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Een rondvaartboot met zo’n zeventig opvarenden is gezonken op de Godvari rivier.

Bernud Barnwell-Tasmania has added a photo to the pool:

Bernud Barnwell-Tasmania has added a photo to the pool:

The post 7 Tips for Stunning Black and White Photography (Comprehensive Guide) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

How do you achieve stunning black and white photography?

Black and white photography is one of the most intimidating genres out there, mostly because it’s associated with lots of established names, as well as the “fine art photography” label.

But here’s the thing:

Black and white photography isn’t actually difficult. In fact, it’s just like any other genre of photography: There are a few tips and tricks that, once you apply them to your shooting process, will instantly improve your black and white photos.

And that’s what this article is all about. I’m going to share with you seven tips for stunning black and white photography. And you’ll come away with the ability to take masterful black and white photos wherever you go.

Sound good?

Let’s dive right in:

1. Shoot in high-contrast light for the most impactful photos

Here is the number one thing you need to remember about black and white photography:

It’s all about the contrast.

In fact, if that’s all you take away from this article then you’ll have profited enormously, because contrast is the lifeblood of black and white photography.

Now, there are a number of ways to create contrast in your photos. And I’ll explore these different techniques below.

So let’s start at the very beginning:

With light.

If you can’t make the light work for you, your black and white photos are just going to look like a muddy mess. Instead, you need to recognize the type of light you’re working with, and you need to try to use that light to achieve as much contrast as possible.

The best light for black and white photography is (no surprise!) high-contrast light. More specifically, light on sunny days.

If you’ve explored other genres of photography, you’ll know that light on sunny days is harsh, it’s unpleasant, and it just doesn’t look good.

Unless you’re a black and white photographer.

Because bright, sunny light enhances dark tones and creates intense light tones. This looks amazing in black and white photos, and it’ll really take your black and white images to the next level.

If you want to do some shooting but end up with softer golden tones from later in the afternoon or early in the morning, you can try using heavy backlighting to create additional contrast.

2. Find contrast-heavy tones and put them together

You already know about the importance of contrast in black and white photography. And you know about the importance of using contrast-heavy light.

But even once you’ve got the best light, you still have to make sure that the tones of your photo lend themselves to the overall black and white look.

Now, the best black and white tones are very dark and very light. For instance, a great black and white might include a white sky and a dark house, or a bright character standing in front of a black building.

So when you’re out and about, look for tones that contrast. Try not to think in terms of colors, because the colors will just distract you. Instead, think about the relative brightness of tones.

And look for blacks and whites that go together.

Once you’ve found them, however, you’re going to need to follow a piece of compositional advice:

3. Simplify your black and white photos as much as possible

All photography, for the most part, benefits from a simple composition.

However, black and white images benefit from a simple composition the most. This is because black and white photography is meant to be simple. It has no complex colors. No chaotic color-contrasts.

Instead, it’s just…black and white.

So whenever you go to take your black and white shots, stop and think. Consider whether there are ways to simplify the shot.

Could you remove something distracting in the background? Could you use a wide aperture to make the background blur more? Could you change your angle so as to create a more non-distracting option!

Do anything you can to make your shot simple.

Simpler is better, all else being equal.

4. Try to capture raw emotion for compelling black and white photography

Here’s one of the great things about black and white photography:

It’s a genre that loves to capture emotion.

The smile of a person on the street. The laugh of a person crossing the road. The frown of a sad child.

These are all very photographable moments, moments that you shouldn’t miss out on. And black and white is the perfect way to record it.

In fact, I recommend you try to capture emotion with black and white photography. The somber look of a high-contrast black and white will take emotion and make it even more powerful in a photo. It might even give you a three-dimensional effect.

5. Use minimalism to make your compositions stand out

What is minimalism?

Minimalism is a compositional technique that emphasizes intense simplicity. And not the simplicity as I explained above, but a true, deep simplicity – one that’s built into the composition.

Let me explain:

Minimalism uses lots of white space to draw attention to your main subject. White space is just empty space in a photo. (It doesn’t have to be white – it can just easily be gray or black, as long as there’s nothing going on in that part of the image).

This is a minimalistic photo:

Minimalistic photography uses the weight of negative space to emphasize your subject. So you don’t have to be afraid of photos that are extremely minimalistic. And they’re pretty easy to pull off.

To create minimalist black and white photos, I recommend you find a background that’s smooth and pure, such as a white sky. Then place your main subject small in the frame, along one of the rule of thirds power points (or even just above or below the power point).

If all goes according to plan, then you should have a beautiful minimalistic photo! Don’t be afraid to play with the placement of your subject.

6. Shoot against the sky to achieve a silhouetted look

In the previous tip, I mentioned that a white sky makes for a nice minimalistic background.

And it’s true. A bright white sky can be used in a black and white photo to emphasize a darker subject, which is exactly what you want to do! When the sky’s especially bright, you might even produce a partial silhouette, where the main subject has no detail but stands out against a white background.

So here’s how it works:

Find the main subject. It can be any color, but darker tones work best.

Then get down low, so that the main subject is framed by the sky. If you’re shooting on a cloudy day, you’ll have plenty of bright light behind your subject (even if it doesn’t seem like it). If you’re shooting on a sunny day, a bright part of a blue sky should do the trick.

Experiment with different possible angles, while making sure that your main subject doesn’t overlap with anything around it or behind it.

Then experiment with different exposures. Take a few shots that are drastically underexposed, a few shots that are nicely exposed for the subject, and a few shots that are overexposed.

Eventually, you’ll find a technique you’ll like!

7. Shoot in color, then use post-processing to convert your photos

I’ve been talking all about capturing amazing black and white photos in-camera.

But a big part of the black and white photography process is the post-processing. After all, this is where you should be converting your color images to black and white shots!

When you first open your photos in an editing program, they may look bland. They might even look a little bad.

But don’t worry. Because here’s what you do:

First, you drop the saturation all the way down, until it’s completely gone. This should give you a photo that’s full of grays.

Then you lift the contrast so that contrast shines through, and makes the photo pop off the page.

I also recommend boosting the Whites and lowering the shadows. This will add further contrast to the photo. It also ensures a greater tonal range overall, which looks quite good!

Conclusion

If you’re looking to create stunning black and white photography, then you’ve come to the right place.

You hopefully now know all about black and white photography.

All that’s left…

…is to get out and start doing some shooting of your own. Amazing photos await!

The post 7 Tips for Stunning Black and White Photography (Comprehensive Guide) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Warmtepomp. Met de W van Orwell

Video

Als je in Amsterdam zonder vergunning (1) een tegel voor je gevel uit de grond trekt om er een plantje voor in de plek te zetten, heb je de BOA's al aan het blaffen. Maar hang twee warmtepompen op de eerste en tweede verdieping aan je buitengevel, en de rechter roept boven de lawaaihinder uit dat het HELEMAAL PRIMA is. Terwijl stikstofhippies het ganse land stil zetten en de woningnood dus niet geledigd kan worden, is omgevingslawaai uit de milieunormen geschrapt en aangezien het hier Amsterdam betreft, kan het hilarisch zure klaagkanaal @schipholwatch dus een binnenstedelijke spin-off beginnen: @WarmtepompWatch. De rest van Nederland zou zich eens over het manifest van de heer Wynia kunnen buigen, want de klimaathaast neemt kolderieke vormen aan en er kleeft steeds meer negatieve energie aan de gewenste transitie. Hebben we nog inspraak, of moeten we die - zoals de boeren van plan zijn - zelf komen halen?

