I have a Leica Q2 Mono and I love it. Like you mentioned, it takes all the color distractions away and I don't have to think about them. If I need to shoot in colors I just take out my color camera. Love BnW pictures.
The wonderful thing about photographs is that they are the same in all languages. Much like a smile is. The black and white photographs just add an "accent" to them. They convey an emotion that no words in any language can describe.
I often shoot in-camera monochrome JPEGs with the Acros film simulation plus red filter if I'm out walking and just talking photos for enjoyment. They usually do the job pretty well, very well really. If I'm going to convert from Raw to monochrome, I only use FOSS applications like DarkTable and the GIMP, both of which have excellent options for producing very nice monochrome images. I used to shoot monochrome 35mm and medium format film back in the olden days. Shooting monochrome seems like a perfectly natural and intuitive thing to me.
I live near Yosemite National Park and I have visited more than 200 times in my life (which is not nearly enough). As Ansel Adams showed, it is practically mandatory to shoot black and white in Yosemite. 🙂
I was there in 1982. I used Kodakchrome back then. I photographed everything in color. It worked for me back then. If I was going there now, I would choose black&white.
@@ForsgardPeter I don't easily envision B&W, so when I got my E-5 in November 2010 it was a revelation to actually see the scene in B&W. Back in the day, I shot a lot of K25 and K64 in Yosemite with my OM-1N and OM-4T. I still marvel at Kodachrome colors.
Thank you, Peter, for yet another insightful video about the art of photography. Black and White photography is dear to me. I grew up on a diet of B&W: first the thrill of seeing film developed and prints made in my father's darkroom, then doing it myself from the age of 7 or 8, followed by years of studying the B&W masters and perfecting my own B&W skills using the Ansel Adams books. Back then, of course, we were seeing in color throughout the viewfinder and pre visualizing B&W to the best of our abilities. Color film was a rare indulgence reserved for family vacations, to record memories at a ridiculously high price per frame. All the experimentation happened in B&W. When I first began using digital cameras with B&W capability, they were jpeg only, so I was seeing the B&W image in the viewfinder. I thought this was great, but now that I'm shooting RAW, I am back to looking at the world in color and exercising my mind to pre visualize the B&W image. So i feel like I'm home again, back to the days of my beloved Nikon F (long gone).
Peter I have to agree with you Prague was one of favorite cities to photograph. I spent a week in Prague in June 2022 I did a number of walking photo tours during my trip.
Thank you Peter, truly beautiful images🎉🎉🎉. I wish to do more B&W photography, but I struggle with the concept: because I see the world in colour! Also, I only get a few hours each week to practice my hobby and I struggle to see why I should spend this time on B&W when I could be taking colour images. But I negotiated with myself and I will do both together. I have an E-M1 with a 28mm vintage lens set up for B&W and an Om-1 for colour images. I will start with B&W photography to get into the groove of making images and then I will switch to colour. Thank you for all your videos this year and have a fabulous Christmas with your family 🎉🎉🎉. Cheers, Peter McGinty.
For the past 20 years with digital I have worked in colour, I have also been thinking about making images in B&W for some time, I do think the images have a quality that is more timeless when in B&W
Thanks for this B&W recap. B&W has a special place in my heart because that's how I started out my photography. I have tried some monochrome cameras and love them. If Ricoh one day decides to release a monochrome GR I'll most probably buy one.
Orange 😃 setting within camera, no filters on the lens. This way you have a way of seeing it in monochrome as the camera JPG renders, or using the color RAW image and changing that image instead, or going with color. More options.
I started with Black & white photography because that was all there was. After the initial excitement of colour I returned to B&W until the digital age. These days I pick which ever suits the image but I much prefer monochrome over colour.
Great points Peter, thank you for another learning guide. I’m relatively new to street photography but have already chosen to mainly take black & white. Contrast is my challenge so your other video is next!
Looking back on this year my favorite photographs were taken on my Leica Q2M. It really challenges me to think about what I am doing and what I’m going to create.
I've been shooting a lot of b/w night photography recently with several different cameras and lens combinations. You can really concentrate on the subject and the images are timeless as you say. For people I try not to use too fast a shutter speed, then the photos have that vintage look. Great video.
