Beech Tree News Network

Within the history of photography, grayscale has been the only option for the majority of the time. Even after the advent of color film, grayscale tended to yield a sharper and better contrasted image and was also much more affordable to develop than color was.

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 In modern times, grayscale is more of an artistic decision to be made. All modern digital cameras shoot with millions of colors and advanced full-frame sensors, so you can essentially do anything you envision to your photographs. Now for the real question, when should I consider grayscale?

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 To approach the answer you must consider the purpose of your photograph. What is the context of the environment? Is it intended to be emotional? How prominent is the form of the subject? Generally grayscale tones are used when the photographer wants to place emphasis on lighting, contrast, and form. This is precisely why I tend to use grayscale in some of my low light portrait sessions. In most of my low light sessions, I use strong light to show the depth and form of a subjects face.

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 Grayscale raises more awareness to the humanity and story of the photograph, some industry professionals have even gone as far as to say that vivid colors can take away from a depthy photograph; and I'm inclined to agree. While colors are fantastic in photographs, sometimes grayscale is more appropriate. In more recent times, a hybrid of color and grayscale has been adopted, called spot coloring.

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 You will notice that spot coloring has gained immense popularity recently. In this technique the photographer uses post-imaging software such as adobe Photoshop to extract color in certain areas of a grayscale image. This is generally used to accent color features on a subject (such as eyes, lips, or prominent clothing articles). This can be done in 2 predominant ways; the first, and easiest way is to place one full color image on top of the other and convert the top one to grayscale. Use an eraser or lasso tool to select the areas you want colored. Simply delete and smooth the edges. Adjust saturation levels as needed. The other way is typically used for restoring antique photos; where the grayscale image is placed by itself and a series of semi-transparent color layers are added to give the effect of the image being colored.

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 So to recap this segment, grayscale is most commonly used to accent lighting, emotion, and subject form. Grayscale isn't always appropriate. You can judge rather or not an image will look well as grayscale by considering how well contrasted the image is, as well as how prominent the form is. Spot coloring is a hybrid between color and grayscale, and is generally used to bring color accents to a grayscale image. Above all, remember that grayscale can be an incredible and rewarding photographic style; and remember to experiment with throwing your own twist on things. As an artist, it is your responsibility to bring about new methods and photo styles.

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