 BetterPhoto Member |
Beginning Black and White I just bought my first camera 3 months ago and am looking for some advice of how to proceed. My photo composition is coming along fairly well but I am generally stuck in the world of thirds. Any suggestions for ways to experiment or expand my horizons would be appreciated. Also, I love black and white but the lab fees are killing me. The labs normally charge me $17 for 24 exposures. Should I experiment in color first and lay off black and white until I get better?
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John A. Lind |
Jeff, Welcome to photography. It is a creative art that uses the science of light, optics, exposure and specific film characteristics to achieve the art. The creative part, which is developing a "vision" of what you want a photograph to achieve (the story it tells), and the mental visualization of an image that will accomplish it (what the finished photo will look like), are the two most important things to work on. These two tasks are performed before taking the photograph. A good photographer never stops working on perfecting this. Whether you stay with B/W for now will have to be up to you and your budget. If you are serious about learning B/W, which requires a different mental visualization of what the result will be when you shoot it, then keep shooting it at least some of the time. You can try using some of the "chromogenic" B/W films such as Kodak's B&W Plus 400, Kodak's T400CN (a professional film), or Ilford's XP-2. They are actually color films for "C-41" process except they develop to shades of gray instead of cyan, magenta and yellow in the color layers. It is difficult to print these on color paper (as in a one-hour lab) to true B/W. It's not the film, but the color paper, and how critical the color balancing must be to keep it from having a slight color cast to it. Printed on B/W paper (which is some of your higher cost) they are fine. As films, they are OK for general B/W work, but may not have some special characteristics you might eventually look for as you become more experienced. Examples would be Tri-X's unique soft grain structure, wide latitude, and good mid-tones. Other true B/W films have other unique characteristics such as very high contrast and super fine grain. The cost of developing and printing the "chromogenic" B/W is the same as color negative if it's done using color paper. For working on expanding your composition technique, an excellent book for beginners with clear explanations and many examples is "How To Take Great Photographs With Any Camera" by Jerry Hughes. It is published by Phillips Lane Publishing, Dallas, Texas. ISBN for the pocket edition: 0-9634348-9-6. Its emphasis is on composition with some aspects of cameras and lenses introduced as needed to discuss composition. As you advance with B/W, you will eventually want Ansel Adams' "The Negative" which is volume two of a three book set (the other two are "The Camera" and "The Print"). This is a "must read" eventually for anyone serious about B/W; it was written by one of the world's masters of B/W landscape work. It is advanced, moves quickly, and is often used as a college text. Don't feel compelled to use Adams' "Zone System" completely if you don't want to. It is enlightening and gives some tools for thinking about highlight, shadow, contrast, and how to expose for them, even if you don't follow it rigorously. Keep shooting as time and budget permit, and don't be afraid to experiment with things just to see what will happen! Make notes when you do this so you can remember what you did as you look at the prints. -- John
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Jeff K. Files |
Hi Jeff, __My name is Jeff too and like you, I also love B&W photography. Though I have owned and used cameras for many years I am always trying to learn new things and to improve my photos. This is true of all avid photographers whether you are 3 months in to it or 3 decades. __While you can find useful information on pages such as this one, the answers to your questions usually are found only through burning up many rolls of film. Books are full of good ideas. You can read and memorize the entire book and still produce bad photos. Taking lots of photos is the only way to really learn photography. __ The way I save money on processing is to do it myself. For a couple of bucks per roll I can develop my own film. You could make contact prints without even owning an enlarger. Use a lamp to make contact prints, then have the lab print only the best ones. I use a small enlarger that I set up in my motel room and do all my printing there. I'm on the road every week so I shoot photos on the weekends while I'm at home, then process during the week. I've learned more about photography from doing my own processing than from any other source.
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John A. Lind |
I second Jeff's observation. You actually have to do it. I found that reading the technical and artistic material, then deliberately applying one or two principles at a time, and then seeking ways to combine them greatly improved my photographs. For a while I was shooting at least a roll a week. Just as important was analyzing each one afterward about what I could have done better. Sometimes I even went back and did it again! Eventually things started to become automatic, and you know when things look "right" to take the shot. -- John
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Ben T. Grossman |
I agree with the helpful hints above, but another way to reduce costs of film is by bulk-loading, which is generally much cheaper than buying the individual rolls from photoshops, etc. It may not reduce print costs, but it helps to offset things, assuming the film you like to use is available in bulk rolls. I personally have become a big fan of Ilford (before I started to bulk load), which is pretty easily available in the 100-foot spools, and the loading is pretty easy. If you figure 19 rolls of 36-exp film, that's about $56 savings around here vs. buying the prepackaged film. -=mister ben=-
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