In this beginner’s guide to taking stunning black and white portraits, we will discuss everything you wanted to know about this genre.
There is a renewed interest among photographers to shoot black and white portraits. In a sense, photographers are trying to go back to the classical ways of photographers like Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Yousuf Karsh, and Martín Chambi, who made the black and white medium famous.
“Black and white portraits are about removing distraction caused by an overabundance of color in a composition, and instead focus on the composition, the texture, the face and the mood.”
An Introduction to Black and White Portraits
Some of you might be thinking, in a world that’s filled with colors, the mere discussion of black and white portraits is pointless. Why are we even talking about this medium when the world around us is colorful?
The reason is black and white photography has defined the art form ever since it came into existence. Right from the days when the Daguerreotype was discovered, right down to the 1960s when the color film became more of a common thing, black and white remained the soul medium of photographic expression.
We dare not say black and white is monochrome. Those are just two colors from the color pallet. When you choose to shoot in black and white, you eliminate all the other colors and focus on only two.
“This allows you to focus on certain aspects of photography like contrast, texture, tone, composition, and of course lighting, which are at times overshadowed by the overbearing presence of color.”
Black and white portrait photography tests a photographer’s skills in these areas of photography. Devoid of the option to use color in one’s composition, a photographer must focus on the other aspects. It’s a challenge and a test of the photographer’s skills.
Why Do People Use Black and White Portrait Photography?
There is this undoubtedly old-world charm about black and white portraits. If you look at albums from the 40s and 50s or even cinema made during the golden age of Hollywood, you will realize what we’re trying to imply here.
For those born after the 70s and 80s and living all their lives bombarded with color, black and white photography is an acquired taste. For those born before, it’s nostalgic.
Color is not essential for portrait photos. That’s if you know what portrait photography is in the true sense. Portrait photography is all about capturing the essence of the person facing the camera. Not just about the color of the clothes or the skin color.
One of the greatest photojournalists of modern times, Ted Grant, aptly summarizes this when he said,
“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”
Moreover, color film was not discovered until the 1930s, when Eastman Kodak released color film stock, people were introduced to the magical world of possibilities. Until that time, and a couple of decades even after that, the world of photography only shot in black and white.
Color film stock was expensive, plus it wasn’t easy to get proper exposure using indoor lighting. These are the two main reasons color photography did not pick up until after the 1960s.
For those born in the 1950s and 60s, black and white images were the norm, and they continued to use them even after the color film came into existence.
In modern times black and white images are shot purely for aesthetic reasons and mimic the classic look.
How to Take Black and White Portraits?
There are two ways to shoot black and white photos. You can shoot it in black and white in-camera, which saves you the trouble to post-process and fine-tune your images. But that can also be a problem because your options as a photographer are limited. After all, you’re making a conscious effort to discard all other colors.
To do this in-camera, switch the Picture Style on your camera to Monochrome. Under the Menu, there would be an option called Picture Style.
Choosing Monochrome sets your camera to shoot in Monochrome.
Once you do that, you should be able to adjust and fine-tune the effects, Sharpness, Contrast, Filter Effects, etc., to ensure that the results are according to your taste.
The steps will differ from camera make and model, so please check your camera manual to verify.
The other option is to shoot in color and then post-process the files later to produce black and white photos. And it’s pretty simple to do as well. We’ll demonstrate this using this example –
We will use this image to demonstrate how you can convert your photo to black and white using Colorcinch.
Open the image using the Upload button.
The tool that you need is located under the Color tab.
Now let’s click the Color tab and choose the Saturation slider.
Next, we’ll pull the Saturation slider to the left.
After that, Save it to preserve the changes.
Next, navigate to the Exposure slider.
We just made a few minor changes to the sliders.
Voila! Our image has magically transformed into black and white.
Another way to do it is to use filters. Here are the steps:
This image was originally in color. We upload this to Colorcinch.
Next, go straight to Filters.
Under Filters, there are a bunch of options. Go straight to Black & White.
It opens up another bunch of options.
We liked Option 5, and we can use this option to convert the image to Black & White.
Here’s a quick before and after look.
The Process of Taking a Black and White Portrait
The process is no different from one when you take a color image. Except, in this case, you have to focus more on the composition, the lighting, the texture, and the mood. You lose the ability to use color, so everything else that goes into making an image has to move up one notch to make up for it.
1. Work on the tonality
Since an image loses color, you must look for tonality to give it a dynamic look. Work on the dynamic range of your photos and play around with the brightest and the darkest bits.
2. Use a fast wide lens
A fast wide lens lets you play around with the depth of field. The shallow depth of field has its advantages. Such images look very appealing.
3. Shoot in Color and post-process
We recommend you shoot in color and then tweak it in a photo editor. This helps you have greater control over the tonality of the final image.
4. Don’t be afraid to push the ISO
A feature of your camera that most photographers would recommend you not to push is the ISO. But black and white portrait photography is one area where you can without any drawbacks. The resultant noise looks pretty good.
5. Work on the pose
Black and white images work the best when the facial expressions are just right. Also, the facial features are a great indicator of what pose should be perfect for the best shot. So, work on the pose and expression and take as many shots as you can.
Concluding Thoughts
Black and white portraits is a difficult genre to master. It requires reasonable control over tonality, contrast, composition, and lighting to set up the mood and capture an image that’s, in essence, representative of the photographed person.
But it’s a technique that has remained in vogue for as long as photography has been around. Black and white portrait photographers often use this technique to produce stunningly beautiful portraitures that capture the subject’s soul that’s impossible to achieve using color.
Hopefully, we have been able to interest you enough to start experimenting independently. The techniques explained in this guide are not exhaustive. We hope you will find methods that work the best for you as you develop your skills.