Social

Further investigation suggests she may actually have a point

While Kenyan politicians discussed possible amendments to safety protocols on commercial flights this week, one delivered an impassioned plea.…

An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet: Kyle Milliken, a 29-year-old Arkansas man, was released last week from a federal work camp. He served 17 months for hacking into the servers of several companies and stealing their user databases. Some of the victims included Disqus, from where he stole 17.5 million user records, Kickstarter, from where he took 5.2 million records, and Imgur, with 1.7 million records. For years, Milliken and his partners operated by using the credentials stolen from other companies to break into more lucrative accounts on other services. If users had reused their passwords, Milliken would access their email inboxes, Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace accounts, and post spam promoting various products and services. From 2010 to 2014, Milliken and his colleagues operated a successful spam campaign using this simple scheme, making more than $1.4 million in profits, and living the high life. Authorities eventually caught up with the hacker. He was arrested in 2014, and collaborated with authorities for the next years, until last year, when it leaked that he was collaborating with authorities and was blackballed on the cybercrime underground.... In an interview with ZDNet last week, Milliken said he's planning to go back to school and then start a career in cyber-security... [H]e publicly apologized to the Kickstarter CEO on Twitter. "I've had a lot of time to reflect and see things from a different perspective," Milliken told ZDNet. "When you're hacking or have an objective to dump a database, you don't think about who's on the other end. There's a lot of talented people, a ton of work, and even more money that goes into creating a company... there's a bit of remorse for putting these people through cyber hell." He also has a message for internet uesrs: stop reusing your passwords. And he also suggests enabling two-factor authentication. "I honestly think that the big three email providers (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google) added this feature because of me."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Uit solidariteit met zijn zwangere vriendin heeft Menno van Dijk (34) de afgelopen maanden een bierbuik gekweekt. “In een relatie ben je er voor elkaar. Ik drink voor haar.”

”Terwijl de buik van zijn vriendin de afgelopen maanden langzaam groeide, dronk Menno gemiddeld zo’n zeventien biertjes per dag. “Het was even doordrinken, maar het leverde wel prachtige momenten op. Ik zal me bijvoorbeeld altijd het moment herinneren dat we tegelijk misselijk waren: we hingen samen boven de pot te kosten. Het voelde alsof we echt samen zwanger waren. Best ontroerend.

”Inmiddels doen ze wedstrijdjes wie de grootste buik heeft. “Mijn vriendin zit in haar zevende maand, dus ik moet behoorlijk mijn best doen om haar bij te benen. Maar ik heb het een graag voor over. Je wil haar toch zo veel mogelijk steunen.”

Toch moet Menno zijn vriendin af en toe vragen om op de bank te gaan liggen, omdat het hem niet lukt om met die grote buik een fijne slaaphouding te vinden. “Dat doe ik niet met plezier, hoor. Maar ik heb echt mijn slaap nodig voor als de baby er straks is.”

Wij hebben nog eens goed naar de geschiedenis gekeken door de bril van de huidige ethische maatstaven. Wat blijkt: er kan echt heel veel niet door beugel. We zetten een paar missers op een rij.

De oude Grieken

Geroemd voor de invoering van democratie, maar wat je niet zag: het waren het slavenhouders pur sang. En pedo’s bovendien. Het is tijd om deze periode niet meer te zien als de baken van onze beschaving, maar als het begin van de rot.

De Tweede Wereldoorlog

Ongelofelijk dat deze episode nog steeds zo wordt opgehemeld. Als je objectief kijkt, kun je de Tweede Wereldoorlog op geen enkele manier als iets positiefs zien. En dan bedoelen we de gehele periode.

De middeleeuwen

Roodharige meisjes verbranden, je nooit wassen terwijl je onder de luizen zit en hoofse liefde; waar waren deze mensen in godsnaam mee bezig? Scheiding tussen kerk en staat bestond niet. Natuurlijk, er waren ridders, maar voor de rest was het duizend jaar lang doffe, duistere ellende.

De Gebroeders Ko

Hartstikke leuk zo’n waterscooter, toen er nog poolkappen waren. Maar deze laffe duivel-sympathisanten met hun neon zonnebrillen kunnen anno de huidige stikstofnormen écht niet meer. Toet toet, weg ermee!

Atilla de Hun

Stikken in je eigen bloed na een halsslagaderbreuk door een drankorgie: dat klinkt misschien als een episch einde. En voor de annalen is het inderdaad leuk, maar Atilla heeft hiermee de andere deelnemers aan zijn orgie wel een lelijk trauma bezorgd. Niet cool.