black and white landscape photography
black and white landscape photography can create breathtaking images that instantly capture a viewer's eye. The B&W genre is widely common in almost every photography subject including wildlife photography, still nature, portraits and more. In landscape photography it can be strikingly beautiful. Some of the most famous landscape photos in the world were photographed in black and white by Ansel Adams, who is widely recognized as the father of landscape photography.
In today's digital era, you can create a black and white photo in post processing from any image, even if was taken in color. The key to creating beautiful B&W photos is understanding what composition, light and characteristics compliment it.
black and white landscape photography - when and why
This part will focus entirely on what makes black and white landscape photography compelling and interesting. We'll discuss mostly about light conditions, contrast, textures, details and how the lack of color emphasizes other characters in the photo. I won't be discussing about landscape photography technique at all, because it praticly makes no difference if your photo will be in color or B&W.
Dull Color
one of the best reasons to create a black and white landscape photo is simply because the image in color is not interesting. it doesn't mean that all photos without vibrant colors are necessarily not interesting, but if your image seems interesting in composition, details and textures, it might be very suitable and amazing in B&W. Some images can even be absolutely beautiful both in Color and B&W!
This photo in B&W and color is a great example of how an interesting scene can look entirely different.
This photo on the other hand can be impressive both in color and in B&W.
Textures and shapes
Another great reason to convert an image to B&W is in order to emphasize textures, shapes, details, guidelines, patterns and composition characters. Again, it might also look good in color, but the lack of color helps our eyes concentrate on other details.
This aerial photography of glacial rivers in Iceland is actually not converted to B&W, but is dominated in B&W in reality. Look how it emphasizes the diagonal guide lines and textures of the scene.
In this intimate abstract scene, the lack of color again emphasizes the lines and delicate textures on the mud cracks.
Contrast
Contrast is quite a fundamental element in black and white photography. I wouldn't say it always has to be very strong, but it usually has to be pretty present in order for a B&W image to come alive. Sometimes, recognizing a color image with powerful contrast might suggest it will look very good also in B&W (not always). Vise versa, an image with very low in contrast usually won't stand out in B&W. I suggest taking this with a grain of salt, because contrast isn't the only factor affecting the B&W affect.
To be honest, I definitely prefer this image in color. Once I converted it to B&W it was pretty dull, but after increasing the contrast, it looked quite impressive also in B&W.
black and white landscape photography - more examples
The photo below is a good example of scene that can be interesting both in color and black and white. The image contains strong composition elements including leading lines, textures, light and shadows and therefore looks compeling in B&W. The addition of color ads another layer of interest to the image.
Even very vibrant images that are extremely attractive in color, can still hold a viewer's eye in black and white.
editing black and white landscape photography
The Editing or post processing part of black and white landscape photography is definitely a very important part, if not the most important (after taking a good photo of course!). The knowledge and visual style required for black and white photos isn't very different from general editing.
After converting the photo to B&W, my main tips for editing would be to play with the light, shadows and contrast. This can be done in endless ways, depending on your editing software and available tools. Here are a few main tools I recommend in Lightroom and Photoshop:
conclusions
Creating or converting landscape photos in black and white can produce breathtaking results. There are multiple considerations you should consider to get a good result. The important thing to remember is that you can always convert any photo to B&W. The real change you need is to practice your eyes or visual imagination to better understand and visualize the images that can be compelling in black and white. Practice is the key!
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