Photography Tutorial · 2021-01-17
Why Are Their Photos Full of Atmosphere? Recommending 3 Excellent Niche Black-and-White Photographers
Thomas Chu Photo
Black-and-white photography strips away the world's colorful brilliance, yet retains the most wonderful light, shadow, texture, and grayscale, presenting the purest and most vivid frames.
In this edition, I've selected 3 niche black-and-white photographers from Instagram and will lead everyone to explore how they bring viewers a powerful sense of atmosphere using only the visual language of black-and-white tones.
andofuchs
Black is the most important color in black-and-white photos, with the following functions in the frame:
1. Lower the overall tones to set off emotion
2. Separate layers and primary-secondary relations, highlighting the symbols and objects that need expression
3. Darken clutter to clear visual distractions
For example, in one of the photos above, the dark black of the foreground is an important source of the photo's atmosphere, and the grass up close is actually rather pitted and messy — the author removed the grass's distraction by darkening it overall.
And the black of the figure and the distant trees separates them from the gray mist, letting readers see these objects at a glance and feel the corresponding imagery.
A common mistake beginners make is over-pursuing detail, wishing they could push shadows +100 and contrast -100 to present every detail.
But if every place is a highlight, then there are no highlights. This black-and-white photographer understands the art of selection, darkening many meaningless details into the shadows — only such photos have atmosphere.
The world is three-dimensional, but a photo is only a plane. If a photo doesn't appear three-dimensional and deep, it also lacks a sense of presence, weakening emotion and atmosphere.
One of the photos above is very typical: although the overall image is dark black, the farther away, the lighter the black objects become, which nicely separates the layers. And the figure is individually darkened, because the figure is an important symbol that needs to be highlighted through strengthened contrast.
Figures, stories, symbols, imagery, and so on are also sources of a photo's atmosphere. A photo with people and animals is easier to draw viewers in and create a sense of atmosphere.
Some symbolic objects can also strongly set off a photo's atmosphere, like the cross and the withered tree in the image below.
Motion blur is also an operation many black-and-white photographers like to use. Photos combining motion and stillness have a stronger dynamic immersion, and blur is also a method of weakening detail and strengthening primary-secondary relations.
christoph_hessel
Christoph's works are also impressive. In the three works below, we can still see the unique atmosphere that techniques like black, contrast, imagery, figures, and motion blur bring to black-and-white photos.
Backlight is the most impactful kind of light, especially at sunrise and sunset, when its own brightness and shadows are enough to separate primary and secondary elements and create contrast. A bit of fog is even more of a weapon for enhancing atmosphere.
Of course, the post-processing workload for backlit photos is also astonishing — operations with selections and dodge and burn tools often take hours, with the goal of separating layers, suppressing unnecessary details, and unifying tones.
Besides low-key works, Chris also has many high-key photos.
In black-and-white photos, high-key tones often appear in snowy scenes, because high-key tones give a feeling of cleanliness and purity.
carmen_spitznagel
Speaking of high-key photos, this black-and-white photographer to be recommended often uses them.
High-key doesn't mean the whole photo is bright; rather, it uses brightness as the base and black as accents and emphasis. It's quite suitable for foggy and snowy days, because these weather conditions themselves use bright fog, ice, and snow as the background, and also carry emotion.
Similarly, techniques like contrast, imagery, figures, and motion blur are also heavily applied in her photos. Everyone can imagine: if the figure in the photo below weren't in motion, wouldn't it feel much worse?
The photo below actually also severely tests the photographer's post-processing, because the original scene has a lot of detail. Careful dodging and burning in post is needed to brighten the places that should be highlighted and separated, darken the places that need weakening, and open up the front-to-back layers while highlighting primary-secondary relations.
That's today's photographer recommendations and analysis.
(Other photographer recommendation articles)
"The 5 Landscape Photographers Most Worth Following on 500px"
"The Masterpieces You Watch Every Day Are Actually Just the Tip of the Iceberg of Landscape Photography"
"Don't Know How to Shoot Without Red Clouds? Try Following These 3 Landscape Photographers~"
"The Tones Are Amazing! These 4 Instagram Photographers Use Cyan Superbly!"
"The Best Style Is the Extreme — 4 Niche Landscape Photographers Worth Following"
"Only Shooting Check-in Photos on Trips? Recommending 4 Photographers with Wild Ideas"
"Dialogue with Landscape Photography Masters | Ryan Dyar: Artistic Creation Should Be Free"
"Dialogue with Landscape Photography Masters | Enrico Fossati: Make a Simple Dream"
"Dialogue with Landscape Photography Masters | Nicholas Roemmelt: Recording Expeditions with Photography"
"Can You Shoot Masterpieces in Nearby Parks? This Photographer Martin Podt May Inspire You!"
If you want to learn about more photographers of various styles,
you can visit my Instagram homepage @thomaschuphoto and check my follow list~
All images used in this article are cited from the photographers' homepages