadows with another.

How to do it

• If you have a Raw file then open the image in the Raw file converter and switch on the Black and White convert button.

Convert colour to black and white in Raw by choosing button in basic tab

• Open the tone tab and lighten the colours to taste.

Adjust sliders to lighten and darken original colours for authentic old vintage photo feel

• Open the split tone tab and choose a colour for the highlights and for the shadows. You can then dial in the saturation and even change the balance so you get more shadow colour or more highlight colour.

Yellow highlights

Blue shadows

Mix of yellow highlights and blue shadows for a greenish look

Mix of yellow and cyan for old photo look of vintage traction engine

A mix of yellow highlights and a reddish  shadow can give a very beautiful warm sepia feel.

To do the same to a non-Raw image, open it in Photoshop and then go to the filter menu and down to Camera Raw. Follow the instructions as above. If you are using this technique to make a photo look old you might wish to convert the image to a smart object first. This means that you can double click the filter on the smart object layer and go into the filter to change any settings.

3 – More accurate tone types using Gradient Maps

What is it?

A Gradient Map allows you to map colours to various tones (light to dark) in an image by applying a gradient with the new colours in. If this last sentence sounded like Geek Speak then just look at the examples to see what we mean.

How to do it

• Open the image in Photoshop and find your layers panel.
• Click the Adjustment layer button at the bottom and choose Gradient Map.
• In the Gradient Maps panel go to the gradient map and choose the drop-down menu and add in the Photographic toning maps.
• Choose a tone to apply to your images.

Choose Photographic Toning from the Gradient Map option menu

Cyanotype gradient colours mapped to image

Gradient map with a heavy sepia so the highlights go orange/brown

Of course you can just go wild

Our favourite tone is the Selenium no 2 tone. See more on Gradient Maps in our how to photograph like Michael Kenna tutorial.

4 – Adding Grain

Why do it

Adding grain can cover a multitude of bad-retouching ‘sins’. It can also augment an image. What it cannot do is to make a bad image better.
We like to add a bit of grain to some digital images to give them a more analogue feel.

How to do it

Grain can be added either in Raw (from the effects tab), from the Raw filter (in Photoshop) or from the add noise option (in the noise filter in Photoshop).

5 – Adding a photo border

A scanned border can make all the difference to the authenticity of your old photo technique. Scan in and old image, put it above your image in the layers panel.

The first thing to do once you have both images open in Photoshop is to drag your toned image into the border image as a layer. (We flattened the toned image before dragging it onto the border image to keep things simple.) We used ‘overlay’ from the Modes drop-down menu in the layers panel to mix the toned image with the border image below.

Here are 2 before and after examples

Original tractor before ageing process

Tractor with old photo look – Zante Greece

Original books before old vintage photo treatment

Original books after old vintage photo treatment

Your own look

These are just a few of the many techniques you can use to age a photo and give it that old treasured image look. We use the Gradient map with Selenium tone on most of our Black and White images to give them a warm feel.
Experiment with these techniques and come up with your own unique look.

The post 5 Professional techniques to make a photo look old appeared first on ImageExplorers.

Learn from the Masters

Some days we look at well-known photographers images and something in us just cries out “I wish I could create images like that”! At first I thought it was just me but I have discovered that the majority of photographers feel like this about certain other photographers some time. If you have ever seen the beautiful black and white zen-like work of Michael Kenna then you will probably know this feeling really well. If you don’t know Michael Kenna’s work, have a look at his web site. Once you have finished weeping with inadequacy come back and let us look at how to photograph like Michael Kenna so you too can create similar style images.

Have a look at our other  ‘How to photograph like…’ series that includes Edward Weston and Ansel Adams to see how to create images like they have.

Now before we get started there are a few things to know.

• Michael Kenna creates images on a medium format Hasselblad.
• He uses film
• He has a very zen-like nature about him
• He is a photographic genius
• He is a darkroom super-craftsman

So now the bar has been set so spectacularly high, let’s see what we can do with our DSLR or Mirrorless digital cameras – no pressure then!

I photographed these cranes at the Bristol harbour, UK in a Kenna style with simple shape and no shadow detail

Analysing the Master

When trying to imitate anybody’s style we start by analysing their techniques, so when looking at Michael Kenna’s photography, this is what I saw.

