RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Monochrome’

Lomography expands Kino Films line with new Potsdam 100 monochrome film

10 Jan

Lomography has expanded its Kino Films product line with its new Potsdam Kino 100 ISO 35mm black and white film. The new product joins the Berlin Kino 400 ISO B&W film Lomography introduced in November, its new Potsdam likewise inspired by the New German Cinema that experienced high popularity in 1960s Europe.

All of the maker’s Kino Films products are ‘extracted from rolls of cine film produced by a legendary German company that has been changing the face of cinema since the early 1900s,’ according to Lomography.

The triacetate-based Potsdam Kino Film is designed for scenes that require an attention to detail, as well as sunny environments. Resulting images have a fine grain structure coupled with ‘subtle contrast,’ making this what Lomography calls a ‘poetic film.’ The company promises Potsdam film development is ‘a breeze,’ but it has also launched the Lomography B&W Potsdam Kino Cookbook to help photographers get started with the film.

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_9897891160″,”galleryId”:”9897891160″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

Shipping won’t begin until April or May 2019, but Lomography is offering preorders through its online shop now. Each pack contains a single roll with 36 exposures for $ 7.90; buyers can also get a 5-roll bundle for $ 39.50 and a bundle of 10 rolls for $ 79.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lomography expands Kino Films line with new Potsdam 100 monochrome film

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Black and White in the Outdoors: Learning to see in Monochrome

06 Dec

The post Black and White in the Outdoors: Learning to see in Monochrome appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by David Shaw.

1 - Black and White in the Outdoors

To determine when black and white is the best option in nature photography, you need to learn to see your scene in black and white. Most beginner photographers arrive at their monochrome images by experimenting with post-processing. While this occasionally works, shooting with black and white in mind results in far better images.

In other words, you need to SEE in black and white.

Look for Contrast

Highlights

In color photography, there are almost unlimited options to juxtapose contrasting and complementary colors or to provide an attention-getting subject in a flashy tone. But in black and white, you lose the ability to use color in the traditional way and are instead left with shades of gray. Contrast, rather than color, is our compositional tool.

Most of us see the world in rich color and there is no saturation slider in our eyes or brains with which we can switch color on and off. But we can train ourselves to see contrasts.

As I’m writing this, I’m looking out my window onto the spruce trees in my front yard. The sun is shining on a layer of fresh snow which fell over the past few days. The limbs of the spruces are draped in white. Looking south, toward the low sun, I can see flashes of perfect white where the sunlight is illuminating fresh snow. Those bright highlights contrast sharply with the dark, shaded trunks and exposed branches of the trees. In fact, even in the shaded areas, the difference between the snow and the dark needles is remarkable. With little color in the scene to begin with, it doesn’t take much to “see” this scene in black and white.

Because I can “see” this scene clearly in black and white, I can recognize that images like this will translate well from color. Here, let me step outside for a few minutes and make a few photos, to show you what I mean.

(A few minutes later…)

I’m back. I’ve pulled a few images and did a quick black and white conversion in Lightroom. Here are a couple of shots; first color, and then black and white.

2 - Black and White in the Outdoors

3 - Black and White in the Outdoors

4 - Black and White in the Outdoors5 - Black and White in the Outdoors

This is a straightforward example. As most people can see, lacking many colors, the snowy trees were a likely subject for black and white. However, the next step is harder.

Color Contrast

I had another black and white shooting session a few months back when “seeing” in black and white was much more difficult.

Each fall, I make a pilgrimage from my home in Alaska’s interior to the Kenai Peninsula. This year, I spent a day exploring the forest and mountains of Kachemak Bay State Wilderness Park, across the bay from the town of Homer. I hiked for several miles through the wet forest making images of the rising autumn colors, and the fog-draped mountains. It was a sea of greens and yellows, red highlights, grays, and browns. Some images were perfect for color, others not so much. Telling the difference in the field was a game I played as I walked.

6 - Black and White in the Outdoors

Some black and white images were clear in the gloomy forest. The dull yellow, jagged leaves of Devil’s Club against the muted greens and browns of the forest floor were an obvious contrast that I knew would translate well into black and white.

Others, like the pale green of fern fronds, were less contrasty in the field, and yet translated beautifully into shades of gray.

7 - Black and White in the Outdoors

These ferns were dying back at the end of the season and were largely a dull brown. Kind of ugly really. However, the color doesn’t matter in black and white, and the contrast between the pale brown fronds, and the deeply shaded background worked.

8 - Black and White in the Outdoors

This patch of ferns was pale green and popped against the darker green background. This is my favorite image of the series. It was a shot that took me a moment to “see” in black and white.

Another shot of an autumn stalk of bright red fireweed, I thought would look good in black and white when I first made the image, but upon examination of the back of my camera in the field. There was actually little contrast in brightness between the greens and red. That image didn’t work quite as well.

9 - Black and White in the Outdoors

10 - Black and White in the Outdoors

Lighting Contrast

Later that same afternoon, bright sunlight started to filter through increasingly thin clouds. It wasn’t yet hard light, but it was bright enough to be directional. The sun came through the forest canopy in patches, illuminating and shading different areas.

And this brought about a third option for black and white: lighting contrast. In the differing light, even similar colors will contrast in black and white.

11 - Black and White in the Outdoors

Beyond Details

12 - Black and White in the Outdoors

Seeing a large scene in black and white is the next step. I was photographing by a lake this fall. It was early in the day, the sun not yet far above the horizon, but any lingering sunrise color had faded. Most of the lake, some rising fog, and the surrounding mountains were in shadow. Aside from the sky, there wasn’t a lot of contrast. I was about to pack it in for the morning when the sun got high enough to illuminate a patch of fog, which flashed white in this scene of muted blues. Not much for color, I thought, but in black and white? That, I realized, would work.

13 - Black and White in the Outdoors

Terrible Light

At times, when photographing in harsh light, black and white can also salvage an otherwise impossible situation. A number of years ago, I was shooting in the altiplano of Bolivia. I arrived at mid-day at the spectacular and weird Laguna Colorado. It was savagely bright; cloudless skies, high elevation, middle of the day, and within a few degrees of the equator. Lighting conditions couldn’t have been worse.

While the landscape was uniformly drenched in harsh, ugly light, there was contrast in the colors of the desert. A polarizer darkened the sky and removed the worst of the glare. The resulting black and white conversion, was if not perfect, at least the best of a very bad situation.

14 - Black and White in the Outdoors

15 - Black and White in the Outdoors

Frequently traveling photographers find themselves in beautiful locations at bad times, and we don’t always have the freedom to return when the light is better. In such situations, consider black and white. It’s not a cure-all, by any means, but nasty light will often translate better into monochrome than full color.

The situation I described above was not unique on my trip through Bolivia. The sweet light of morning and evening lasted only minutes in the high desert, quickly replaced by glaring light. And yet contrasts in the landscape salvaged many a scene for me.

16 - Black and White in the Outdoors

Conclusion

If you can recognize a black and white subject in the field, it will open up your eyes to new compositions you may have previously ignored. Black and white photography is not simply the removal of color, it is a way of seeing.

When next you venture outdoors with your camera, look at the way colors and even shades contrast with one another. Look for lighting conditions that cause contrast to appear and embrace those situations in the form of black and white photography. Even on those days with rotten, bright light, consider how removing those washed out colors might help your final image, sometimes black and white can salvage an otherwise desperate moment.

Give it a try and then share your results in the comments below.

The post Black and White in the Outdoors: Learning to see in Monochrome appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by David Shaw.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Black and White in the Outdoors: Learning to see in Monochrome

Posted in Photography

 

Lomography launches new 35mm monochrome film stock cut from German cine film rolls

08 Nov

The film photography enthusiasts over at Lomography have launched a new film, Lomography Black & White 400 35mm Berlin Kino Film.

