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Notion of colorimetry

Black and white in digital photography

Black and white photography is an art in its own right. She brings a dose of mystery, timelessness, and magic to the images. Certain textures are often magnified by black and white.

If we want to make a good black and white photograph, we preferably need strong contrasts as well as many different shades of gray. In black and white, as there is by definition no color, you can only play with light tones and dark tones.

The transition from a black and white photograph is mainly based on two techniques:

• retouching the contrast and brightness of certain areas of the image.
• retouching the brightness of certain colors in the image.

The retouching of the luminosity of certain colors of the image (technique n° 2) is specific to the conversion of an image in black and white. In some software, you can apply color filters whose effect is similar to the color filters used for film photography.
The filters have the particularity of stopping part of the wavelengths corresponding to their complementary colors. They allow the wavelengths corresponding to their own colors to pass. Thus these filters attenuate their own color while reinforcing their complementary color.

Converting a Digital Photo to Black and White : :

Traditional Camargue hut

Filters in Capture One Pro

In Capture One Pro, the black and white conversion tool, is based on this principle of color filtering:
The first 4 filters correspond to those used in film photography, sometimes with different gradations, the last 3 filters allow you to refine the filtering

• Red filter: primary, brightens reds and strongly darkens blues and greens, strongly reinforces clouds and dramatizes a blue sky.
  (red 100%, green 0%, blue 0%)
• Yellow Filter: Secondary, brightens yellows and darkens blues and purples. Ideal filter for landscape.
  (red 50%, green 50%, blue 0%)
• Green filter: primary, brightens greens and darkens reds, perfect for photos of vegetation.
  (red 0%, green 100%, blue 0%)
• Orange filter: tertiary, brightens reds yellows and oranges, darkens blues and purples.
• Cyan filter: secondary, to let through Cyan but also Green and Blue. He stops his complementary color, Red.
  (red 0%, green 50%, blue 50%)
• Blue filter: primary, to improve shots from afar by accentuating the haze. It stops red and green.
  (red 0%, green 0%, blue 100%)
• Magenta filter: secondary, it stops its complementary color, green.
  (red 50%, green 0%, blue 50%)

Primary, secondary and tertiary colors:

• Primaries are: Red, Green and Blue.
• Complementary colors: magenta, cyan, yellow.
• A Secondary corresponds to the addition of two Primaries in equal parts.
• A Tertiary is obtained by adding, in varying proportions, a Primary and a Secondary.

For a given color, its complementary color is the one which, added with it and having no common point with it, will give White.

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Quote of the moment

« I crop for the benefit of the photos. The world just not doesn't fit easily into the format of a 35mm camera. »

W. Eugene Smith

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