I agree with you, Peter: since I discovered it, I have used DXO Nik 7 Silver Efex to convert to B&W. It gives me the best results of anything I’ve used (short of shooting B&W film…)
I love your images Peter! I never tested a monochrome camera. I do a lot of nighttime black and white photography. If I need to convert color into monochrome, Lightroom is my go to program.
This winter, I do Black & White City/Stret/Urban Photography, most of the time it is manual focusing only and all of the time it is full manual shutter, aperture and ISO. I have set my EVF to only show Black & White, to force me into thinking more in Black, Grey tones and White, I do photography both in day time and at night time, the Voigtländer Nokton 50mm 1.0 Aspherical works great at night time, as a second Lens on an other Camera I use a Sony 24mm 1.4 GM, nice set.
thank you for this video; i'm just rediscovering B&W streetphotography with my new TG-7 and OM-5. The pictures look great at the screen, but I find them quite difficult to print... my first prints were all grey, and I have to make them extremely clear/white on screen to have them Ok on paper.... A matter of training I guess !
I visited New York this summer and I had two visions. First shoot B&W then shoot stitched panorama of Roosevelt Island Bridge. Did both on first day. Mission complete. Rest of the week I really loved to shoot the city in B&W. I used Fine + Raw option, so I always had color raw as backup. I found this Ilford HP5 plus 400 preset for LR somewhere deep in the The Internets and loving it. Occasianally ask ChatGPT to create LR presets too for funzies.
Excellent video! I was recently in Berlin and visited some of the same spots you photographed, Peter. I will experiment with converting my pictures to B/W to see if I get the visual impact from my photos that you captured in yours.
I shoot in JPEG and RAW with the JPEG being in some Black and White recipe depending on whether I'm using my Nikon DSLRs or my Fuji X-T2. Lately I've been using (and learning) Nik Collection 7's Silver Efex that I got through your link when it was recently on sale. I've really enjoyed the post processed images that I've been able to produce in Silver Efex and would highly recommend it! I spent quite a bit of time in a black and white darkroom years ago and so far Silver Efex gets me closer to how I wish to interpret my images.
Many videos I saw from you and Matti. Great information from both of you! Began photographing 1973. Devoloped the Tri-X and HP5 for about 16 years. Digital came. Since a few years I have a Ricoh GR3. And now the black and white pictures are back again in my life. Have no digital camera that shoots only B&W. But there is rumor that Ricoh will bring out such a camera in June 2025. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Great advice..wonderful photos! Made me wonder if you could also do a series of short videos..say 5 or 8 minutes each with 3 tips on some type of photography…maybe by genre or composition or even technical camera tips for one (or each) of your cameras. You get the idea! Or maybe they already exist.
i never usually convert to B&W because i keep my images in colour, so people can if they want when they licence them convert them for their purposes. maybe i should try again for my personal use though. :) i think photolab lets me convert to B&W film simulations... theres only three but some make them look out of place though IMO.
I convert to black and white using a Black and White layer in Photoshop CS5. It allows me to alter the luminosity of each color individually so that i can get exactly what i want.
Thank you very much - very inspiring video again! I process my Fuji raw files in C1, which in my eyes has very powerful tools for BnW processing. For pre-visualization I created a rather contrasty in cam BnW profile, that helps me a lot in getting an idea of the final image. I see more and more, that BnW appeals a lot to my idea of photography, especially in street photography. Actually I kind of feel overwhelmed of taking care of composition, structure AND color in a genre like street photography, where speed can be crucial. If I take away color, it is easier for me to concentrate on the other aspects…
I have heard that C1 works better for Fuji Raw (X-trans sensor) files than Lightroom. I have not tested them side by side, but that is something in will test in the near future. How do you see it?
@ Actually I did not test them side by side either. By the time I switched to Fuji (early 2019) I read several articles, that C1 works better with Fuji files. Another reason for me to switch to C1 was the opportunity of the lifetime abo with one time payment (which has been stopped by Adobe just before 2019). However, 2-3 year ago I heard, that Lightroom has caught up for Fuji files. I feel, meanwhile it is more a matter of personal skills in using either software than a matter of lightroom or C1. Yet, if you do a side by side comparison I will for sure be very interested…🙂 AND: I am very happy with the Fuji file / C1 combination - that‘s for sure 👍!