Composition:

Michael Kenna looks for simplicity in his composition, moving closer or framing the subjects to get rid of extraneous objects. He uses a lot of symmetry and rule of thirds but is not afraid to break rules if the composition calls for it. As he photographs on a Hasselblad which has a square format, a vast number of his images are square.

• Pro tip – Michael will often put the horizon on almost the centre of the image. He uses a technique called the optical centre. This is about 10% above the centre of an image and is where the eye naturally rests.

The images have a timeless quality about them, which suggests a photographer who is in no rush, and analyses every scene and possible angle before creating the image.

Black and White film:

In an interview with Procameraman.jp Michael talked about his favourite film as Kodak Tri-X 400 ISO. This is a very forgiving / flexible film and well suited to the long exposures he does. Some are as long as 10 hours. It also has a very distinctive and pronounced grain structure.  See our post on what black and white film to choose to find out more.

ND to blur clouds or water and other filters to darken skies:

In order to create the long exposures, to get the milky water during daytime we need to assume that Michael uses an Neutral Density filter and the camera on a tripod. See our how to photograph with ND filters tutorial.

We can also assume he uses a red and or polarizing filter to darken and lighten parts of the image. We have written extensively about using filters in black and white photography in other posts.

Quite a lot of contrast and high key:

Michael Kenna’s images appear to have large tracts of almost black and almost white in them. The middle tones are there but are in the minority. A lot of his images are also high-key, meaning most of the image is really light although almost every image has something nearly black in it. As a master craftsman Kenna is probably using a combination of film development chemistry and darkroom techniques to augment the original stark image. For more ideas about black and white, see our post on what makes a good black and white image.

I photographed this high key image in Wivenhoe near our home on a misty autumn morning. Not quite Kenna style as it doesn’t have any very dark areas.

How to Photograph like Michael Kenna Step-by-Step guide

Find your Perfect Composition

This is the hardest part of the process but with a little patience you will achieve extraordinary results. Don’t rush things. Leave your camera in your bag until you have found the perfect spot to create an image from. Try to pre-visualise the final image before you touch the camera.

Look around for simple details, structures or shapes. To photograph like Michael Kenna, try to ignore the colour aspect that can be overwhelming.

To help us compose we set the Sony A7R camera to black and white mode so the images appear in the viewfinder as black and white (most mirrorless cameras have a similar feature).

If we’re using Ally’s Nikon D600 DSLR or a film camera that doesn’t have this feature then we view the scene through a strong coloured filter. This gives you one colour, and even though it’s not black and white, it helps to show the shape and form of the scene.

Exposing the Scene

To photograph like Michael Kenna, use long exposures with the camera on a tripod to get movement in clouds and water. Make sure you’re using a solid tripod, as even the slightest movement on the camera during a 30-second exposure can ruin an image. Use a Neutral Density filter to help you get the very long shutter times you need. Our 10-stop filter usually allows us to achieve 30-second shutter times in normal daylight.

We use Manfrotto and Gitzo heavy duty tripods with robust heads. They are a pain to carry but so worth it when you images are stunning. We recently tried out a travel tripod from Manfrotto but it was much to wobbly in even the slightest breeze so it’s going on eBay soon. Don’t forget your red or orange or polarising filter to darken the sky. These will also help to give you longer shutter times.

Not all of Michael Kenna’s photographs are long exposures though but they are all about simplicity. Taking the essence on the scene into a beautiful composition. Michael once referred to his images as a Haiku rather than a literary work.

The Digital Darkroom

Michael is known as a darkroom master artist and artisan and so it comes as no surprise that he does a lot of dodging and burning on his images. He also mentioned in an interview with Camerawork magazine that he uses Ilford Multigrade paper so he can dodge or burn areas at a variety of contrasts.

All of this we can do in our RAW files using adjustment brushes.

Finally, a how to photograph like Michael Kenna post would not be complete without talking about toning. Michael uses sepia tone on his images to give the highlights a bit of colour. We can easily do this to our RAW files in the RAW converter or, (and we prefer this method), use a Gradient Map adjustment layer in Photoshop.

Final and original image from our Michael Kenna style photographic trip. Drag slider to see more.

Putting it all into practice with a trip to the North Norfolk coast in the United Kingdom

The Photographic Process

Ally and I live in a county called Essex, which is about an hour’s drive from central London (or 2 if the traffic’s bad). About 2 hours drive north of us, is the beautiful undeveloped coastline of Norfolk that offers plenty of scope for interesting images. After a long hot summer we set off for 2 days photography knowing that we wanted to create something simple and stark.

The first day was stunning, bright blue sky with small puffy clouds, long sandy beaches with sand dunes, photography heaven. The second day was rainy and overcast and just awful. So how did we do? Well, the first days’ images were ‘pants’. (This is an English expression meaning rubbish!)

Tim looking for the perfect composition on the rocky pier

It was the overcast sky that gave us the beautiful stark and simple images (without harsh shadows) that we were looking for. I find this very annoying as I (Tim) am a sun worshiper and hate overcast days but there we go.

Ally trying a different angle

Once I had viewed all the potential photographic vantage points for the pier I wanted to photograph, I set up the Manfrotto tripod on the rocks and made sure it was secure. I wanted to do some longer (30 sec) exposures to give the water movement so I attached our ND filter. The exposures ranged from 10 to 30 seconds and even though I had a sturdy tripod the wind still gave me a bit of camera shake on some of them.

This is what the bit of wind did to my long exposure when it buffeted the camera

When composing I used a combination of symmetry and the rule of thirds for my horizon.

Rule of Thirds

In the Digital Darkroom

I am using Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud (2018) however this technique will be very similar in any software that enables RAW file editing including Affinity Photo, a favourite of ours on the iPad.

Cromer contact sheet in Bridge including some edits

In Raw, the un-retouched original

In Raw with very basic edit 

The first thing I did when opening the image in Raw was to convert it to Black and White. I also set the options to sRGB (not greyscale) and the channel bit depth to 16.

This gives me an image with smooth gradients that I can add colour to in Photoshop. If you open it from Raw into Photoshop in greyscale mode you will have to convert it to RGB colour to add the toning adjustment layer. Having it as 16 bit rather than the default 8 means that there are thousands of shades of lightness per channel rather than just 256. This gives you smoother gradients without as much ‘banding’.

I then took down the highlights as some of the clouds were overexposed.

Raw gradient to get the dark sky Michael Kenna style

Along the top of the camera Raw window you will see a little gradient icon. I clicked the icon to get to the gradient area and added 2 gradients to darken down the clouds a bit.

Raw dodge and burn edit like Michael does in the darkroom

Clicking the little paintbrush along the top again, takes you to the adjustment brush area. I added a brush, painted the area I wished to adjust and then adjusted the settings on the right. Not only can you lighten and darken but also change contrast, sharpening, clarity and a host of other properties. As you can see by the dots on the picture I did 13 different brushes. Some to lighten the water, some to increase contrast and detail on the rocks. The little mask button at the bottom allows you to see the areas you are painting. I switch it on and off to see what I’m doing.

Overall on the image I lightened the highlights and darkened the shadows to get that distinct Michael Kenna look.

Lastly I added a selenium tone adjustment layer

I opened the image in Photoshop as a Raw smart object. You do this by holding down the Shift key while clicking the open image (object) button in Photoshop Raw.

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Having my image in Photoshop as a Raw smart object allows me to double click the smart object any time and go back into Camera Raw to make adjustments. If you’ve never converted to black and white before, check out our post with technical and geeky explanations!

I added a Gradient map and chose the Selenium tone Gradient Map. Even though Michael Kenna uses sepia tone over selenium I thought it looked better on this particular image. The difference is that a sepia tone works on the highlights first and selenium toning works on the shadows first.

Final Image

Go Forth and Create Like a Master

As you can probably tell by the tone of this post, Michael Kenna is one of my favourite photographers and although I don’t go out to copy his work, it has always had a great impact on my personal style. Anybody can copy anybody else’s technique; however you need your own personal vision to really create you own image of he world. Learn all you can from all the master photographers but then turn all that knowledge into your own unique vision. See our post on photographing like Edward Weston  and Ansel Adams.

To sum up a post of how to photograph like Michael Kenna we need 2 things. Beautiful simple composition and lots of shadows and highlights in a toned Black and White image.

Try it out. You might find that your own style, added to this technique creates some amazing images you’d never thought of doing before. Mostly, have fun doing it.

The post How to photograph like Michael Kenna – Tutorial appeared first on ImageExplorers.

