The Magic of Black & White

andrew S. gibSon

Part II - Craft 1

The Magic of Black & White Part II - Craft andrew S. gibson craft&Vision Pixelated image communications inc. 29115 rPo South granville Post Vancouver, bc V6J 0a6 canada info@craftandvision.com craftandVision.com copyright 2010 by andrew S. gibson editor & Publisher, david duchemin Production editor & Manager, corwin hiebert copy editor, Susannah rohloff design & Layout, Justin Keitch Notice of Rights all rights reserved. no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Laguna Hedionda in Bolivia. f16 @ 1/160, ISO 100, 55mm

The crafT of blaCk and whIte

back when the only way to make your own black and white prints was to print them in a darkroom, i dont think there was anybody who didnt come to understand that black and white printing is both a craft and an art form. There was a lot to learn. first you had to correctly expose and develop the black and white film (not always a straightforward task). Then you needed a good enlarger and enlarging lens, trays, developing chemicals, a safelight, and a darkroom to put it all in. My firstand onlydarkroom was built in my parents attic. i had to buy chipboard panels, which i screwed to the beams to make a floor, and insulating boards, which i nailed to the overhead beams and painted black. i bought a cheap kitchen unit to put my enlarger on, and a length of kitchen worktop for trays. it took weeks to build. Then i had to
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learn to print. That took years, and i never fully got the hang of it until i met someone who saw some potential in my work and showed me how to create a good quality black and white print. In terms of time (and the money spent on film, paper, chemicals, and building a darkroom), learning to print black and white was a lengthy and expensive process. So why did i do it? because i loved the whole creative process of making prints and learning about different papers and toners. i liked being able to take a photo and turn it into something real that i could hold in my hand. it was fun and rewarding, and it was inconceivable that there might be a different way to do it in the near future. Then along came digital photography, and photographers began buying computers, scanners, and digital cameras. The world changed in a few years and suddenly there was a whole new skill seta new craftto learn.
Chascomus, Argentina f3.5 @ 1/320, ISO 400, 150mm 5

advantages of dIgItal
black and white photographers have never had it so good. now, instead of printing in a darkroom, i can sit in front of my computer with a cup of tea, listening to my favourite music while i edit my photos. its much better. The biggest advantage (for me) of digital photography is the near-instant feedback. Processes that took a long time in the darkroom take just a few seconds in Photoshop. if im wondering how a photo will look with more contrast, i just go to the curves tool. if i think the background needs burning in, i can make a selection and adjust the levels in less than a minute. as for toning, i can do it in a few minutes, switching between colours to see which i like best. You never got this in the darkroom. each stage involved making a test print, developing and fixing it, then analysing it to see if youd achieved what you wanted. if you decided to change the contrast or exposure, or dodge or burn, you had to go back to the enlarger and make another print. Once you were satisfied, the print needed washing (which could take
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f1.8 @ 1/1000, ISO 400, 50mm

over an hour if you used fibre based paper). if you decided to tone the print, you then had to mix up new chemicals and tone the print and wash it all over again. it took a long time. and you could only make one print at a time. if you wanted copies, you had to do the same thing all over again. when you factor in the time it takes to build a darkroom (it took me four years to go from deciding to try black and white to finally building a darkroom), its clear that digital is much quicker. Today, you can also go online and find technique articles and inspirational photos in a few minutes. it means the whole learning process is much quicker. its also much cheaper. You can now buy an entry-level computer and a copy of Photoshop elements for less than i spent on my first enlarger. is it any wonder that there are so many talented, young photographers out there? a year and a half ago i interviewed a photographer for my website who had started to make a name for herself at the young age of 15. The invention of digital photography, and the internet, has created these opportunities.

if you still use a chemical darkroom, should you switch to digital? You should cer tainly think about it, for all the reasons above. but there will always be people who prefer the chemical darkroom.