Inspired by the New German Cinema sweeping through Berlin in the 1960s, this film is extracted from a roll of cine film produced by a legendary German company that has been changing the face of cinema since the early 1900s,” reads the product description. “Originally used to make moody monochrome movies, its gorgeous black and white tones lend a timeless effect to cinematic scenes.”

The film has a native sensitivity of ISO 400, but Lomography says it can be pushed to ISO 800, 1,600, or 3,200 while still retaining a solid tonal range with minimal grain.

The Berlin Kino Film can be developed by professional labs or at home using standard black and white developers, including Kodak D-76, Kodak HC-110, Iford Ilfosol-3, and even Rollei’s Black & White Reversal Kit if you’re wanting to get a little wild and turn the negatives into positives.

Below is a gallery of sample images shot on the Lomography Black & White 400 35mm Berlin Kino Film:

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_4849747286″,”galleryId”:”4849747286″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

The film is available in 5-packs for $ 44.50, which converts to $ 8.90 for each 36-exposure roll. Pre-orders are currently being taken with the estimated delivery window being sometime in December 2018. To find out more and to pick up your film, head on over to Lomography’s product page.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lomography launches new 35mm monochrome film stock cut from German cine film rolls

Posted in Uncategorized

 

ADOX HR-50 is a new monochrome film stock that comes in 135, 120, and 4×5 formats

07 Oct

ADOX has announced HR-50, a new monochrome film stock that will be available in 135, 120, and 4×5 formats.

According to ADOX, the HR-50 film stock is “based on an emulsion commonly available for technical purposes.” It features “an ultrafine grain” and uses “super panchromatic sensitization,” meaning it’s sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light.

ADOX says HR-50 is particularly well-suited for street and landscape photography, but also works for portraits, although they do recommend using its own HR-50 developer. In the event you don’t want to buy another developer to keep in the darkroom, ADOX says the “gamma [of HR-50 has been] reduced so it becomes perfectly usable for pictorial photography in regular developers.”

According to the press release, ADOX HR-50 also works as an infrared film and handles the use of filters “extremely well.”

Below are a few sample photos provided by ADOX.

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_0957896852″,”galleryId”:”0957896852″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

There’s no mention of an exact release date or expected price. We have contacted ADOX regarding this information and will update the article accordingly if we hear back.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on ADOX HR-50 is a new monochrome film stock that comes in 135, 120, and 4×5 formats

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Video: Shooting with a $63,000 100MP monochrome medium format camera

07 Nov

Ted Forbes—photographer and inspirational educator behind The Art of Photography—recently got a chance to try out the Phase One IQ3 100MP Achromatic digital back, and man did it ever leave an impression. In his short video overview above, he dives into the images he captured with this bayer filter-free, monochromatic medium format beast, explaining why he feels this camera is a true ‘gamechanger.’

If that word triggers your gag reflex, you’re not alone, but Forbes isn’t one to throw hyperbole around and he gives good reason (and plenty of examples) for why he believes this digital back is something special. Pay particular attention to what Forbes is able to do using filters and the sensor’s ability to pick up light outside of the visible spectrum.

Check out the full video above to see the camera in action and dive into some sample images, but don’t forget to watch it at the highest possible resolution YouTube and your monitor can handle. You’ll need every available pixel at your disposal.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Video: Shooting with a $63,000 100MP monochrome medium format camera

Posted in Uncategorized

 

How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

01 May

Although photography is relativity new in terms of history, color still provides us with the opportunity to convey meaning and draw the eye. Monochromatic pallets take color photography to the next level.

From the origins of color photography, photographers have honed in on the emotional bond humans have with color. First used in prehistoric cave paintings, red ochre is one of the oldest pigments still in use. Blue was popular in Egypt and later in the medieval era to depict the delicate robes of deities. Fast forward to the present and we are surrounded by the same array of colors that impressed our ancestors. The difference now is only that we are able to harness it for our own uses with much greater ease.

How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

What is monochrome color?

Black and white photography (which renders a photograph in varying degrees of gray) is the dominant example of monochromatic photography. You may be surprised to learn, however, that monochromatic photography is not limited to black and white.

