Using mono photography is great way to create classic, clean imagery. Rich black and white imagery often provide a timeless, elegant feel to pictures. Often people use mono photography as a solution to mask issues in colour photography photos but in fact the use of clean crisp high quality photography used with mono settings makes for fantastic photos.
1. Shoot your images in a Raw format
To make the best use of the image shoot in RAW so that you have all options open to you when it comes to editing. Some images just don’t quite work as mono photography but may tune out great as a colour image etc.. so keep your options open.
2. Light and shade make a photo
Lights and shades play a major part when creating black and white images as without colour you need to use the various shades of grey to black on white to create the structure of the image. This makes shapes and lighting an important part of the black and white photo. Automatically converting your photos to grayscale is not always recommended as you lose the colour information and the finished product is often not as sharp. A better way is to do it as a layer method. where you can control the way each colour is converted which means you end up with a much cleaner, sharper finish.
3. Lines, Shadows and Shapes
Try to remember that its the lines, shapes and shadows that will provide the definition to your photo. If you try to visualise the subject matter of your photo in these terms then you are far more likely to achieve the photo you are hoping for.
4. Use textures.
Texture is brilliant for showing contrast in fine detail on black and white imagery so make sure you use it. Anything with a weathered texture or indeed anything that is very old with distinct features makes for perfect subject matter.
5. Look for patterns.
Sometimes we don’t always see the pattern in an image because of the colour that distracts us. The order of repetition in an image can add so much interest. By using black and white, pattern symmetry become so much more vivid and once you start looking for it in every scene or object you shoot the more you will see it everywhere.