I have not done those for a long time. Next Tuesday there will be a video about next years 52 Assignments. It is going to be bigger and better than ever.
Olympus/OM System never payed me. I choose not to renew my contract with OM System in March -23. I have a whole video about it with the reasons. Money had nothing to with it. I have been very happy with Fuji. At the moment it is the best solution for me. Fuji does not pay me either. Not sure where you have gotten incorrect information.
I have a Leica Q2 Mono and I love it. Like you mentioned, it takes all the color distractions away and I don't have to think about them. If I need to shoot in colors I just take out my color camera.
Love BnW pictures.
The wonderful thing about photographs is that they are the same in all languages. Much like a smile is. The black and white photographs just add an "accent" to them. They convey an emotion that no words in any language can describe.
Well said.
I often shoot in-camera monochrome JPEGs with the Acros film simulation plus red filter if I'm out walking and just talking photos for enjoyment. They usually do the job pretty well, very well really. If I'm going to convert from Raw to monochrome, I only use FOSS applications like DarkTable and the GIMP, both of which have excellent options for producing very nice monochrome images. I used to shoot monochrome 35mm and medium format film back in the olden days. Shooting monochrome seems like a perfectly natural and intuitive thing to me.
Thanks for sharing.
I purchased Pentax K-3 III Monochrome last september, haven't took any colour pictures since. Haven't missed anything. Best buy ever!
Great to hear. I like Ricoh/Pentax because they have the curage to do things a bit different than the rest.
I live near Yosemite National Park and I have visited more than 200 times in my life (which is not nearly enough). As Ansel Adams showed, it is practically mandatory to shoot black and white in Yosemite. 🙂
I was there in 1982. I used Kodakchrome back then. I photographed everything in color. It worked for me back then. If I was going there now, I would choose black&white.
@@ForsgardPeter I don't easily envision B&W, so when I got my E-5 in November 2010 it was a revelation to actually see the scene in B&W.
Back in the day, I shot a lot of K25 and K64 in Yosemite with my OM-1N and OM-4T. I still marvel at Kodachrome colors.
Thank you, Peter, for yet another insightful video about the art of photography. Black and White photography is dear to me. I grew up on a diet of B&W: first the thrill of seeing film developed and prints made in my father's darkroom, then doing it myself from the age of 7 or 8, followed by years of studying the B&W masters and perfecting my own B&W skills using the Ansel Adams books. Back then, of course, we were seeing in color throughout the viewfinder and pre visualizing B&W to the best of our abilities. Color film was a rare indulgence reserved for family vacations, to record memories at a ridiculously high price per frame. All the experimentation happened in B&W.
When I first began using digital cameras with B&W capability, they were jpeg only, so I was seeing the B&W image in the viewfinder. I thought this was great, but now that I'm shooting RAW, I am back to looking at the world in color and exercising my mind to pre visualize the B&W image. So i feel like I'm home again, back to the days of my beloved Nikon F (long gone).
Thanks for sharing.
Peter
I have to agree with you Prague was one of favorite cities to photograph. I spent a week in Prague in June 2022 I did a number of walking photo tours during my trip.
Thank you Peter, truly beautiful images🎉🎉🎉.
I wish to do more B&W photography, but I struggle with the concept: because I see the world in colour!
Also, I only get a few hours each week to practice my hobby and I struggle to see why I should spend this time on B&W when I could be taking colour images.
But I negotiated with myself and I will do both together. I have an E-M1 with a 28mm vintage lens set up for B&W and an Om-1 for colour images.
I will start with B&W photography to get into the groove of making images and then I will switch to colour.
Thank you for all your videos this year and have a fabulous Christmas with your family 🎉🎉🎉. Cheers, Peter McGinty.
Thank you. I understand the problem with time. We all struggle with that. Merry Christmas to you and your family, too.
For the past 20 years with digital I have worked in colour, I have also been thinking about making images in B&W for some time, I do think the images have a quality that is more timeless when in B&W
Thanks for this B&W recap. B&W has a special place in my heart because that's how I started out my photography. I have tried some monochrome cameras and love them. If Ricoh one day decides to release a monochrome GR I'll most probably buy one.
A monochrome Ricoh GR would be an interesting camera. Not sure if I would get one, but for sure it would sell quite well.
When doing black and white with a DSLR camera like to use yellow or red filters to really bring out features like clouds.
Orange 😃 setting within camera, no filters on the lens. This way you have a way of seeing it in monochrome as the camera JPG renders, or using the color RAW image and changing that image instead, or going with color. More options.
I agree that the built-in filters are very good when photographing black & white.
I started with Black & white photography because that was all there was. After the initial excitement of colour I returned to B&W until the digital age. These days I pick which ever suits the image but I much prefer monochrome over colour.
Just found your videos and really enjoys them! Will follow you!
Glad to hear! welcome and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask.
Funny that you mix pictures from Berlin into your Prague section... But I do agree with you on the impact of black and white photography.
Did I, must have made a mistake.
Nice to see you in Prague .I was there 2 weeks ago awesome City great video Peter.
Thanks! 😃
So true! Love the sample images.
Thanks.
Great points Peter, thank you for another learning guide. I’m relatively new to street photography but have already chosen to mainly take black & white. Contrast is my challenge so your other video is next!
Thanks.
Looking back on this year my favorite photographs were taken on my Leica Q2M. It really challenges me to think about what I am doing and what I’m going to create.
Great to hear!
I've been shooting a lot of b/w night photography recently with several different cameras and lens combinations. You can really concentrate on the subject and the images are timeless as you say. For people I try not to use too fast a shutter speed, then the photos have that vintage look. Great video.
Thank you.
Thanks Peter! A very good, informative video with fantastic pictures!
Thank you very much!
I agree with you, Peter: since I discovered it, I have used DXO Nik 7 Silver Efex to convert to B&W. It gives me the best results of anything I’ve used (short of shooting B&W film…)
I love your images Peter! I never tested a monochrome camera. I do a lot of nighttime black and white photography. If I need to convert color into monochrome, Lightroom is my go to program.
Lightroom works quite well for the conversions too.
I'm using DXO Nik collection Silver Efex for b/w conversion. Really enjoy the possibilities there.
This winter, I do Black & White City/Stret/Urban Photography, most of the time it is manual focusing only and all of the time it is full manual shutter, aperture and ISO. I have set my EVF to only show Black & White, to force me into thinking more in Black, Grey tones and White, I do photography both in day time and at night time, the Voigtländer Nokton 50mm 1.0 Aspherical works great at night time, as a second Lens on an other Camera I use a Sony 24mm 1.4 GM, nice set.
Looks like you all covered!
thank you for this video; i'm just rediscovering B&W streetphotography with my new TG-7 and OM-5. The pictures look great at the screen, but I find them quite difficult to print... my first prints were all grey, and I have to make them extremely clear/white on screen to have them Ok on paper.... A matter of training I guess !
Have you calibrated your monitor? That could help a lot if you are printing.
I visited New York this summer and I had two visions. First shoot B&W then shoot stitched panorama of Roosevelt Island Bridge. Did both on first day. Mission complete. Rest of the week I really loved to shoot the city in B&W. I used Fine + Raw option, so I always had color raw as backup. I found this Ilford HP5 plus 400 preset for LR somewhere deep in the The Internets and loving it. Occasianally ask ChatGPT to create LR presets too for funzies.
ChatGPT can make nice presets. I have not tried it for Lightroom preset. I need to try that.
Excellent video! I was recently in Berlin and visited some of the same spots you photographed, Peter. I will experiment with converting my pictures to B/W to see if I get the visual impact from my photos that you captured in yours.
Good video, thanks! Right now, shooting B&W with a 1957 Voigtlander Vito B (Version vith Prontos-SVS and F:2.8 50mm Skopar) .
Thanks. Nice gear!