A classic example is sepia, the warm tone that is reminiscent of aging photographs. Over time, sepia slowly claims the tones of black and white images and transforms them into shades of reddish-brown instead.

Basically, any photograph containing only the hues or tones of a specific color are considered monochromatic. A photograph can be organically similar in tone or edited in post-production by adjusting the blending mode of a solid colored layer. Either way, monochromatic photography is about prioritizing color to enhance mood and atmosphere.

How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

Red

The color red traditionally conveys vigor, love, anger and valor  – all of which are passionate emotions. The blood vessels in our face expand in times of stress making our cheeks flush red. We bleed red blood when we are hurt. When suffering from lack of sleep (or hay fever) we even develop bloodshot eyes. Red has a unique physical relationship with the human body. We are attracted to it because we are so familiar with it in ourselves.

Red also catches our eye so effectively because it triggers an evolutionary response. As humans evolved, we came to understand red as a color that could portend danger. The color which drew the watchful eye of our prehistoric relatives registers as an attention-grabbing color in the modern day. An example of this is red stop signs or signs warning of danger. Photographers can use this evolutionary connection to catch a viewer’s attention quickly and hold it for longer.

How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

Monochromatic red conveys unease or unrest but also appears more gentle in nature with the change of seasons. It’s boldness contrasts pattern and texture, and blends with darker shades to lend the illusion of voyeurism or intimacy.

How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

Orange

Sharing properties with yellow and red, orange is a versatile color most often associated with heat, health, and strength. It encourages extroversion and activity. Red, yellow and orange combine to depict flames and desert landscapes. Orange pumpkins carved out at Halloween lend their color to the annual festival. Red squirrels are actually orange, as is the red fox. The tiger, striped with orange lends its reputation of courage to the color itself.

How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

A monochromatic orange color scheme could indicates sunset to a viewer.

In the color version of the “chicken or the egg” scenario, the color orange is believed to have been named after the fruit, not the other way around. In ancient Egypt, artists used orange mineral pigment for tomb paintings, and medieval artists used the pigment to color manuscripts. Before the late 15th century, Europeans had no specific name for orange, calling it yellow-red instead. Portuguese merchants, trading orange trees to Europe from Asia also imported the Sanskrit word “naranga” which evolved into “orange” in English.

Orange in photography is atmospheric and dense, but like red, it can also indicate danger or the need for caution. Because of its associations with sunsets and autumn, orange is useful for alluding to the time of day or the season. It can lend energy to a photograph, but its warm tones can also emphasize relaxation and warmth, reflecting the warmth of a fire or candle flame.

How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

Orange can remind the viewer of the sweet fruit that shares the color’s namesake.

Yellow

Yellow is the color of joy, spontaneity, and laughter! As the color of the sun, yellow lends vibrancy to a photograph, creating lightness and a sense of ease. Alongside red, prehistoric cave paintings were decorated with yellow ochre and ancient Egyptians used yellow in elaborate tomb paintings to represent gold. The painter Vincent van Gohn was a great admirer of yellow, describing the color to his sister in a letter saying, “The sun, a light that for lack of a better word I can only call yellow, bright sulfur yellow, pale lemon gold. How beautiful yellow is!”

Our predominantly positive associations with the color yellow mean that photographers can convey scenes of happiness more effectively with color. Although darker yellows can be associated with autumn, lighter tones are associated with spring, renewal, and clarity.

Highly discernible from any background, yellow is useful for safety purposes. Bright yellow high-visibility jackets and reflectors are worn universally as a safety precaution. However, yellow’s vibrancy can prove to be fatiguing on the eyes, which could be the reason why jarring shades of yellow are sometimes associated with unease and anxiety. Try balancing yellow out with negative space or a range of soft yellow tones to avoid over-saturated photographs.

Green

In some cultures, green denotes jealousy and sickness. In others, it represents wealth or a lack of experience. Overall, however, most would agree that the dominant association of green is with nature. Green’s associations with health and growth stem from the life cycle of trees, seeds, fruit, and vegetables. Its ties to nature have even been borrowed by environmental groups who aim to preserve the natural environment.

