Enhance Your BLACK & WHITE Street Photography - 7 Essential Tips

[@ChrisBrogan]

I'm on a 30 day "only black and white" shooting challenge. Meaning, I can edit the raws in color, but I'm shooting only B&W because I'm trying to get better at my compositions. I loved this post for all the tips!

[@ForsgardPeter]

That type of projects are really useful. You learn a lot. What has been the hardest in that challenge so far?

[@ChrisBrogan]

@@ForsgardPeter - a great question. I'd say the fact I'm enamored with color. But then again, that's the point. I'm ignoring light and tone and all that. Your lesson #1 in the video. So I know why I'm in "b&w jail" for a month.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Black & White forces you to look at light and tones. I hope you have a fun challenge!

[@mattisulanto]

Thanks! Some really nice shots and great tips as always.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks Matti.

[@thextopic]

Love your work the tonality is just perfect to my eyes

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thank you very much.

[@charlesfisher2134]

Great video Peter. Thanks a lot.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thnak you! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@charlesfisher2134]

Hey Peter, I have a M50 Mark II camera. I was wondering I have a 28 mm pancake lens EF or EFS I can't remember right now but also a ef m kit lens 15 to 45 and then I have the Canon 10 to 18. Which one of those would you recommend using? Thanks again for the great videos!

[@ForsgardPeter]

I would pick the 28mm. It about 40mm if we talk about FF equivalence. The 15-45mm is not bad either if you prefer a zoom lens. The 10-18mm would be too wide for me, but give taht lens also a try and see how it suits your photography.

[@rawvoltairephoto]

I love black and white photography.👌👌👌

[@richardpriestley477]

Great video with great practical ideas Peter !! Just one point - the exception to B and W is where street art is the key focus of the shot and colours are really dominant in the portrayal , the scene and the message .

[@ForsgardPeter]

Well said.

[@valdiskrebs566]

Really like your monochrome images! I usually shoot Mono2 in the EP-7 or Pen-F.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thank you.

[@trishf29]

Excellent video, Peter! A video that is worthy of another view in the near future.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thank you very much.

[@stephenspiteri_zunkus]

I have recently started to shoot most of my street photography in a black and white profile on my camera but I'm still shooting RAW. That way I have more options for post editing but looking at the world in B&W gives me another perspective.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Seeing the image in black&white in EVF/LCD is one of the best features. It makes previsualizing so much easier.

[@hanahoeo7073]

Great info as always Peter. I do enjoy shooting black and white. My primary walk around camera is Olympus EP-5 with a panny 15 or 20mm lens. I shoot raw color and edit first in DXO v7 and do final conversion in Silver EFX Pro.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks for sharing.

[@280bunny]

The intro image very much in the style oof Henri Cartier-Bresson!😀

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thank you.

[@awpqq]

I convert to B/W in post - just using Lightroom. I'm very happy with the results I get.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks for sharing!

[@don-at-large]

Have dedicated my Nikon Z50 to monochrome, because Nikon Monochrome gives me deep blacks and contrast options I like. This is very timely video presentation for me.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks for sharing. It is nice to have a dedicated B&W camera!

[@nigelalexander1594]

Hi Peter, great video, I noticed your camera is in the portrait position as opposed to landscape. Is this your preferred position for street photography composition?

[@ForsgardPeter]

For some reason I have photographer more vertical images lately than horisontal. To be honest i do not know why.

[@numbersix8919]

Thank you! I'm not good at color. I don't even see colors correctly. It's like being tone-deaf for a musician. I like the ways colors look and the feelings they evoke, but I do best with big dominant color fields with less need for composition. Therefore, your advice is very helpful for me, and for anyone who composes in monochrome, for whatever reason!

[@ForsgardPeter]

I am glad the video was helpful.

[@lloydbligh5601]

Do you shoot in shutter priority when photographing in B&W to capture the moment? Interesting video thanks.

[@ForsgardPeter]

I use mainly P-mode. I have set the minimum shutter speed to 1/125s. Then, I use AutoISO, which has an upper limit of ISO6400. With my Ricoh GR3x, I also use DOF Priority to maximize the depth of field.

[@lloydbligh5601]

@@ForsgardPeter . Thanks for the insight of how you set up your camera, that makes sense. I hardly ever use P mode, will have to give it a try. Thanks for getting back to me.

