Translate

السبت، 17 نوفمبر 2018

Creating Effective Minimalist Black And White Photography

By Linda Harris


There is something especially dramatic and compelling about a photo that has to rely on tone, shape, texture, contrast, and shadow rather than vibrant color design. You may have poured over prints by Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz and wondered how they managed to capture such amazing, and deceptively simple, images. Minimalist black and white photography is something anyone can try, but only a few manage to master the techniques necessary to make it great.

If you're serious about trying this, you will have to learn to ignore color. You teach yourself this in a couple of ways. There are monochrome viewing filters you can buy for your camera. You can also go out and buy some inexpensive sunglasses that have dark gray lenses. Monochrome will work with almost any subject matter that interests you, people, cityscapes, landscapes, or still lifes.

Composition is one of the first subject instructors teach art students. Good composition is very important, whether you are working in black and white or color. You should be aware though, that composition in monochrome and in color are not interchangeable.

Tone is an important part of the foundation of good monochrome photo taking. It is similar to contrast, but not exactly the same thing. If you are photographing a street scene full of vibrant colors for instance, those colors may just end up being uninteresting shades of gray in a monochrome photograph. You can adjust the tone using colored filters or change the lighting. By changing the lighting, you will create instant highlights and shadows.

You must learn the power of shadow. You need to think of shadows as tools you can use to manipulate minimalist art. The more intense the shadows the better the photograph. Shadows draw people in. They don't have to be black voids. You want observers to feel the shapes inside the shadows, sometimes without being able to actually identify them.

There are shapes in shadows, but it's contrast that creates them. Shadows can be the element that defines your photos. Shapes are the objects the human brain uses to define and recognize its surroundings. One of the ways we identify objects is by the way they are shaped. Working in monochrome makes it even more important to look for shapes, and how they work with contrast and tone.

Texture is part of light and shadow. It can be tricky. If you eliminate it in an effort to get a stark effect, you will have something more abstract than if you had included it. You can emphasis texture by lowering the level of the light source. Light creates shadows and highlights that will reveal the texture in your subject.

Eliminating color can be risky. Color serves as a crutch sometimes for those unsure of their technique. Artistry is more readily revealed when you strip away the color.




About the Author:



ليست هناك تعليقات:

إرسال تعليق