Some scientists suggest that the calming and centering nature of the color green is due to the composition of the human eye. Our eyes have three types of receptors called cones, each dedicated to a particular wavelength – red, green or blue. Two of the three types of cones have a reasonably high degree of sensitivity to the green wavelength. When color information is relayed to the brain, the majority of that information is about green. This means that we are able to decipher variations in green tones much more effectively than we can for other colors which make the color more dynamic to a viewer.

Often green has been described as having a calming or even hypnotic effect due to its tonal variations. Monochromatic green color allows photographers to create densely rich imagery that appeals to our eyes and our emotions.

Blue

Blue is another color that has strong associations with nature. It is an incredibly changeable color, with perhaps the most diverse connotations. Overwhelmingly selected by many as a favorite color, blue speaks to many with the emotion even a picture cannot fully dictate. Interestingly, the distinction between blue and green as separate colors is not universal. For example, ancient Japanese people used the word “ao” as a blanket term for both green and blue. Modern Japanese has a separate word for green – midori – but the boundaries between the two colors is not as cleat-cut as that of English speakers.

Blue can convey sorrow, depression, harmony, relaxation, or modernity. When fluorescent, it can lend a scene of other-worldly surrealism. It’s a color that is often tied to internal emotion. A monochromatic blue scheme can subtly allude to a subject’s state or emphasize detail.

With the invention of new synthetic pigments in the 18th and 19th centuries, impressionist arts began to observe the color that existed in shadow. It became the favorite color of impressionist painters to convey nature, mood, and atmosphere. Later Picasso, realizing the emotional effect of blue tones, began to paint only in blues and greens after the death of a friend.

Pink

Often associated with young love, spring time, sensitivity, and femininity, pink takes its title from a flower of the same name. Ancient poets of Rome described the color in their verse, and Renaissance artist Raphael depicted baby Jesus presenting a pink flower to his mother Mary.

The luxurious hue of the color pink has perhaps been most stunningly captured by the films of director Wes Anderson. The rich wedding-cake pallet of movies such as The Grand Budapest Hotel are heavy with the atmospheric luxury and manicured design. But Wes Anderson’s color pallet is also somewhat stifling. The constant presence of the color pink becomes claustrophobic for the characters who inhabit the hotel. It’s presence, depicting traditional ideas of femininity is beautiful and smotheringly repetitious.

Because of its strong associations of softness and joy, pink can be used ironically to contrast darker imagery teetering between dark surrealism and a sweet dream.

Purple

Because of its associations with lavender, many cultures have come to view purple as the color of health and relaxation. As an intermediate between blue and red, purple is a color that stimulates contemplation but doesn’t belie a greater sense of sorrow as blue.

As the process for obtaining the color purple was long and laborious. Only royalty, nobles, kings and priests of the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe wore a very rich strain of purple dubbed “Tyrian purple”.  While purple was worn less frequently by Medieval and Renaissance kings and princes, it continued to be worn by professors of Europe’s new universities, hence the association with wisdom.

While purple is readily available nowadays, it can often be a contentious topic of discussion. In my days of retail, I learned from discerning customers that purple is a color you either love or hate. While I consider myself a fence sitter in the matter, I can understand the passion that the color purple stimulates, worn by the wisest and often the most mysterious individuals in history.

Conclusion

So how do you use monochrome color in your photography? Use this information to use color to add mood and feeling to your images. Please share your monochrome images in the comments below.

The post How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography by Megan Kennedy appeared first on Digital Photography School.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography

Posted in Photography

 

In praise of shooting monochrome landscapes

30 Apr

Taking color out of the equation forces the viewer to focus on shapes and textures

In an age of wide color gamut displays and HDR-everything, DPR regular Nicolas Alexander Otto urges his fellow landscape shooters to embrace shooting in black-and-white. Here are a few reasons why he embraces monochrome for landscape work – and thinks you should too.

