Sometimes a black-and-white photo needs to be grey

Saturday 6 January 2024, 14:28 by Nando Harmsen | 3,270 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

I love plenty of contrast in a black-and-white photo. True black, true white, and a nice distribution of grey tones. Sometimes, however, that is wrong, and a photo should show nothing but grey. No black, no white, and absolutely no contrast.

A black-and-white photo says it all, really: it should be black and white. Give the photo good, well-considered contrast and it will become more interesting. It will have greater impact.

Yet this is not a hard-and-fast rule. There are situations in which black and white should absolutely not be present in the photo. The photo should then have no contrast and consist only of grey tones.

It was very misty that morning, so you could hardly see the other side of the lake. This photo shows perfectly what it was like.
The best example of this is a photo taken in mist. The haze causes the contrast to disappear, leaving only grey tones. Midtones, then, in the middle of the histogram, somewhere around 50% grey, also known as 18% grey.

If you add contrast anyway, the photo will look too harsh, unrealistic and coarse. The mist, the atmosphere and the character disappear.

If you want to see the brightness levels distributed across the entire histogram, the contrast has to be increased enormously. All the mist disappears and the photo does not become any better.
So be careful when distributing contrast across the entire range of your histogram. Although in many situations the contrast can be distributed optimally across the histogram, there are also situations in which part of the histogram can simply be left empty.

So always pay close attention to the conditions, and reflect them in your photo. Do not try to add contrast when there is absolutely none. At least, not if your photo needs to remain realistic.

You might also like

• 

  Grey weather? Turn it into a black-and-white photo

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Video: How to Deal with Different Skin Tones in One Photo

  by Elja Trum

• 

  Use a grey card for accurate colours

  by Elja Trum

• 

  Dull grey weather? Adapt your photography to the conditions

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Do not use a variable grey filter for photography

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Prefer High Contrast in Your Nature Photos

  by Nando Harmsen

0 comments

Have your say

Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.
Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.