The ability to take images in black and white is seen by many photographers as being more challenging than regular colour photography.
Many years ago you made the choice in-camera as to whether you were going to shoot in colour or black and white with the type of film you loaded into your camera.
Now, however, the choice can be made after the image is shot with post-processing and a wide variety of software to achieve the best results. My personal choice for converting to black and white is a combination of Google Nik Tools Silver EFX Pro and Adobe PhotoShop.
Here is an example of some images that have been converted from colour to black and white:
When this image was taken I didn’t particularly have a black and white image in mind, but after processing I noticed how the details in the colour from the rocks and water almost detracted from the image. I decided to put this image through the Google Nik Tools Silver EFX Pro plugin to see if a reduction in colours would improve the image. What do you think? You can leave your comments below, I would be interested to hear.
The above image I didn’t even produce in colour, as this was an example of something that just didn’t work in colour. The subtle colours in the concrete were completely lost in the grey slab, and the sky was such a colour that it brought the tone of the image down. Once converted to black and white the image took on a life of it’s own.
Black and white images seem to have more power and impact that their colour counterparts.
All of these images can be found in the galleries on this website, along with many other such images.