Reducing imagery to its essentials, breaking it down to texture and shape, can help render the image more accessible to the eye. In this instance – a shot of the Iceland’s famous Vestrahorn – the patterns in the dunes leading the eye towards the mountain range in the distance are not visually overwritten by the color of the grass in the fore- and mid-ground thus stand out more and suffice to lend the foreground dynamism which might otherwise be not visible enough.

Taking color out of the equation forces the viewer to focus on shapes and textures

In this next example (above) the line work isn’t as important, but the different contrast areas with strong tonal differences are aided by the black and white treatment, enabling the small lighthouse to stand out as a visual anchor and helping to create a focus on the balance between the lighter slopes and dark areas on each side of the cliff.

You can emphasize what’s unique about the subject

I think an abundance of color can indeed sometimes distract from the motif in itself in regards to how it carves out the essence of a landscape. You may get sundown coloring or blue hour at every spot on earth, but a certain shape of rock might be unique to the place you’re shooting. If that’s what you want to capture, you may want to consider shooting black and white in order to prioritize forms over hues.

Pre-visualizing a scene in black and white can help you find better compositions

Pre-visualization is key. This means that photographers have to determine in field what the monochromatic image will look like after processing and decide on site how to compose and shoot accordingly. Subsequently, thinking in black and white may enable us to find better compositions; those which do not need color in the first place.

While I personally enjoy color as much as black and white, I often find myself trying to shut out color while composing, aiming to focus on the abstract rather than the concrete. This helps me to find my way around cluttered foregrounds or difficult light. It’s an approach I find helpful from time to time and would recommend trying, even though it may take some time to get used to (I guess everyone who has the option to use black and white directly in their live view is a lucky camper in this regard). Taking a picture and converting it in camera for a preview might be cumbersome but can be helpful as well.

Black and white promotes detachment from reality

A black and white image is always a departure from our inherent logical view of the world which is secondarily governed by color (primary is light and dark).

This entails certain freedoms such as to depart further from reality, which can be a liberating feeling as a photographer, opening up more creative possibilities. Often times a black and white image can simply ‘get away’ with more dramatic editing and capture technique since it is not regarded as a ‘authentic representation of reality’ as much as a color image.

You can be a bit more aggressive with processing

There’s a perception that editing images, in one way or another, deteriorates the character of the image. Black and white images however don’t seem to be subject to the same amount of critique because they are governed by a different frame of reference.

Take a look at more of Alex’s work and be sure to read our Readers’ Showcase Q&A with him.

Do you regularly shoot monochrome landscapes? Why do you embrace black-and-white? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on In praise of shooting monochrome landscapes

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Fujifilm to introduce monochrome instax mini film

06 Sep

Fujifilm has announced monochrome film for its instax instant cameras and Share printer. It will go on sale worldwide in October, and like the color film, will be sold in cartridges of 10 sheets each. No price has yet been given for the monochrome film, but currently a twin pack of color film with 20 sheets goes for about $ 12.

Press release

“instax mini film Monochrome”
A new film that expands the possibilities of photographic expression using instax film

September 6, 2016

PHOTOKINA 2016, COLOGNE, GERMANY, September 20, 2016—FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) is pleased to announce the launch of the “instax mini film Monochrome”, which will be released worldwide in October 2016.

The “instax mini film Monochrome” responds to the increasingly sophisticated demands of users, enabling them to expand the artistic potential of their photographic expression and adding a further dimension of fun to use instax cameras and films.

Product Name: “instax mini film Monochrome”

Availability: From October 2016

Main features:

  • Includes 10-frame, printable instax monochrome film.
  • Expands the potential for artistic, fashion and street photography.

Fujifilm is committed to offering new products and services that meet various consumer needs by leveraging innovative technological advancements. Fujifilm is also dedicated to enhancing the enjoyment of photography worldwide, and encourages users to experience the value of shooting, preserving, displaying and gifting photo images that deliver the message of “enrich your life with photographs.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Fujifilm to introduce monochrome instax mini film

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Nine black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

05 Jun

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Not so long ago, novice photographers began learning their craft with black and white film. While many eventually mixed color into their portfolios, others eschewed hues entirely, opting for the smoothness of subtle monochrome tones.

