Photography Magazine

Did you know that the first people to use a camera-like apparatus (the camera obscura) were in fact artists who needed to trace out the image of the landscape (or whatever subject before them)? Once they traced out the outline of the scene, they could go home and make their image at peace, with the right perspectives. After this, the eventual and logical next step was to try and capture the ‘tracing’ on a paper rather than hand-draw it. And this is what led to the birth of the classic black and white process we are so very familiar with today. Many different light sensitive processes and chemical coatings were used and experimented with until the silver halide was accepted as the most dependable. This is what we shall speak about…

The black and white photo chemical process involves three basic steps (be it paper or negative) - developing of the light sensitive material/ a water bath and finally making it a permanent impression using a fixing chemical. The black and white process is a fairly simple one compared to the later color chemical procedure, and can easily be undertaken in the comfort of a light tight room at your house. One of the most common developing agents or ‘developers’ as they are commonly called, was the D-76 chemical. You can purchase it at photo markets all over the world. Apart from this developer you will need to get a bit of ‘fixer’ or simply a small amount oh hypo crystals to begin processing your own black and white negatives or prints. Of course you will need three trays for the three stages of the process - developing, water wash and fixing.

Take the exposed film out of the camera in a light tight room. Take care that the room is completely light tight. Even a speck of a light leak can ‘fog’ your film and make it appear overexposed and over softened. As an alternative one could always use a developing tank to process an entire roll of film.

The film tank can develop an entire roll of film, and all you need is to load it in the dark, after which the lights can be turned on. Whatever method you choose, leave your film in the developer for about 5-7 minutes (check the developer packing for accurate instructions), after which the film needs to be immersed in a water bath for about 5-7 minutes. In case of the developing tank, you may agitate the tank mildly to ‘wash’ the film well. Once this stage is past, remember - the film is already developed but it is still light sensitive, which means it would eventually turn black if exposed to light. So - the final stage of fixing in the fixer (or hypo crystals) removes the light sensitivity of the film, and thereby ‘fixing’ the image. The lights can be turned on after about 6 minutes in the fixer, after which it is recommended you leave it immersed for another 10 minutes.

Being a black and white buff doesn’t always mean that you have to use film. Modern digital cameras are more than capable of shooting black and white files. Well, that is one way to create digital black and white photographs. The other method would be to first shoot in the normal color mode of your digital and then convert the file to black and white using an editing software. The only downside to the latter method is the fact that you will need to invest in an editing software (lets face it - no decent software is available free of charge). However, using post production techniques to get digital black and white images is by far the better option…for various reasons.

The most obvious advantage would be that you have a color back up. Not every photograph looks ‘better’ or ‘more suited to one’s liking’. When you have a color photograph you could always convert it to black and white at a later stage, maybe experiment with the file to see if the monotone version suits the subject. When you shoot in black and white you have already committed to using that version and there is no way you will be able to reproduce the colors if you wish for it later. Also, when you shoot using the black and white mode of the camera, you are recording only about 256 shades, whereas you are able to record thousands of shades on color. Starting with a color file, you would much better and more easily be able to give the black and white filter effects to the color file (black and white filter effects dealt with in a separate article).

To convert a digital file to a monotone, you should get your self a good editing software. We highly recommend that you stick to using Adobe’s Photoshop software for the simple reason that it is a world standard imaging software, and studios and photographers are constantly exchanging and working with the .psd format files. Once you have the file open in Photoshop, all you need to do is change it to monotone using the commands -

Go to the IMAGE menu - select MODE and sub select GREYSCALE

OR

IMAGE — ADJUST — DESURATE

OR

IMAGE — ADJUST — HUE/SATURATION (make saturation null)

The first option is the simplest to understand, while the second and third have their own applications when you need to create sepia images etc. Once you are familiar with converting images to black and white on the computer, you will no doubt opt to do things this way rather than shoot in color on the camera. You will be able to make convenient comparisons between the color and BW versions of your photographs and then begin to learn what kind of images look better in the monotone format.