So, you’ve bought your beautiful film camera and are ready to take a trip to give it a jolly good work out. Now you need to feed it with Kodak, Ilford or Fujifilm’s finest offering. So what are the best black and white films for travel photography? Going online to Amazon or one of the many photographic stores that sell film can leave you bewildered. So many brands to choose from? What ISO do I need? How many rolls should I buy? If I buy too many will they keep for next year’s trip? Still need to find a camera? Check out our guide.

Fear not. We will lead you out of the quagmire of all these issues. We will also address the questions of what hot weather does to film and even whether x-rays affect it.

Decide on an ISO

Let us start our film buying journey by deciding on what ISO to get.

This is where you need to ask yourself some searching questions. What will the weather be like – sunny, bright, dark, overcast or maybe you’ll even be doing night-photography? Will the subject be moving or stationary – candid, landscape, cityscape people, animals etc?

All these questions will help you decide what speed ISO you require the bulk of your film to be.

If you are from a digital background then you’ll find black and white films don’t have the same ISO range you might be used to. The majority of films come in 50, 125 and 400 ISO with a few at 3200. We can always adjust the ISO with development techniques (‘push’ or ‘pull’ the film) but that is a story for another post.

If in doubt take a range of film. Remember that unless you have 2 film camera bodies you will have to change film when you need to change ISO so it is sometimes wise to buy rolls in 24 exposures rather than 36.

Black and white film for travel photography in Venice on contact sheet

So how many rolls?

In many countries, it’s exceptionally difficult to buy Black and White film now, so take more than you think you will need. Remember it’s not digital, so take your time to compose each image before pressing the shutter button. You will be surprised how few images you actually take compared to digital but you will be even more surprised at the high number of amazing photographs you create. Still not sure about Black & White? Check out what we suggest makes a good black and white photo.

Brands

This is where we come to personal preference. Different brands have different characteristics (looks) so experiment before you go. Completely new to all this? See our guide on how to load film into a camera.

For example Kodak Tri-X has a candid photojournalism and grainy look while Ilford Pan F 50 ISO is excellent for fine grain landscapes. Ilford FP4 125 ISO is a good all rounder.

Of course while the film has a ‘look’, its character changes with different developer chemicals (as well as printing paper and toning chemistry, if you’re not going to go hybrid and scan the negs to your computer).

Here are some more of the more popular black and white films for travel photography

Kentmere –   Kentmere is produced by Harman who also produce Ilford. It was always seen as the budget option.

Rollei RPX – the new Agfa APX fine grain film. They bought the Agfa technology when Agfa went bankrupt.

Rollei Retro 400s – high contrast fine art film – has an IR layer so cuts through haze well. Also ex Agfa technology.

Agfa APX – Lupus, who now sells Agfa, bought trademark but not technology. It’s not the original Agfa and not as good as the original either.

Kodak Tri-X 400 – unique grain characteristics with a good tonal range.

Kodak T-MAX 100 and 400 – T grain structure rather than classic or cuboid grain structure – for people who don’t like grain.

Kodak T-MAX P3200 – low light grainy film

Ilford XP2 super – process with a colour processing called C41. Any D&P lab can do it.

Ilford Delta 100 and 400 – not T grain but similar results.

Ilford Delta 3200 – low light grainy film.

Fujifilm Neopan  Acros 100 – High quality traditional Black and white films.

Fujifilm Neopan 400CN – Processed in C41 chemistry like Ilford XP2. (Unfortunately it is no longer produced)

For something totally different try out Ilford SFX 200. This film has an extended red sensitivity which by using a deep red filter can make the sky go almost black, and green vegetation almost white. For more effects you can get with filters, see our 5 essential filters for black and white photography.

Where to buy these films.

In the UK we use AG-Photographic or Amazon. For the rest of the world we suggest Amazon or a local traditional photographic specialist.

Do we have a preference for the best black and white films for our travel photography? Well, we are rather partial to Ilford FP4 for 125 ISO all round photography. For lower light situations, we tend to use HP5 by Ilford 400 ISO. We are also very fond of Kodak Tri-X as it is 400 ISO and very flexible (forgiving for under and over exposure) It also has a beautiful film grain so loved by old school photojournalists the world over.

Will the weather affect my film?

The answer is yes. Hot weather will slowly change the ISO of your film.

The geeky explanation: When film is manufactured it is done at a specific ISO. This is usually different to the stated ISO on the box as the manufacturers know that the film will receive heat before it gets loaded into your camera. This could be from the shipping in a hot container to the country for sale, or could be from sitting in a hot shop or warehouse. To compensate, the manufacturers make the film at a different ISO to stated. They just guess (albeit an educated one) what it will be when it reaches the camera after “cooking” in the heat of normal shipping.

If you are traveling to a very hot climate with a lot of film it is recommended that you keep your film in a cooler bag to stop the ISO increase. When I used to shoot film professionally we used to buy film marked pro. This wasn’t just a marketing ploy. The pro film was made and shipped at its stated ISO and then kept in a fridge (or frozen) to make sure the ISO did not change.

The only way around the ISO problem if you are being very accurate (read picky) is to develop one roll to see if the film is under or over exposed due to ISO ageing. Then you can adjust the development time of all the rest to compensate. Just make sure all the films are from the same batch.

Should this keep you up at night worrying about your films exposures? No. Most people won’t even notice the ISO difference.

Will X-rays affect my film?

Yes. Every time your film is x-rayed it is exposed a tiny amount. One or 2 x-rays won’t really make too much difference. If you are country hopping through multiple x-rays you could always ask the airport security to hand check the film. Remember that some security personnel are nicer than others and it always helps to smile and ask politely as they don’t have to do it. The higher ISO films will be more affected than the lower ones.

Once again don’t worry too much about this. Most people probably won’t notice the difference.

Let us sum this up now

What are the best black and white films for travel photography? They all are. It just depends on your own requirements but these are a few suggestions to get you going.

Experiment with a few brands and types before you go, to see what your personal preference for the film characteristics are.

Before you start putting tons of film into your Amazon basket take a moment to decide the percentage of high, normal or low light situations you might encounter.

Take more film than you think you need. Keep it cool in a fridge or mini bar at the hotel and the excess should last you till your next trip. You can always keep it in the fridge at home.

Most importantly – just enjoy the whole photographic creation process.

And if you’re not ready for the move over to film yet, check out our guide on converting colour to black and white digitally!

The post Best Black and White films for travel photography appeared first on ImageExplorers.

When you walk into a camera store or look at an online photographic shop there are so many filters for black and white photography that you could buy. The problem is, which one?! What actually makes a good black and white photograph and how can I achieve that? Do you buy into a filter “system” or buy individual filters? The people in the store might or might not know which ones are right for your type of photography.

When I first started photography in the days of film (click this link to see the best black and white film for travel photography), I was so overwhelmed by the vast array of filters that I spent a lot of money on buying up as many as possible. My thinking behind this was that it would improve my photography. I am now older and marginally less stupid but I have learned from years of trial and error.

Here are some of our really essential filters for black and white and colour photography as well as our shameful ones!

There are 5 essential filters for black and white photography that every photographer should own. I’d like to show you them now and explain what each one does and why you need it. If you’ve got some time on your hands and want to know tips and geeky explanations on how to convert colour to black and white, then click that << link!

Using Polariser to darken the sky

The UV or Haze or Skylight Filter

The first filter I am going to recommend is one I always buy for any new lens I get. This filter has 2 main reasons to live on your lens.

Firstly: Protection – I can’t count the number of times I have “dinked” the front glass on my lenses.

Sometimes it’s as simple as a quick knock against my belt when carrying the camera. (We use awesome sling type straps that go across your body. Ally swears hers is the best thing ever and is attached to it like an umbilical cord. She uses a Ladies Black Rapid. I have a Sun Sniper.) I once scratched my Nikon lens coating when putting the lens cap back on the lens. Having  just finished photographing, the rain was about to bucket down, and I was in a hurry. This does not excuse my not having a protector UV filter on the lens.

A filter is also easier to clean than a lens element. I have even dipped mine in water to wash off salt or dust after photographing waves or deserts.

Pro Tip: When photographing in areas that really dirty up your lens (like sea spray) carry a spare filter and change filters when the first gets dirty. It’s faster than trying to clean a lens in an inhospitable environment.

Whenever I buy a new lens the very next thing I buy is a UV filter. $50 to $100 for a high quality filter that doesn’t seem to do much might seem extortionate but if it saves the very soft (and very expensive) lens coating from just one scratch it will be worth it.

Secondly: Sharper and more defined details in the background – A UV filter cuts out the UV light and cuts through the haze making distance objects seem clearer.  With film it is more important to use a UV filter because film is extremely sensitive to UV light. However, digital sensors are generally less sensitive to UV.

This filter works the same with both colour and black and white photography.