Then came the digital revolution where all native output was in color by default, and anyone who pined for black-and-white had to figure out how to make it look real. Today, a multitude of black and white shooting, editing and conversion apps offer iOS and Android shooters many monochrome styles — from specific film analogs and grains to authentic borders, tints and vignettes, most with the ability to export and share via social media.

While any stock camera app will happily shoot monochrome images, these apps go further with filter options and interfaces tailored to black-and-white shooting. We ransacked the pile to uncover nine worth downloading.

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Dramatic Black & White
$ 1.99 | iOS | Android

JixiPix wasn’t kidding when it made ‘drama’ the central focus of its app and even its name. Whether you shoot with Dramatic Black and White’s built-in camera or pull a color image from your Camera Roll, the app’s highly configurable interface, flexible presets and editing tools set it apart.

Images open in black and white with an adjustable ellipse spotlight that lets you zero in on the subject. From there, you can crop (rectangle or square) or adjust tone, sharpness, brightness or contrast. Individual red, green, and blue filters give images definition, while at the same time you can mix in grain or apply a color tint. Multiple levels of tweaking are possible but it’s also possible to use the app’s extensive one-click presets (Black & White, Dramatic B&W and Infrared) for a hands-off approach.

In addition to its infinite choices, the app’s performance is outstanding — there’s no waiting for a preview to render as as you experiment with different settings.

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Lenka

Free | iOS | Android 

Introduced two years ago, Lenka, designed by photographer Kevin Abosch, sparked renewed interest in the mobile genre. Because it’s exclusively a image capture app, you can’t dig up an older photo from your Camera Roll and apply the Lenka treatment; the app forces you to concentrate on tone and contrast from the outset.

Lenka is minimalist and designed to be smart: It operates in full auto exposure mode, but if you want more control, you can tap the subject onscreen or the MF (manual focus) button on the control panel. Its four slider-based buttons for exposure, contrast, tint and focus toggle on and off. You can also summon extra illumination for fill lighting or extreme low light by tapping the light bulb icon for a continuous flood of light. There’s no front facing camera either, so no selfies.

Lenka is fast, easy and fun to use, and its auto setting works well enough to give you some great shots without much effort. 

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

BlackCam
$ 1.99 | iOS | Android

BlackCam, XnView’s capture and editing app, offers more than two dozen adjustable presets to impart a wide assortment of monochrome looks to your existing pictures – or you can shoot using live preview. Despite the number of adjustments available: Classic, Vintage, Light, Shadow, Dark, High Contrast and more, the app is easy to use. Classic editing tools let you adjust brightness, contrast, exposure, vignette and simulated film grain. Colored lens and professional conversion filters show up on screen. You can easily get by with the free version, which includes a large assortment of filters, but to get rid of distracting ads and unlock additional presets like Hard boiled, Vintage Deep and Platinum, you’ll have to upgrade.

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Photolab Black
Free | Android 

Photolab Black, an Android-only photo capture and editor from Sand 5 Apps mixes retro-style black and white analog photo and Polaroid film effects with monochromatic file emulation filters to give new photos an old-time look. If you’re in the mood for grain, vintage, grunge and textures, feel free to go crazy with stylized filters like Ilford, Lomography, Pan F, Provia 100F and more. The app also provides a full set of classic editing tools like color balance, crop, rotate, and straighten or the ability to adjust brightness, contrast, color temperature, saturation, exposure, vignette, sharpen and blur with a swipe. The app is free, but to unlock certain modules like frames, you have to invite a friend on Google Plus or Facebook.

