Right There in Black and White

I have a soft spot for black and white photographs. There’s just something about the “lack of color” that allows a good black and white to tell a story in a way that color shots just can’t mimic. So, when Beth threw down the black and white gauntlet this past week, I was pretty pumped.

This challenge is all about processing in these days of digital. The good shot is really the starting line … and it can be a long way to the finish. That said, a good shot is really where it all begins.

For this week, I decided I wanted to play a lot with the different ways to covert to black and white. I decided that I wanted to start with a picture of a building that, if photographed when built, would have been photographed in black and white. I took a short tour of a nearby town and shot this. This was my original shot.

I processed these in Photoshop Elements using standard tools … except for the last. On the final shot I used a free brush to get the marks and scratches. The first thing I did was straighten the shot using the straightening tool. Then the fun began.

desaturated color using hue/saturation tool

adjusted color using remove color tool

color removed with convert to black and white tool - scenic landscape

color removed using tonal adjustment

removed color with convert to black and white tool - newspaper

If you want, you can see an actual black and white shot of St. Mary’s Catholic Church from a local historical society. If I was going for realism, this newspaper setting seems to be the closest!

But, “real” isn’t necessarily part of the challenge so…

aged photo

To age my photo, I started with a black and white created with the convert to black and white tool set to scenic landscape. I added a border, noise, and scratches to make it appear old and well looked at. Then I adjusted the black and white tones one last time. I also find a nice handwriting font to “write” on the border … just for fun!

So, here’s what I learned/confirmed.

1. The way that you convert a color digi shot to black and white matters – a lot.
2. It’s helpful to know what look (purpose) you are going for before you convert.
3. It’s not difficult to make a photo look old but it helps to envision in your mind what type of environment “the photo living in” so that you can scratch and mark it realistically.

Strangely enough, my favorite from this set is the one that’s technically not black and white. I really like this shot desaturated. I also really like how the aging turned out. Although, when I do it again, I’ll start with a lighter black and white shot.

In the process, I discovered about 4 more processes related to black and white processing that can make my photos look better at the end of the day. Now, I just have to practice!

Head on over to Beth’s to see how other folks stepped up to this challenge!