Theres nothing wrong with that at all. Photography for most people is a hobby and its up to us to enjoy it our own way. if making your own prints is your passion, dont stop for anything.
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My PhIlosoPhy
My attitude towards black and white photography in the digital darkroom is formed by my experiences in the chemical darkroom. im not bothered by how long it takes to work on a photo. i enjoy the process and, however long it takes, its still much quicker (and a far more pleasant experience) than using a traditional darkroom. Most of the processes i apply in Photoshop, such as adjusting contrast, brightness, burning in, and toning, are what i used to do in the darkroom. but with digital, i can do it with far more precision, and with the lights on. even adding texture to a photo can be done in a traditional darkroom, its just much easier to do on a computer. ive never been attracted to high dynamic range (HDR) or other techniques that are unique to digital. for me, theres a point when post-processing stops being about enhancing creative vision and becomes about what can be achieved in Photoshopand thats not the point of the process. i work on my photos individually in Photoshop. i dont use programs like Lightroom or aperture to batch process. i prefer to select my best photos for conversion to black and white and to work on them individually, giving them the care and attention required to bring out the best in them. i back this up by trying to minimise the number of photos i take in the field. If I look through the viewfinder and dont like what i see i dont take the photo. id prefer to return when the light is better or look for a better subject, rather than take photos that dont excite me.

Venice, Italy f8 @ 1/160, ISO 200, 50mm 9

CreatIve vIsIon
Photoshop is not a substitute for creative vision. Post-processing should only enhance and bring out the best in your photos; it should never replace vision. Theres some great stuff you can do with Photoshop but you should never use it to try and make up for the things you didnt do when you took the photo in the first place. where does creative vision come from? it starts by photographing something that youre passionate about in the most beautiful light possible; composing the photo in the most exciting way possible. Thats the simple version. Theres more to it than that, which is why weve already written several ebooks about creative vision in craft & Vision, and why so many books have been written about it over the years. but it all starts with photographing something that youre passionate about. My ebook, The Magic of black & white: Part i Vision, addresses creative vision in more detail. Readers of my first eBook may wonder why i put vision before craft. both are important, but craft without vision is just an exercise in pushing buttons, in following the steps presented in Photoshop tutorials without stopping to consider how to adapt the techniques to express your own vision in a unique way. craft without vision is empty and passionless. Just about anybody can learn how to craft a black and white photo in Photoshop. Whats difficult is making it beautiful and interesting. Thats where vision comes in.

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San Antonio de Areco, Argentina f2.8 @ 1/320, ISO 400, 150mm

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Avebury, Wiltshire, England f8 @ 1/100, ISO 200, 17mm

assuMPtIons
ive made several assumptions before writing this eBook. The first is that you already know how to get a good exposure and process a RAW file to create a high quality, 16-bit TIFF file. If you dont, there are plenty of books and websites to help you with this. i always start with a colour image and convert it to black and white using the black and white Layer adjustment tool in Photoshop cS. if you dont use Photoshop, or you have Photoshop cS 2 or earlier (which doesnt have this tool), there are other black and white conversion techniques you can use. There isnt space to describe them here; they are a topic for a future ebook. in this ebook, i present three examples of the way i work. i go through them step by step and explain each step as i go along. if you dont use Photoshop, the general principles are the same, and you will be able to apply them in just about any photo editing program. i explain everything in great detail, but i dont expect you to follow the exact same steps. every photo is different, and you need to decide for yourself what treatments you want to apply to yours. My aim is to give you an insight into the thought processes behind my work. if some of these techniques seem a little unusual, its because ive developed them myself, rather than learn them from books and photo magazines. There is always more than one way, and usually several ways, of doing something in Photoshop. My methods work for me; feel free to do things differently if you feel more comfortable with other techniques. what matters is the end result, not the method you used to achieve it.

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InterPretIng the IMage

The RAW file, like the negative, should be considered the starting point for your black and white conversion. There are many ways to convert the colour file to black and white. Your choice of method depends on your creative vision and the look you are trying to achieve.

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One colour photo (above right) and five interpretations: black and white conversion (1), blue tone (2), sepia tone (3), split blue/cream tone (4), imitation lith print effect (5), with added texture overlay (6).
14 f1.8 @ 1/250, ISO 200, 50mm 15

Cementerio de Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina f8 @ 1/160, ISO 400, 55mm

ConversIons

Black & whiTe

With film, the black and white conversion essentially happened at the time you took the photo. You could only change the nature of the conversion by placing a coloured filter on the lens (a red filter, for instance, makes blue skies darker). now, by starting with a colour photo and converting it to black and white in Photoshop, you have complete control over the conversion process. darkening a blue sky is easy, once you know how, and you can decide exactly how dark you want it to be. Most digital SLrs have a black and white mode. The camera is making the conversion for you, and the results are usually poor. avoid this mode, and use the techniques in this ebook instead. Photoshop and Photoshop elements offer both destructive and non-destructive black and white conversion techniques. destructive methods are ones that cant be re-adjusted afterwards. once youve made the conversion, the only way to change it is to undo the conversion and start again. non-destructive methods use adjustment layers. The changes that you make to your photo are stored in the layers, and the original photo remains unchanged underneath. When youre done, you flatten the image and the changes become permanent. You can edit the conversion at any time before flattening the image by clicking on the adjustment layer icons.

