The Fringe In Focus

Watch where the light falls, where it makes highlights, where it leaves shadows. You almost have to ‘see’ in B&W before you take the photo!

There are different ways of capturing B&W, most DSLRs and even Digi-cams have a black and white or sepia capture option. Or you can use various computer programs to change your color photos in to B&W. Picasa, Photoshop, Corel PSP, and iPhoto are some of the available programs.Special Effects for B&W include increasing the noise or grain (gives a nice newspaper-y feel!), Sepia or other color tinting, which can also be done in computer programs.

A really fun B&W project is to open a color photo in Corel or Photoshop, copy and paste it as a ‘New Layer’ on itself, and change the new layer into B&W. Select the Background Eraserand ‘erase’ any areas in which you would like the color to show through. Watch out though…you might get addicted to color tinting! :)

I would suggest you continue to take photos in color and change them later, in case you decide you want the color version or memory :)
Then again, if you just want to hone your sensitivity to light and shadowby all means, shoot in B&W…and have tons of fun!!!