Lastly, the UV haze filter is not to be confused with the UV transmitting filter. This only allows ultraviolet light to pass through the lens and blocks out all the other visible light spectrum.

See more useful photography articles here

The graduated filter (Grad)

The graduated filter is the next one in the list, for this filters for black and white photography post. A graduated filter is a neutral density filter that gradually fades to clear. The reason for this is that most skies are darker than the land so the graduated filter darkens the sky but not the land. See more explanations on this with our exposure compensation post, and ‘why your camera lies to you’!

Round screw or system grad filter?

These filters come in either a round screw in version or as a “system” version where you attach a filter holder to the front of the lens and then slot in the square filter of choice. The advantage of this type of filter is that you can slide the filter up or down depending on the amount of darkening you require. The other advantage is you buy different size adaptor rings for the system types that means you don’t have to fork out for multiple filters, only new adaptor rings. Both types of filter allow you to spin them around.

Graduated filters for black & white film photography

The Grad filters come in various strengths of darkening. Buy some cheap ones to experiment with first before spending a lot on one.

In my young college days these Cokin filter systems were all the rage, and from my extensive Cokin system, the grad was used more than anything.

While this filter works just as well in colour photography as it does in black and white there are a few other grads that work in colour too. I used to use a tobacco (orange/brown) to get warmer low sun photographs or a blue/purple to get more interesting cloudy skies.

The Neutral density filter (ND)

One of our favourite creative filters for black and white photography is the Neutral Density filter. It reduces the amount of light coming through the lens thus giving you longer exposures that you are unable to get in bright light even with an ISO of 50.

Why would you want longer exposures?

It will capture movement rather than freezing it. This could be either water, people, vehicles, clouds or anything that moves. On water this produces an ethereal misty effect and with people it can produce water-like blurs. It is very effective if some people are moving and some totally still. We have used this filter a number of times for dramatic effect on water. See our post on how we got on (or not) when we first used our ND filter recently.

Just make sure you have a very sturdy tripod as it’s so easy to get a blurry image with even the smallest bit of camera shake during a 30 second exposure. See our tutorial on how to photograph with an ND filter.

This filter works just as well in colour as in black and white photography.

Single colour filters for Black and white film

Black and white film uses a full range of the visible colour spectrum to create a full range of tones on your black and white negative. What a single colour filter does is to stop some of those colours from reaching the film and thereby making that area darker. For example, the filter we need to use to darken the sky would be one that stops blue reaching the film. Yellow, orange and red colours are opposite blue and so do this very effectively. A blue filter would darken reds and make the blues appear lighter. See our post on how to darken skies for more details on single colour filters.

Filter system of single colours for black and white photography

Buy a full range of cheap filters and try them out to see what you get before committing more money to them.

The Polarizing filter

There are 2 main uses for polarizing filters, reducing reflections and darkening skies.

Here is how it works. Light reflected from a non-metallic surface becomes polarized. A polarizing filter allows light to pass in only one direction. This allows us to reduce reflections on non-metallic objects.

Light from the sky is also polarized, so a polarizing filter will polarize the light and reduce how much light enters the camera. As a result this will make the sky dark in a photo.

Photograph taken without and with polarizing filter

A polarizer will darken down blue sky but not affect clouds. (The effect is most prevalent on the area of sky that is at 90 degrees from the sun – Look at the sun – carefully – and then the darkest sky will be at 90 degrees.) It will also reduce reflections which can make trees etc seem rather vivid in colour. To use the polarizer just turn the filter until the sky goes dark or the reflections disappear.

A few things to be aware of with polarizing filters

This polarizing filter technique will work with both film and digital, colour and black and white. In colour it also increases the saturation of many objects by reducing reflections.

There are 2 types of polarizer. A linear and a circular. A circular CPL polarizer is best for modern cameras as linear polarizers can affect exposure meters and autofocus adversely.

Filters can create so many effects and as we have discovered in our photographic adventures, not all are good. With these 5 essential filters to start your collection off though, you just can’t go wrong. What do you think of our choice of essential filters for black and white photography? Are there any you think we should add to the list? Do you have an embarrassing collection worse than ours? Let us know in the comments below.

Above all else, just go out and create photographs that make you happy.

See our Top 10 Essential Photoshop shortcuts.

