Friday 22 August 2008

Print punch

Too contrasty or about right?

There's lots of great photography on the internet but a number of very good photographers seem to be let down with poor black and white image quality. I could mention a few photographers (but i won't) who have popular blogs, where the quality of the black and white work is let down by flat tones.

It's not a problem with the photograph itself, creatively the image framing and composition is usually superb. No, it's a problem with the overall contrast of the image. Basically the image is flat. Very flat in some cases, and with hardly any contrast, the image lacks sharpness, clarity and most of all....punch!!!!

Some of you who visit the blog may think that my black and white images are too contrasty. It's all down to personal taste in the end, however, i do believe that the best way to judge how to get a great black and white print is to look at other black and white prints. Doisneau, Cartier Bresson, Capa, Salgado are just a few of the image makers who have influenced my print making. Borrow some ideas from your favourite photographer and you can't go far wrong.

1 comment:

Richard Flint Photography said...

Another good learning technique for judging print contrast and tone is.... to turn on the TV, turn the colour down and fiddle with the image contrast settings. The picture on the screen will alter and you'll see the difference that contrast adjustment makes to a picture. Works well for judging colour contrast too. :-)