I was heading to Prague in early 2020 but something came up we all had to stay home. Thanks for this. Beautiful images 😊
I shoot in JPEG and RAW with the JPEG being in some Black and White recipe depending on whether I'm using my Nikon DSLRs or my Fuji X-T2. Lately I've been using (and learning) Nik Collection 7's Silver Efex that I got through your link when it was recently on sale. I've really enjoyed the post processed images that I've been able to produce in Silver Efex and would highly recommend it! I spent quite a bit of time in a black and white darkroom years ago and so far Silver Efex gets me closer to how I wish to interpret my images.
I agree that Silver FX is a great software for black & white conversions. I have used it, but for me FilmPack 7 is better.
Thank you, Peter. I think this video will help me.
Great to hear!
Many videos I saw from you and Matti. Great information from both of you! Began photographing 1973. Devoloped the Tri-X and HP5 for about 16 years. Digital came. Since a few years I have a Ricoh GR3. And now the black and white pictures are back again in my life. Have no digital camera that shoots only B&W. But there is rumor that Ricoh will bring out such a camera in June 2025. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Yes, I have heard teh same rumor about Ricoh. Thta was actually the camera I was referring to, but did not want to mention that.
Great advice..wonderful photos! Made me wonder if you could also do a series of short videos..say 5 or 8 minutes each with 3 tips on some type of photography…maybe by genre or composition or even technical camera tips for one (or each) of your cameras. You get the idea! Or maybe they already exist.
I could, thanks for the idea.
Color is only important when color is a critical part of the composition.
That is true, I agree.
i never usually convert to B&W because i keep my images in colour, so people can if they want when they licence them convert them for their purposes. maybe i should try again for my personal use though. :) i think photolab lets me convert to B&W film simulations... theres only three but some make them look out of place though IMO.
I convert to black and white using a Black and White layer in Photoshop CS5. It allows me to alter the luminosity of each color individually so that i can get exactly what i want.
Thank you very much - very inspiring video again! I process my Fuji raw files in C1, which in my eyes has very powerful tools for BnW processing. For pre-visualization I created a rather contrasty in cam BnW profile, that helps me a lot in getting an idea of the final image.
I see more and more, that BnW appeals a lot to my idea of photography, especially in street photography. Actually I kind of feel overwhelmed of taking care of composition, structure AND color in a genre like street photography, where speed can be crucial. If I take away color, it is easier for me to concentrate on the other aspects…
I have heard that C1 works better for Fuji Raw (X-trans sensor) files than Lightroom. I have not tested them side by side, but that is something in will test in the near future. How do you see it?
@ Actually I did not test them side by side either. By the time I switched to Fuji (early 2019) I read several articles, that C1 works better with Fuji files. Another reason for me to switch to C1 was the opportunity of the lifetime abo with one time payment (which has been stopped by Adobe just before 2019). However, 2-3 year ago I heard, that Lightroom has caught up for Fuji files.
I feel, meanwhile it is more a matter of personal skills in using either software than a matter of lightroom or C1. Yet, if you do a side by side comparison I will for sure be very interested…🙂
AND: I am very happy with the Fuji file / C1 combination - that‘s for sure 👍!
Thank for the info.
GR3x or XM5 Peter 😊
Cannot say for sure right now. After I have used my X-M5 a bit longer I will make some content about the topic.
Great video. The photo of the holocaust monument in Berlin is terrific and very powerful indeed!
Thank you very much.
Excellent. I mainly do b&w
Thanks.
Are black and white images actually sharper and cleaner, due to less processing/interpolation etc, or do they just seem that way?
Cannot really conform that. It might b ethe case.
Are you not doing the 52 week project videos anymore?
I have not done those for a long time. Next Tuesday there will be a video about next years 52 Assignments. It is going to be bigger and better than ever.
Black and white the original photography
I shoot in color and change it to black and white post
My parents are from the center of pragues main town square
Great place!
Peter Forsgård i ám so sorry.... olympus don´´t pay you any more ,,,, and you switch for ....FUJI... $$$ i understand :) is a business ..
Olympus/OM System never payed me. I choose not to renew my contract with OM System in March -23. I have a whole video about it with the reasons. Money had nothing to with it. I have been very happy with Fuji. At the moment it is the best solution for me. Fuji does not pay me either. Not sure where you have gotten incorrect information.