blackandwhite

How Nick Brandt Shot ‘The Day May Break – Chapter Two’

Nick Brandt is a conservation photographer whose themes highlight humankind's destructive impact on animals and the natural world. The Day May Break – Chapter Two was shot in Bolivia, a country in western-central South America, over six weeks in February-March 2022.

A Song for the Arctic

A Song for the Arctic: The Overwhelming Beauty of Greenland

The beauty of the Arctic is overwhelming. The biting cold and the pristine silence is punctuated by occasional extraordinary sounds, as the glacier ice creaks and falls. At the centre of this beauty are the enormous structures of freshwater ice calved from the glaciers, the great icebergs.

Best Disposable Cameras in 2023

Once a staple of photography for the general populace, disposable (or “single-use”) cameras have become something of a niche -- most people who never stopped shooting film or those younger audiences who are coming to it for the first time choose to use an affordable SLR or point and shoot camera. The image quality is quite superior and a single roll of film is less expensive (though typically not by much) than a disposable camera.

Black and White Photography: The Beginner’s Guide

In this era of ubiquitous high-resolution color screens, it seems hard to recall that photography established itself without color. The medium earned its position in the worlds of journalism, popular culture, and fine arts long before Kodak introduced color film. But this does not relegate black-and-white photography to the basement. The genre remains powerful, present, and widely practiced today, with both film and digital cameras.

Colorizing B&W Photos Then and Now, From Oils to Neural Filters

The day after photography was invented in 1839, somebody pointed out that the photographs were just shades of gray – there was no color. The photography inventors knew this was a problem and probably hoped that no one would notice. Paintings were in vivid color and if photography was ever to compete with painting, there needed to be some color in them.

10 Reasons to Shoot Black and White Photos (and None are Nostalgic)

One of the more divisive positions that I find in photographers is their rationale for, or dislike of, black and white photography. “I love color,” I hear often. “I’m all about the colors.” Absolutely, color is cool. But I think the arguments in support of black and white are strong (some better than others!).

Photographing the Chilean Coast Through a Prism of Immensity and Time

My name is Esteban Amaro, and I am a photographer based in Santiago, Chile. Litoral de los Poetas ("Coast of the Poets") is a photography series of mine that was born in the year 2017 and continues until today, traveling to the area of the coast of central Chile that has been home to the great and late Chilean poets Vicente Huidobro, Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra and more.

Ricoh GRm: My Custom ‘Monochrom’ Camera

For a long time now, I've been looking a little enviously in the direction of Leica because of the monochrome versions of the M and Q models.

3 Steps to Creating a Dramatic B&W Infrared Photo in Photoshop

Like most photographers, I love black-and-white infrared images. There is a purity and intensity to a well-crafted monochrome image, and there are many software options out there to help convert an image to black-and-white.

Invincible Gods: My Look Back at One Film Photo Every Day of 2021

In what has become a year-end PetaPixel tradition, photographic artist B.A. Van Sise—who has the unusual practice of making one, and only one, photograph on film every single day— looks back on the past year and towards the next. His previous entries can be found for 2018, 2019, and 2020. More images from this series, titled The Infinite Present, can be seen on the artist’s website.

Should Black and White Imply the ‘Age’ of a Photograph?

In many art practices, a new method or process does not usually automatically override the old one. You can still use berries and charcoal to paint a cave wall, paint on a canvas, or put pencil to paper. These do not become irrelevant just because a Wacom tablet can be used to make a digital illustration or a VR for a 3D painting.

Photos of People Saying Goodbye to Their Dogs

Lauren Smith-Kennedy is a Maine-based photographer who offers free end-of-life photo shoots for pet owners. Her photos show the tender moments families share with their beloved animal companions as they say goodbye for the final time.

An Advanced 7-Step Way to Edit B&W Photos in Lightroom

Black and white images can tell entirely different stories than color. By removing all of the colors, the tones carry the weight of the story. There’s a lot of gray area (pun intended) when it comes to black and white images as there’s no right or wrong way to take them. In this article and video, I’ll be walking through a new way to edit black and white images in Adobe Lightroom.

Knowing When to Fold

The overall measure of success for any photographer will likely be at least partially attributable to the effectiveness with which they are able to edit their own work.

5 Tips for Black and White Landscape Photography

Capturing photos in black and white is quite a challenging task. It is certainly one of the most complicated fields of landscape photography. One needs to be very careful about the circumstances where the photos will actually look good in black and white.