Zero Saturation: The Black & White Conspiracy

There is a cover up so big that it rivals Watergate, Enron, and the Iran-Contra Affair put together. It has caused an uprising of photography circles across the nation, and has even sent a small clan of rouge photographers on a rampage to destroy evidence at any cost. I speak of the “Black & White Conspiracy,” which has proven that black & white photography is a myth and does not exist as we perceive it!

I smell the makings of a blockbuster film set to hit theaters this summer grossing millions of dollars and . . . . OK, maybe not, but hey, everyone has a dream!

But I digress.

My introduction might have been a “tad” dramatic, however, the truth remains that in reality, or our perception of reality, Black & white “photography” does not exist. What does exist is the absence of color, which when manipulated correctly and then removed, can create a stunning black & white photograph, or a stunning absence of color photograph. I think I will stick with black and white. To produce a stunning black & white photograph, you must first produce a stunning color photograph that will compliment it. I am going to go over my workflow for producing a quality black & white photograph, however, please keep an open mind, as this is MY workflow and may not be yours. This is merely a springboard for you to devise your own workflow, and if you feel so inclined, share with others.

Let me begin by stating that it does NOT make a difference what flavor of software you use to process your photos; Remember, Ansel Adams had no software, and produced beautiful photos. I use Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop in conjunction with each other to process my photos, however, this is by no means the be all, end all workflow. It took many years of experimenting with various programs until I finally decided on this combination.

I begin by bringing my photos directly into lightroom as DNG files, or digital negatives. DNG is an archival format, so in the event that TIF or JPG formats go away 20 years from now, I will still have access to the raw data. Explaining this format would encompass an entire article, so I highly suggest checking out Adobe’s informative article on the DNG format at the Adobe Products Page.

From this point, I begin to work my way down adjusting temperature and curves to contrast and tonal adjustments. I find the best black and white photos are the result of good tone, contrast, and exposure settings. Again, this is something you will need to experiment with; Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as THE “formula.” Sometimes, if you are lucky, the photograph needs little or no processing at all, which is always a good thing.

There have been hundreds of books and videos released that claim to have the magic potion for the perfect black and white photograph, however, I don’t want a perfect photograph; I want a one of a kind Bryan J Zimmerman photograph. Now before I get flamed from authors and instructors, there are some excellent books and video on “technique” and “tips,” but as far as THE black and white photography resource is concerned, it doesn’t exist. If you really want to learn black and white photography, stare at a photograph from Ansel Adams, Dmitri Baltermants, Henri Cartier-Bresson, or Don McCullin for a few hours, and I guarantee you will learn more than any book or video can teach.

Once I am happy with the overall photograph in Lightroom, I continue editing in Photoshop where the real magic happens. The nice thing about using Lightroom and Photoshop together is how they work together seamlessly and non destructively. In Photoshop, I take my image to the next level using channels, and doing any burning or dodging. It is best to make sure that all of the goodies are out of the way before preparing for the transformation to black and white.

The final step for me is to create a color adjustment layer, and begin de-saturating, or removing color from the photograph. Once I have it just the way I want it, I choose “Save” (not “Save As”), and it saves the new black and white photograph that I manipulated in Photoshop right next to the original image in Lightroom. The Lightroom image is still in the original DNG format and has not been damaged in any way, so if I wanted to, I could start over and produce another black and white without ever changing the properties to the original. The great thing about this feature is you can make as many manipulations as you want, compare them and choose the best out of the bunch, all the while retaining the original image along with its RAW Metadata.

There is a ton of software on the market that will convert your color image to black and white with the push of a button and a few minor adjustments, but as I mentioned earlier, you are using settings that a developer “thinks” are the best for your project, which translates into giving up a piece of your creativity for the luxury of speed and ease. Some photographers do not have a problem with that, however, speaking for myself, I want complete control over my photograph right down to the last pixel.

Below is an example of a recent photo I took and converted into a black and white (removed the color), and as you can see the original is crisp and vibrant which resulted in a very fine black and white. Had I not made adjustments to the color photo first, the black and white would not have the look I was going for. As a side note, I did my dodging and burning after the conversion as the building to the right of the mausoleum was very bright as you can see in the color photo.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for the quick and easy software. You may have to present a photograph, or many photograph’s in multiple formats to a client on a strict timeline. For this type of situation, software solutions like the ones mentioned above are awesome. Perhaps after you have made the transition to black and white, you may want to add some additional effects. In these cases, third party software is a viable solution.

Now get out there and shot some awesome color photography so you can come back to your studio and get rid of it!