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So you’re out travelling and all prepared to go out to photograph that amazing landscape you noticed on the drive to the hotel yesterday. Unfortunately, the weather has other ideas and it’s pouring with rain. What can you do? How about creating your own beautiful images from items you find around your apartment? In this post, I’d like to show you how to photograph like Edward Weston. Edward Weston was an American photographer born in 1886, and was regarded as one of the masters of 20^th Century photography. He photographed primarily using an 8×10 large format camera, and was known primarily for his black and white “landscape like” still lives.

Edward Weston’s most famous red pepper – photograph from Wikipedia. Find out more about him here

Learn from the great masters

Have a look at our other  ‘How to photograph like…’ series that includes Michael Kenna and Ansel Adams to see how to create images like they have.

Why remove the colour?

One of the important features of Edward Weston’s work was the beautiful shapes that he created. When we photograph the pepper in this tutorial, look at the original in colour. Yes, it’s very striking, the red on the black, but that’s all you notice – red and black. We really want to show the form and texture of the vegetable, so black and white does this beautifully.

The Setup

The photographic setup, is incredibly simple. I put the pepper onto one of my black t-shirts on the table. I set up the camera on a tripod and the whole scene was photographed next to a window. The only other lighting, apart from the window lighting, was from a large white reflector. You can use anything white to reflect light back into the image.

Camera set up for how to photograph like Edward Weston

The Photography

When trying to photograph like Edward Weston, the more gnarly and quirky the fruit or veg, the better. Unfortunately, my peppers from the local supermarket were neither, so I moved it into a position where it would at least look interesting. As it kept falling over, I propped it up with my lens cap.

Move your scene and your reflector around until you get some interesting highights on the subjects. I photographed with quite a small aperture, therefore the shutter speeds were quite long; so, a tripod was essential as I needed to ensure the camera was steady.

Tim tries a green pepper for how to photograph like Edward Weston

The Photoshop process

To get the final photograph like Edward Weston has done, we need a bit of post production.

I first opened the image in Camera Raw but you can do the same in Lightroom or Affinity Photo Raw

Original image opened in Adobe Camera Raw

Convert colour into black and white

There are many ways to convert colour to black and white and this is just one of them. See our article on converting colour to black and white with tips and techy-geeky explanations.

Darken shadows to get the Edward Weston contrast style

I darkened the black and increased the contrast and highlights so the feeling of my image was a photograph like Edward Weston although I went for a much darker overall look than he used to create.

Darken large areas with the adjustment brushes using Exposure or Blacks

Lighten highlights for authentic Edward Weston contrast

Still in the adjustment brushes, click on the New radio button at the top to create a new brush and paint in the highlights. In the highlights increase Exposure, Contrast and possibly Clarity. If you go too far you can click the Erase radio button at the top to remove any over-painting. Click New again and do the same but on the shadows, darkening them down to taste.

We’re now going to take this into Photoshop, but before we do, click on the information underneath the photograph which will then allow you to use sRGB rather than Greyscale as the Colour Mode. This will give you the ability to put colour into your image in Photoshop when you start to add the toning. If you open the image as a Greyscale image in Photoshop, you would then have to convert to RGB colour before adding any colour back in.

Techy-Geeky stuff!: Whilst you are in this area, you could also choose the 16-bit channel option, over the 8-bit channel option. This will give you thousands of shades of grey per RGB channel, rather than the 256 shades you get from 8-bit.

The first stage of toning your image in Photoshop for that authentic Edward Weston like photograph

In Photoshop, go to your Layers panel, and click the black and white circular icon at the bottom to add an adjustment layer. The adjustment layer you need is called Gradient Map.

In the Gradient Map, click on the drop down next to the gradient. In here you will see your basic gradients. But then now click the little cog to the right. This opens up some more options and you need to choose the Photographic Toning option. This will give you a lot of gradients, that replicate traditional photographic print toning. I chose Selenium 2 to get a beautiful subtle selenium tone to my final image. (If you go back to the cog, you can choose to view the gradients options in different ways, and by choosing the Text Only option, you’ll see what the gradients are called).

Experiment with various gradient map photographic tones

Using the master photographers as a base inspiration, you can go on to create all kinds of photographic styles. You can then experiment and tweak them to make them your own. This particular how-to-photograph like Edward Weston technique, works beautifully on vegetables and still lives. However, it’s also a really interesting technique on faces and real-world landscapes.

Most importantly, enjoy every part of the process!

See our convert colour to black and white in 30 seconds video.

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