[@ForsgardPeter]

I control teh exposure with exposure compensation.

[@petriteravainen4006]

Great video again, kiitos Peter! What do you think of Fuji 27 mm pancake?

[@ForsgardPeter]

I use it a lot. It is my go to lens when using X-S20 for street photography.

[@RobertVE3VPL]

When I want to do a B&W photo walk, I set the camera (E-M5 m3) to B&W (often with yellow filter) but shoot RAW. I am not very good at visualizing scenes in B&W and find it helpful for the camera viewfinder to show B&W. If a scene turns out to be better in colour, then I have that available too. I convert to B&W using Affinity pro or OMWorkspace. For some reason, I find B&W good for urban photography mostly. I occasionally shoot XP2 on a Spotmatic, which I did a lot when I was younger, and I really miss not having a B&W EVF.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Using the monochrome preview in EVF/LCD is a good way. It makes B&W photographing so much easier.

[@lorenschwiderski]

These days, I am liking Nikon the most, though I also just love the Panasonic GX-9 for B&W and Color. Most images I edit from the RAW in color, then convert to B&W and further edit them. And if a JPG taken in B&W, especially with the Nikon Z5, looks good, I may edit the jpg from the camera which is B&W and not the RAW. It just depends on how much I think it needs in tweaking. Most all my cameras are set to take B&W JPG + RAW. It has served me well. I like adding HDR to many B&W and some Bright, and Contrast. With the Nikon the Monochrome images are normally pretty darn good. The Nikon Z5 doesn't seem to have the same hit rate for instant focusing as does the Lumix GX-9. You have to be a little more patient at times, which is hard to getting the moment if you only have a fraction of a second. Given a second, the Nikon is fine, in good light. The Lumix GX-9 with a Leica 15mm makes a great pairing. Not to say Olympus 25mm or 45mm is not awesome as well. Another sharp one is the 30mm Macro Lumix lens, fewer people use, or ever talk about. One other neat little pancake is the 14mm Lumix, the two hundred buck, in USA, lens. Less than perfect, but in a sorta nice way, like it is film being shot. Certainly 14mm is no Lumix Leica 15mm however, but still interesting when mated to my Olympus PEN PL-8. Just fun! - Loren

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thank you for sharing your workflow and gear you use.

[@rsutter879]

Mostly I use the presets Silver Efex Pro 2 from the NIK collection, What is your opinion about that?

[@ForsgardPeter]

I also have it, but have not used it that much. It is more about the habit that I use Filmpack 6 more. I di make a video about the NIK Collection: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqaue6ybnqtne9E. There are more thought about it.

[@ChrisBrogan]

BTW, I love the clown! Talk about a rewarding subject. ;)

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks!

[@TL-xw6fh]

The current trend is for high contrast and crushed blacks, sometimes to the extreme. I don't tend to process my images that way as I much prefer to have a good level of tonal range in my photos. It's ironic that camera manufacturers strive to provide a large tonal range , yet photographers crush the dynamic range!

[@ForsgardPeter]

I agree it is a bit ironic.

[@TimGreig]

It can hide a "multitude of sins" 😊

[@fernandoescubos5388]

Great video, thanks, Peter. I like to shoot in black and white (the filter ART 5, old B&W), then you get both the raw and the JPEG, but I prefer to edit in Lightroom the Raw file.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks for sharing.

[@LigreDesubi]

It's funny, because I don't shoot or edit in B/W since the film times... I never see my pictures fit in B/W nowadays.

[@ForsgardPeter]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting indeed.

[@SpudUna]

It was invented by an Egyptian woman in 1979. The same woman that found out that damp dirt can usually be found under wet grass.

[@seanaidan4577]

Are black and white not colours?

[@ForsgardPeter]

It depends how you look at the thing. In technical terms black and white are not colors, but shades. If we consider that we can make black mixing other colors then yes it is a color. White can also be considered a color because it comprises all hues. When we talk about photography there has always been a distinction between color and black & white photography. I think what we have kind of agreed is the right interpetation. It makes more sense.

[@markothwriter]

technically, no. black and white are not colors.

[@lorenschwiderski]

@@markothwriter Black is the absence of color and white is all colors, yet on the other hand, like Peter is talking about is in respect to photography images.