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The Photographer's Black and White Handbook: Making and Processing Stunning Digital Black and White Photos
The Photographer’s Black & White Handbook is your complete guide to making and processing stunning black and white photos in the digital era. You’ll find inspiration, ideas, techniques, and tools to use in your black and white photography, along with a soup-to-nuts workflow to take you from black and white pre-visualization through capture and post-production. Along the way you will lean over Harold’s shoulder as he travels to exciting photo destinations and creates stunning black and white imagery, explaining his creative and technical processes as he goes. This definitive guide includes: ? How to see in black and white ? Pre-visualization in digital photography ? Understanding black and white composition ? How to create your own black and white workflow ? Black and white in ACR, Lightroom, and Photoshop ? Using black and white plug-ins including Nik Silver Efex Pro and Topaz B&W Effects ? Extending tonal range with multi-RAW processing and monochromatic HDR ? Post-production techniques for working with dynamic range ? Creative black and white special effects ? Find out how to tone, tint, colorize, solarize, and simulate IR ? Work with LAB to create unique black and white effects ? Great tools for unleashing your photographic imagination ? Beautiful photographs by Harold Davis chosen to inspire and guide you
- GenresPhotographyNonfictionArt
240 pages, Paperback
Published February 14, 2017
About the author
Harold Davis
166 books14 followersHarold Davis is widely recognized as a leading contemporary photographer and artist. He is also the author of more than 30 books, including Creating HDR Photos: The Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Photography from Amphoto/Random House and Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harold Davis which is published by Focal Press, and has been called "one of the most beautiful books ever created."
Harold Davis believes that advances in the technology and craft of digital photography have created an entirely new art form. Trained as a classical photographer and painter, his photographic images are made using special HDR (High Dynamic Range) capture techniques that extend the range of visual information beyond what the eye can normally see.
Davis creates and processes his images using wide-gamut and alternative digital methods that he has invented. His techniques combine the craft of photography with the skills of a painter.
Photographic adventures and assignments have taken him across the Brooks Range, the northernmost mountains in Alaska. He has photographed the World Trade Towers, hanging out of a small plane, followed in the footsteps of Seneca Ray Stoddard, a 19th-century photographer of the Adirondacks, and created human interest photo stories about the residents of Love Canal, an environmental disaster area.
Harold is well-known for his night photography and experimental ultra-long exposure techniques, use of vibrant, saturated colors in landscape compositions, and beautiful creative floral imagery.
He makes his over-sized original prints on unusual substrates such as pearlized metallic and washi rice papers. Davis states, "I believe that nothing like my prints has ever been seen before. They simply could not have been created until recently. I've been able to innovate in a domain where many techniques and crafts have come together for the first time. My prints are made meticulously, and have a 200-year archival rating for ink and paper if they are handled properly.
Harold Davis believes that advances in the technology and craft of digital photography have created an entirely new art form. Trained as a classical photographer and painter, his photographic images are made using special HDR (High Dynamic Range) capture techniques that extend the range of visual information beyond what the eye can normally see.
Davis creates and processes his images using wide-gamut and alternative digital methods that he has invented. His techniques combine the craft of photography with the skills of a painter.
Photographic adventures and assignments have taken him across the Brooks Range, the northernmost mountains in Alaska. He has photographed the World Trade Towers, hanging out of a small plane, followed in the footsteps of Seneca Ray Stoddard, a 19th-century photographer of the Adirondacks, and created human interest photo stories about the residents of Love Canal, an environmental disaster area.
Harold is well-known for his night photography and experimental ultra-long exposure techniques, use of vibrant, saturated colors in landscape compositions, and beautiful creative floral imagery.
He makes his over-sized original prints on unusual substrates such as pearlized metallic and washi rice papers. Davis states, "I believe that nothing like my prints has ever been seen before. They simply could not have been created until recently. I've been able to innovate in a domain where many techniques and crafts have come together for the first time. My prints are made meticulously, and have a 200-year archival rating for ink and paper if they are handled properly.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 18, 2017
More like 2.5 stars for me. Library book-new arrivals section.
This book has some interesting information but is primarily for people with higher end cameras and more software than I have. I use an older mid range Canon digital camera and Lightroom. I usually shoot in color and process to black & white after as that offers a wider range of control. I don't personally subscribe to his gold bar conversion chart in terms of creating quality photographs.
Some of the general advice is interesting,useful and echoes what many other photography how to books advise. The Lightroom information contained nothing new to me but it was good if you are unfamiliar with LR. A lot of that LR information is available on you tube
https://www.youtube.com/user/AdobeLig...
In addition there are demos on virtually every camera and software out there. I don't often use the presets included in the software very often. It's pretty easy if you have created settings you like to save them as user presets.
I can't speak to the other software sections such as Photoshop as I don't have them except that the Photoshop section is extensive.
One thing that drove me nuts was the design of the sidebox information about the shots illustrated. They were in a light grey with very small light grey type. Really hard to read even in blinding light!
This book has some interesting information but is primarily for people with higher end cameras and more software than I have. I use an older mid range Canon digital camera and Lightroom. I usually shoot in color and process to black & white after as that offers a wider range of control. I don't personally subscribe to his gold bar conversion chart in terms of creating quality photographs.