Once you learn a bit more on Photoshop you will also be able to convert isolated areas of an image to black and white (very common technique in jewelery ads) and add lighten or darken selective color areas on the B/W version. The latter technique is exactly what is achieved on B/W film using color filters.

As mentioned in the previous article, Ansel Adams introduced the famous ‘zone system’ to black and white photography. Also, we have seen that photographers try and get both extremes of gray (that is the colors black and white) in their print to make it look attractive. There are about 7 shades in between, the middle shade being ‘the middle gray’. The middle gray shade if often used to calculate the exposure, and in modern studios to compare and calculate white balance effects. More often than not, you will hear of the middle gray shade in reference to black and white photography.

These are the zones of Ansel Adams. If you notice, they are a gradual change from pitch black to paper white. As far as photography goes, one could look at that as totally underexposed to totally overexposed. Remember, you need to select the point in your landscape (or whatever subject you are photographing), from where you take your exposure. THIS point will appear as the middle gray in your image. If you want it to appear darker or lighter you need to under or over expose accordingly. Keep in mind that all other tones in the photograph would be equally affected from your exposure. If you have honed the skill of visualizing then this should be not very difficult. In any case you do get used to it over a period of time.  So - when you are photographing a subject, you need to identify the middle gray or the center zone and take your exposure from that area in the scene/subject.

One cannot stress enough on this point - if you follow the camera’s (or hand held meter) meter reading, EVERY image will be similarly exposed. Let us illustrate this with a simple example. Take three cards of black, gray and white shade. Load black and white film into your camera (or shoot using the BW mode). Take meter reading from the different cards and expose accordingly. Every card will appear to be the middle gray in the three images. This is because, speaking in terms of reflected light readings 9which is what the camera does), the meter suggests (+) or (-) depending on the amount of light reflected back to it from the subject. A black subject will obviously reflect less light and that is why it compensates to make it appear the middle gray in your image. So, when you want a black object to appear the same shade in the image, you need to UNDEREXPOSE it adequately. Similarly when you wish for a white subject to appear white, you will need to OVEREXPOSE it accordingly.

Try experimenting with a variety of shades on black and white film (or mode) so as to make them appear the same shade/different shade as per your choice. Also, try and make the same object appear a darker or a lighter shade by controlling exposure. Soon you will begin to feel in control over the tonal range of your black and white photographs.

The famous black and white photographer Ansel Adams (recognized particularly for his zone system and landscape photography) coined the term visualization in the world of photography. To understand black and white composition (or color for that matter) it is extremely important to be aware of what visualization truly means. To put it simply, visualization refers to imagining the final print of the photograph in your mind, before you even press the shutter or plan on your exposure for that matter. It is not as simple as one may believe it to be. The fact is, it is not merely a reproduction of the scene in front of you that you always want on your photographs. You would want to get creative with your depth of field, you may want a certain shade to appear darker than what you see etc. Add to that the fact that you will need to visualize the scene (in fact the print of the final image) in black and white, and that is not something every one of us will be able to do with ease. It is imperative that a black and white photographer learn to see or visualize his or her images in shades of gray rather than in color. Some may find it easy to do so, and some may need time to hone their skills of visualizing. But do remember - visualization is much more important with black and white, although it is required in professional color photography as well.

So, when you compose your image, we see that the first thing you need to do is visualize the final print. Next, you will want to get your exposure readings. While it may seem that exposure is more to do with lighting that with composition, it is not so in black and white photography. The point from where you take your exposure readings can make all the difference to your final print, and you have more of a latitude with black and white film than with color film or digital cameras. Another great plus point while shooting in black and white (film) is the fact that color filters have an effect of darkening out complimentary colors and lightening the same color(as the filter).

In the simpler sense of the word composition, try and find subjects where you have extremes in brightness levels (NOT complimentary color). For example, a scene with strong lighting from one side, and strong shadow on the other would make a very special black and white print. Try shooting portraits against window light and you will see exactly what we mean.

When you begin to play with light and shade on black and white, you will soon see that it has much more of an effect on monotone than on color. A ‘good’ black and white print, it is often said, will have both the extremes of the gray tone - black and white - and a good deal in between. More on the tones later.