Know the ins and outs of your camera.
“A good place to start is by understanding the technical components of your tools,” explains photographer and professor Adam Long. When you know the ins and outs of your camera and your editing tools, it gets easier to create the photos you want to make.
For beginners, understanding the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and depth of field will help you to make superior images. See how focusing on light, dynamic range and composition can get you started and help hone your skills. If you’re using a digital camera, look for a setting that allows you to see monochrome via the camera screen. Images change when they’re in black and white and shooting this way can help you to compose your image more effectively without getting distracted by colour.
Train your eye.
We’re used to seeing the world in full colour and it can be difficult to understand how those colours translate into shades of grey. “It’s hard to get your brain to know that a really bright red is going to come out pretty much the same as that deep blue in your final image,” explains Long. Help your eye to compose photos in black and white by creating lots of colour-free photos. Experiment with shooting bright colours in black and white, too, so you can see how objects change in monochrome.
Different subjects train your eye in new ways. Black-and-white portrait photography is another great way to practise and build skills. “I highly encourage beginners to photograph either strangers or people that they don’t know,” Long says. When you photograph someone you don’t know, you don’t have any preconceived notions about them or how the photograph should look. Consider trying some black-and-white street photography and you might just capture something interesting or unexpected.