There’s a trick to seeing the world in black & white, which I’m going to share with you. This is important to know when you’re taking black & white photos.
The first thing you need to understand is the concept of tones. Colors can be light toned or dark toned. Easy enough. But different colors can have the same tone. For example, yellow and orange are both light toned (yellow is the lightest of the two). Both red and green are considered middle toned. And Blue and purple are dark toned.
Now compare the color picture with the one taken in black & white.
Once you’ve learned which colors are which tones, you can use it to your advantage when taking black & white photos.
Your assignment is to experiment taking color and black & white photos of the same subject. Then study the effects the different colors have on the overall picture.
Please note: These pictures were taken with a digital camera and then converted to black & white (I’ll discuss how to do this in next week's tip). The result maybe slightly different compared to black & white film.