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Hueless
$ 1.99 | iOS

Hueless, a popular black and white photo app for iOS, is another capture-only (not editing) app from Curious Satellite. Think of Hueless as a film camera with black-and-white stock and use it when you want to avoid post processing. The main (H) icon lets you choose TIFF or JPEG format and can hide the menu to maximize your concentration on composition: A simple screen tap records the image. If you want to shoot fast without setup, the app lets you record up to four presets. Advanced touches include a live exposure compensation slider, live contrast adjustment slider and adjustable photo filters in blue, green, yellow, orange and red, which give definition to grayscale images. The app’s interface feels natural, though if you commit to using all controls in the moment, it may seem overwhelming. Hueless can save your photos to the Camera Roll or a special Hueless album. 

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

BLACK
$ 0.99 | iOS 

BLACK puts the focus on retro film emulations. Ten distinctive film looks let you preview via swipe: Experiment with stocks like Tura P400, Paterson Acupan 800, Fujifilm FP-3000B and others. Just browse through each filter to find the one that best suits your image. Familiar tools like Curves, Fade and Vignette are also available. Curves puts tone and contrast at your disposal with a dynamic preview and histogram. Vignette’s slider adjustments let you play with contrast and shadow around the subject. Fade’s filmic effect adjusts for shadows. A full preview is available in Collection mode, as you tilt your iPhone 90 degrees. BLACK is a stylish and elegant monochrome rendition that offers some unique throwback effects. 

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Simply B&W
Free | iOS 

Fotosyn’s Simply B&W offers a variety of choices for both shooting and editing. Select from an assortment of familiar films such as T-Max, HP5, Tri-X, XP2, Delta, SFX-IR and Vintage, and you can leave it at that. If you’re into more tweaking, sliders let you control brightness, contrast and grain, while vignettes and frames add a finishing touch. The real treat with this app lies in its selection of filters (Red, Green, Polarizer, IR Filter) that emulate analog filters for black and white photography. A unique pro feature is the app’s integration with Adobe Creative Cloud, which lets you access your account directly from the app and work on your image on your phone.

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Ansel
$ 0.99 | iOS 

Not a single photographer – pro or amateur – doesn’t know the name Ansel, practically synonymous with monochrome shooting today. When launched, Ansel even reads the Camera Roll in black and white, where you can immediately preview the conversion of any of your color images. Once a photo is opened in Ansel, the app provides more than a dozen controls to aid in the transition. A minimal number of presets offer a starting point, but it’s just as easy to dive right into the sliders to alter tone, contrast, exposure, shadows and highlights. Add a gradient or vignette while using the Mix filter and choose any color at all as a filter. If you’re unhappy with the result, you can either reset changes or revert to the original photo. While you can use the app in landscape mode, the icons don’t flip to accommodate the new position, but they’re big enough to easily read.

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Argentum Camera
Free | iOS

A newcomer to the scene, Argentum Camera has an unusual take on black and white photography. The filters in Argentum Camera for iPhone are not names for films, but rather iconic photographers. Specifically, this app lets you shoot in styles inspired by Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Garry Winogrand, Yousuf Karsh and Dorothea Lange, which you view on screen while you focus and compose your shot.

The camera interface was built for larger iPhones. Additional options include a speed shooting mode for one-tap shots and Double Exposure to superimpose two images in a single photo. The app does not support the front facing camera – so no selfies. As you store your original unprocessed photos in your Camera Roll, a narrow line in the bottom indicates how much free space you have left. You can even take shots remotely via Apple Watch. The app is free with the Ansel Adams filter and a $ 2.99 in-app purchase buys you all five additional filters.

Black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

While all nine of our picks offer polished results and an original approach, there are a couple of standouts.

Best free option

For the easiest shooting experience and the most enticing results, Lenka is our overall favorite among the free apps. There’s practically no setup, but rather a simple point and shoot interface that provides just enough control to get great results.

Best paid option

On the paid side, Dramatic Black and White simply hits it out of the ballpark with its flexible, easy-to-use shooting and editing controls, sizable number of presets and outstanding performance.

The apps above are just a small sample of the mobile black and white apps out there. Do you have a favorite that was not mentioned? Please share it in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Nine black-and-white photo apps to elevate your monochrome game

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries