It doesn’t really take much for perfect black & white photos. And that’s probably what makes monochromatic images difficult. A tip: Whether you take your photos while sightseeing, during a discovery tour on vacation or simply during a leisurely Sunday walk – always take your photos in color, even if you visualized it as a black & white masterpiece.

This, of course, has the advantage that during post-processing, you have all of the information in the image available to such as each individual color channel. Unless you shoot in the RAW-format. Then you can usually shoot in black & white and still be able to control the outcome of the photo. On your computer you can resort back to the entire color spectrum of the RAW file.

In BLACK & WHITE projects 3, besides 87 presets and 74 expert filters, you also have the possibility to convert to a grey-scale image via color filters. Areas of your photo with the same color tone as the filter will be shown in a light gray tone, others in a darker gray. For example, this allows you to create a balanced, gentle sky via the blue filter, whereas the red filter would create a darker, more dramatic sky. Just like in the good old analogue days!

Black & white is more than just removing color. In monochrome images, the focus is drawn to light & shadow, to contrasts, lines, shapes and textures. The composition as a whole becomes much more visible. The viewer is no longer be distracted by colors, but can focus on the essence of the scenery, objects and people in a photo.

Of course "back to the basics" offers room for your own interpretations. What do you want to express with a photo? Which message is behind it? You are free to choose.