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PhotoshoP Cs 3, 4 & 5: blaCk and whIte adjustMent layer Method

Available in Photoshop CS 3 onwards, the black and white adjustment layer is a powerful and flexible tool. You can darken or lighten tones using a set of coloured sliders or the Targeted adjustment tool. This lets you stroke tones in your photo to make them lighter or darker. The instructions are for Photoshop CS 4. Other versions of Photoshop may be slightly different. 1. go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black and White and click OK. or, click on the Create a New Black and White Adjustment Layer icon (not available in Photoshop CS 3). 2. The Black and White Adjustments window appears. Move the six colour sliders right or left to brighten or darken the respective tones in the photo. You can also choose from the presets in the drop-down menu at the top. or, click the Click and Drag icon. Move the cursor over the photo; an eyedropper appears. hold down the left mouse button. The cursor
18 f8 @ 1/400, ISO 200, 83mm Tarabuco, Bolivia

Above right: Original colour photo. Above: The default conversion. Above left: My conversion. I used the sliders to darken the girls clothes and lighten their faces.

changes, indicating that the Targeted adjustment tool is activated. with the mouse button held down, move the mouse to the right to lighten the tones under the cursor, or to the left to darken them. (In Photoshop CS 4 there is a Tint option, which you can use to tone the photo. it gives good results, but i prefer the method outlined on pages 24 and 25.)

Above: The Create a New Black and White Adjustment Layer icon in Photoshop CS 4. Right: The default black and white adjustment layer settings: Far right: The settings I used for the conversion. 19

PhotoshoP eleMents 6: Convert to blaCk and whIte tool

This method is a more basic version of Photoshops black and white adjustment layer. The conversion can be applied to either the entire image or to a layer. To apply it to a layer, and use it as part of a non-destructive editing process, first right-click (or Ctrl-click on a Mac) on the background layer and select Duplicate Layer to create a second layer. Photoshop elements: 1. Enhance > Convert to Black and White 2. Start by selecting one of the presets in the left hand menu. Then use the sliders to fine tune the conversion by lightening or darking tones in the photo. click OK when youre done.

Above: The Convert to Black and White window in Photoshop Elements 6. 20 21

tonIng

Black & whiTe

nostalgic, and are very flattering for portraits of people as well as other subjects like landscapes and nude studies. blue tones give a cold, desolate feel to the photo and are ideal for subjects such as winter landscapes to convey the coldness or remoteness of the environment. The best toned photos arent strong or garish. Sometimes the best treatment is a subtle one. in the darkroom, toning is a timeconsuming and sometimes frustrating process. There are many factors that influence the results, including the paper and chemicals used by the photographer. digital toning, by contrast, is very quick and easy. best of all, the photographer has complete control over the use of tones and colours.

newcomers to black and white photography may miss one thing: colour. The good news is that its easy to add colour to black and white images. Photographers have been doing it for decades, both in the darkroom and digitally, and the process is called toning. The basic toning processes add a single colour. common examples are sepia (which can be anything from yellow to deep brown) and blue. More complex toning processes add two colours, for example blue and copper or sepia and gold. one colour is added to the shadows and the other to the highlights. This is called split toning. it takes more time but the end result is classier and more professional than a single-colour tone. Toning adds emotional value. Sepia tones are warm and somewhat

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f1.8 @ 1/250, ISO 100, 50mm 23

sPlIt tonIng usIng gradIent MaP

i like the gradient Map split toning technique because it lets me use lots of colour combinations. i can create a very subtle split sepia tone by toning the dark tones of my photos a deep chocolate brown and the highlights a light cream. or i can combine dark blue tones with light orange highlights. The possibilities are endless. The gradient Map is available in both Photoshop cS and Photoshop elements.
Above: The foreground and background colours are depicted at the bottom of the toolbox. Right: Change the blending mode and Opacity here.

Laura, Hunstanton, England f13 @ 1/250, ISO 100, 17mm

Above: Chocolate brown and cream (foreground red 100, green 70, blue 30; background red 255, green 245, blue 215)

1
1. Start by setting the colours. click the Set Foreground Color swatch at the bottom of the toolbox. 2. in the color Picker, set the colours to Red 100, Green 70, Blue 30 and click OK. 3. Click the Set Background Color swatch. in the color Picker, set the colours to red 255, green 245, Blue 215 and click OK. 4. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map and click OK.
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5. Youll see a smoothly blended gradient of the two colours youve selected in the gradient Map dialogue box. click OK. 6. The photo looks washed out. To correct this, change the blending mode to Color. 7. Set the opacity slider to around 50% for a more subtle tone. You can also experiment with the overlay, Soft Light, and hard Light blending modes for different effects. all of these will increase the images contrast. The color blending mode retains the contrast of the original photo.

(1) Sepia with neutral highlights (foreground red 70, green 60, blue 45; background red 255, green 255, blue 255)

(2) Cream and blue (foreground red 75, green 95, blue 110; background red 230, green 210, blue 170)

(3) Blue tone (foreground red 40, green 70, blue 105; background red 170, green 200, blue 200) 25

example 1
(PhotoshoP Cs)
a good black and white conversion starts off with a good colour photo. get the composition and tones right and the conversion will be easy. This photo is a good example. The composition is very simple: a light area in the middle (the building) surrounded by darker areas (the deep blue sky and the shadows creeping in at the bottom). This photo works because of what i did at the time that i shot it. it was taken in the evening, as the sun was setting. The light was warmer and softer than it would have been if id taken the photo at midday. The

a sIMPle ConversIon
ConvertIng to blaCk & whIte and sPlIt tonIng
shadows would not have been present at midday either. I also used a polariser filter to darken the sky and increase contrast. The result is a photo that works well in colour, and one that i knew would look good in black and white because of the tonal contrast and the architecture. i took the photo in raw and converted it to a 16-bit TIFF file using Adobe Camera RAW (ACR). This is the type of photo where you will really notice the difference between editing in 8-bit and 16-bit: in 8-bit mode the blue sky will break up much more.
Venice, Italy f7.1 @ 1/125, ISO 100, 17mm 26 27

Top: My conversion Right: Default conversion Bottom: I created this conversion by adjusting the reds, greens and blues sliders.

Left: The foreground and background colours I used for the conversion. Above: I set the blending mode to color and the opacity to 80 per cent.

1. first, the black and white conversion using the black and white adjustment layer in Photoshop cS. i wanted to darken the sky and the front of the building caught by the sun, which i felt was a little too bright. i moved the blues slider to the left to darken the sky, and the reds slider left to darken the building. Moving the greens slider left also darkened a couple of the colours in the mural. The others i left as they were.

2. Next, I decided on a blue/cream split tone. This is a good combination for architecture. i achieved this by setting the foreground colour to a dusky blue (Red 75, Green 95, Blue 110) and the background colour to cream (Red 230, Green 210, Blue 170); then creating a gradient Map layer and changing the blending mode to color. The effect was a little strong so i dropped the opacity of the layer to 80%.

The color blending mode retains all the tones in the photo. You could also use the overlay, Soft Light, or hard Light blending modes. They can all be effective, but they do increase contrast, so you may lose highlight detail. The most effective depends on your subject and the effect youre trying to achieve. dont be afraid to experiment.

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3. The photo was looking good already, but i wanted to do more. The next thing was to darken the edges. darkening the edges of a print is a technique used by darkroom printers to guide the eye towards the centre of the photo by burning in the edges of the print. This is very easy to do in Photoshop. in this case i wanted to darken the edges of the photo, excluding the top left-hand corner as the sky was dark enough there already. i used the elliptical Marquee tool to draw a series of ellipses around the outside of the frame, making sure Add to Selection was selected in the options frame so that each new selection would be added to the whole (this entire step was carried out on the background layer).
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Then i went to Select > Refine Edge and set feather to around 200 pixels to smooth the edge of the selection. This ensured a smooth transition at the edges of the selection. darken the selected area with the Levels adjustment layer. go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > levels, click OK and move the slider underneath the histogram to the right to darken. i prefer the selection method for selective lightening and darkening to using Photoshops dodge and burn tools. The advantage is that it allows me to select a very precise area and gives a much smoother effect. its also non-destructive: i can undo it or adjust it at any time.
4. Finally, I added a curves adjustment layer as i felt the photo was a little flat. a slight adjustment lifted the image.
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example 2
PortraIts
ConvertIng to blaCk & whIte and sPlIt tonIng (PhotoshoP Cs)
i love black and white portraits. if the original photo is mysterious or moody, these aspects are enhanced by converting the photo to black and white. This portrait is kind of a rule-breaker (oron the basis that there are no rules, only guidelinesa guidelinebreaker). The girl isnt making eye contact with the camera. but i still like it. Theres a lot of texture and a blurred background, all stuff that looks good in black and white. The depth of field is very narrow as i shot with the lens aperture wide open at f1.8. The background is nicely out of focus and it makes the photo look a little cinematic. This achieves the effect of a narrative rather than a still photo. My favourite tone for portraits is a split sepia/cream tone. It creates beautifully rich, moody colours. it works well in photos that have dark backgrounds as it turns them a deep brown. Take the colour away from a portrait and you are left with texture, tone, shape, and form. it becomes timeless and evocative.

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Cindy, Rousham, Oxfordshire f1.8 @ 1/250, ISO 400, 50mm

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Above: The foreground and background colours I used for the conversion. Left: I set the blending mode to Soft Light.

Above: My adjustment (left) wasnt very different from the default settings (right).

1. converting portraits to black and white can be a little tricky, because you have to pay attention to how the conversion affects the skin tones. i used the black and white adjustment layer in Photoshop cS to convert this portrait to black and white. but i found that using the reds and Yellows sliders changed the skin tones too much, so i left them at their default settings.
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You can try this for yourself with portraits. Play around with the sliders and see which ones affect the skin tones. i moved the blues slider left, which darkened the scarf, and the same with the Magentas slider to darken the lips. in this case, because i didnt use the reds or Yellows sliders; my conversion is really only a tweak of the default settings.

2. The second step for me is always toning. This is different from darkroom printing, where toning is the last step in the process. i prefer to tone at this stage in Photoshop because it makes it easy to see the effects that the subsequent steps have on the toned image. if i tone last, i may realize that ive made part of the image too dark or too light, and id have to go back and repeat some steps.

i used a gradient Map adjustment layer to tone the photo, selecting a chocolate brown shade for the foreground (Red 100, Green 70, Blue 30) and light cream for the background (Red 255, Green 245, blue 215). i set the layer blending mode to Soft Light, not color, because it boosted the contrast and i liked the effect.

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3. Next, I wanted to darken the background. i used the same technique as in the previous example, selecting the parts of the background layer that i wanted to darken and then going to Select > Refine Edge to feather the selection by around 200 pixels. i darkened the selection with a Levels adjustment layer. This time i repeated the process in the bottom right-hand corner because it wasnt dark enough.
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4. Finally, I felt that the image was a little dark and that something needed lifting, so i decided to lighten the hair. i made another selection on the background layer, feathered the selection by around 120 pixels (less feathering this time because the selection covered less area) and used a Levels adjustment layer to lighten the selection.

great photograph a
fully expresses what one feels,
in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.
- Ansel Adams

is one that

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example 3
addIng texture
addIng texture to a PortraIt(PhotoshoP Cs)
adding textures to photos is a common technique. i have to admit im slightly ambivalent about it. on one hand i see lots of beautiful photos created with this technique; on the other it seems overused. My approach is to use it sparingly, on photos that could really benefit from it. The key is to use textures to enhance photos that are already good, not to hide the shortcomings of a badly taken photo. Portraits often benefit from added textures and there are a lot of good young photographers using textures with excellent results (Lara Jade at www.flickr.com/photos/ larajade/ is one that comes to mind). The technique works best when you erase the texture from the persons face, so that it can be seen clearly.
Laura, Kings Lynn, England f10 @ 1/125, ISO 100, 50mm

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3. Then I added the texture layer. There are two ways to get a texture: the first is to make it yourself and the second is to get it from someone who has already made one and made it publicly available. i like the textures of flickr user Skeletal Mess (www.flickr.com/ photos/skeletalmess). They are free for anyone to download and use from his flickr stream. The nice thing for me is that there is no restriction on usage. if youre using someone elses textures in photos that you plan to use commercially (like in this eBook) you need to make sure the terms of the license under which you are

downloading the texture allow this. if in doubt, email the creator of the texture for clarification. first, i needed to resize the texture so that it matched the dimensions of the photo. This was easily done by going to Image > Image Size, clearing the Constrain Proportions checkbox and changing the size, in pixels, to match the photo (3888x2592 pixels). Then i copied the texture and inserted it as a new layer above the background, but underneath the black and white conversion and gradient Map layers.

1. The first step was the black and white conversion. i wanted to darken the background, so that the girls face and the white daisies would show up against the grass. The contrast between the light and dark tones is essential to the photo. i did this by creating a black and white adjustment layer and using the greens slider to dramatically darken the grass. The girls skin was a little too light, so i darkened it slightly with the Yellows slider to bring in the skins texture. 2. The next step was toning the photo. i set the foreground and background colours to dark chocolate brown and light cream respectively, and used the gradient Map split toning method. The colour was a bit strong, so i reduced the opacity of the gradient Map layer to 55%. i often use sepia split toning for portraits because its warm and flattering.
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4. When you copy and paste like this, the layer blending mode is automatically set to normal and the texture obscures the background. The next step is to change the layer blending mode so that the texture layer blends in with the background. The best results normally come from one of these four layer blending modes: overlay, Soft Light, hard Light, or Vivid Light. The best one depends on the combination of photo and texture you are using, and the creative effect you are trying to
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achieve. experiment with different textures and different layer blending modes to see what works best for you. You can also reduce the opacity of the texture layer if the effect is too strong. The texture ive used in this photo is one of my favourites. i like the dark ragged edges; they create an artistic border in a non-obvious way. The texture is also lighter in the centre than at the edges. This naturally darkens the edges of the photo, guiding the eye towards the centre.

5. next, i wanted to erase the part of the texture layer that covers the girls face. i did this with the eraser tool, selecting a large size and setting the hardness to 0% for soft edges. This is a destructive technique, meaning the only way you can change it once its done is with the Undo command, so its important to get it right before moving on to the next step.
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6. i felt the background was still too light. i pressed the Shift+alt+cmd+e keys together to merge all the layers into a top layer that i could work on. (This was on a Mac. Use Shift+ctrl+alt+e on a Pc.) Then i made a selection using the elliptical Marquee tool. when i do this, i select the Add to Selection box in the options bar so that i have one big selection made up of many
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individual selections. This way i can build the selection so that it fills the space i want it to. after making the selection, i went to Select > Refine Edge... and set feather to 250 pixels to soften the edges (experiment with this setting, 250 pixels may be too much in some situations). Then i created a Levels adjustment layer and moved the slider to the right to darken the selection.

7. i felt the foreground was still too light, so i repeated the step by making another selection and another Levels adjustment layer.
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8. There was a shadow underneath the girls eye that i didnt like, so i used the healing brush tool to smooth out the skin. i set the hardness of the brush to 0% for a soft edge.

for good photographs, there are only good

are no rules there

- Ansel Adams

photographs.

9. finally, i created a curves adjustment layer to lift the overall contrast of the photo.
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ConClusIon
the negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance. - Ansel Adams
This quote is by ansel adams, americas best-known landscape photographer. a master of black and white printing, he created some of the most iconic images of the american landscape in the 20th century. Today most photographers dont produce negatives, and prints are more likely to emerge from an inkjet printer than a darkroom. but the principle still holds true. The negative, or RAW file, is a starting point. it contains all the visual information that the master printer, or Photoshop user, requires. its then up to us to take that and create something beautiful. black and white photography is an art form, but its also a craft. The two go together. artistic vision and craft skills
50 Jodie, Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire f4 @ 1/100, ISO 200, 50mm

develop hand in hand. one may leap ahead of the other for a while, but most photographers will find that as their creative vision develops, they have to work on their craft skills to keep pace, and vice versa. not everybody tones their black and white photos but i encourage it. colour is powerful and emotive, and toned black and white photos let you enjoy both the beauty of black and white and the power of colour. happy shooting. andrew S gibson oxfordshire, england, 2010 andrewSgibson.com

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