Some of the general advice is interesting,useful and echoes what many other photography how to books advise. The Lightroom information contained nothing new to me but it was good if you are unfamiliar with LR. A lot of that LR information is available on you tube
https://www.youtube.com/user/AdobeLig...
In addition there are demos on virtually every camera and software out there. I don't often use the presets included in the software very often. It's pretty easy if you have created settings you like to save them as user presets.
I can't speak to the other software sections such as Photoshop as I don't have them except that the Photoshop section is extensive.
One thing that drove me nuts was the design of the sidebox information about the shots illustrated. They were in a light grey with very small light grey type. Really hard to read even in blinding light!
March 5, 2017
Black & white photos can add beauty, depth, and drama that's not easily achieved with color photographs. Capturing images from nature or from common, everyday events and then adding dimensional depth in black & white makes this type of photographing an art form of it's own. Easy to appreciate this type of photography and hard for the non-professional to achieve. And even hard for pros to achieve the level of quality that Harold Davis demonstrates in this soon-to-be-classic handbook of photographing in black & white.
Harold Davis is known for his on location scenic colorful images as well as his remarkable color photos of flowers. He teaches and writes about these topics extensively, and this book adds another dimension to his instructional output. The photos themselves in this book (all taken by Harold David) are testament to his mastery of this subject. And with this "no holds barred" view of how he did it and how you, the photographer attempting to produce equally stunning black & white images will reach new heights in attaining this type of output -- this book is fantastic.
The examples and instructional detail in this manual provide all you'd want to know -- plus more than you knew to ask -- about making and processing high quality black and white photographs. You can learn the compositional details, the pre- and post-production techniques and technologies to reach new heights in mastering the method and art of creating your own stunning photos -- in black and white.
Highly recommended for the examples and the practical and valuable instructional details from a master who makes it all seem possible.
Harold Davis is known for his on location scenic colorful images as well as his remarkable color photos of flowers. He teaches and writes about these topics extensively, and this book adds another dimension to his instructional output. The photos themselves in this book (all taken by Harold David) are testament to his mastery of this subject. And with this "no holds barred" view of how he did it and how you, the photographer attempting to produce equally stunning black & white images will reach new heights in attaining this type of output -- this book is fantastic.
The examples and instructional detail in this manual provide all you'd want to know -- plus more than you knew to ask -- about making and processing high quality black and white photographs. You can learn the compositional details, the pre- and post-production techniques and technologies to reach new heights in mastering the method and art of creating your own stunning photos -- in black and white.
Highly recommended for the examples and the practical and valuable instructional details from a master who makes it all seem possible.
March 19, 2017
This is my 6th book from Harold Davis. I’ve enjoyed and learned a great deal from all of them, but this is my favorite. It covers a wide gamut (no pun intended) with content that a beginner or a pro can benefit from. Harold covers everything from the nuts and bolts on camera settings and post-processing, to the art and inspiration of B&W photography. Harold’s coverage on the primary subject of B&W photography is detailed and thorough. He does a great job of articulating the characteristics of what makes a good B&W candidate. He thoroughly covers settings, options and considerations when taking the shot, and then provides detailed instructions for many options to bring a photo to B&W in post-processing. He also goes way beyond that. I was truly inspired by the many beautiful works of digital art. As another reviewer commented, this book is worthy as a coffee table book. Most importantly for me, the book has helped me learn to think and visualize like a photographer. This is one of the few photography books I’ve read, that while reading I’ve felt immersed as a photographer while Harold described his thoughts, the story and background behind each photo. I've been inspired to put much more thought into my subject, the story and why I'm taking the shot, into the selection and composition, and then into the many options for B&W post-production.
December 21, 2017
This book embodies the philosophy of its author, a lifelong professional & sought-after teacher, as well as a world traveler, story teller, classically trained painter, and multi-published author. This background informs his writing, helping him argue the case that black-and-white photography still has relevance. He emphasizes this technique for photographing foreign destinations. Full review, MidCenturyBooks.Net, Black and White
June 8, 2023
The author is a marvelous photographer and the pictures in his book prove it. This book is dedicated to mainly digital photography, and I was looking for more film photography but still I enjoyed reading it. Some of the computer program descriptions and instructions were useless to me but I enjoyed it nevertheless!
I liked how the author took the time to describe the scenes he took, telling more than just the details of the pictures.
I liked how the author took the time to describe the scenes he took, telling more than just the details of the pictures.
December 3, 2021
Full disclosure, I did not read this entire book. I skimmed it looking for the parts that applied to me. The author breaks down a lot of different methods in post-production and many just were not relevant. There were some good tidbits I got from it though. It's an area I need to branch out into a bit so it was helpful.
February 13, 2020
Excellent Reference!
One of the most useful books on photography that I've read. Very practical instruction on the technical as well as Artistic considerations for anyone seeking to take their photographic and post processing skills to the next level.
One of the most useful books on photography that I've read. Very practical instruction on the technical as well as Artistic considerations for anyone seeking to take their photographic and post processing skills to the next level.
December 17, 2023
Pictures displayed were taken in Spanish and French territories. There are nice black and white photographs of historical buildings. The rock walls, stairs, and tree shapes are what really drew me in.
March 8, 2024
Very solid on skill building, for any level.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews