What Makes a Good Black and White Landscape Photo?

So often, when looking for advice on what makes a good black and white landscape photo, the first tip given is to learn to “see in black and white”. Great! But what exactly does this mean? It means that composition is king. It means that quality of light, tonal range, tonal separation and contrast are the building blocks of success. It means color cannot prop up a mediocre image. In essence, seeing in black and white means learning to look for the elements that strengthen a monochrome image while simultaneously looking at the scene as a whole for the standard components of strong black & white landscape photography. In this article, we shall further explore this concept. 

Quality of Light and Tonal Range

The time for shooting black and white landscape photography are during the blue and golden hours, which cover the period of time surrounding both sunrise and sunset. Golden hour is up to an hour after sunrise and begins again about an hour before sunset. Blue hour is the period of time before sunrise and after sunset. This varies depending on location, time of year and current weather patterns, and is named for the predominant color of light found during each respective period. 

Obviously, for the purposes of shooting a black and white image, color is not our primary concern. The thing we do care about, however, is the quality of light. These “hours” are prime time for diffused, flattering light. There are no harsh shadows or blown-out highlights to contend with, which leaves you with images that cover a wide tonal range. This is important as great black and white images, characteristically, cover the full tonal spectrum of black, grey and white. 

Years ago, when I was shooting film and developing in a darkroom, the tonal range of the final image was always at the forefront of my mind. The rule of thumb was always to have the darkest parts of the image touching on true black, while the brightest parts would touch true white. However, my goal for each of my prints was to try to capture a full spectrum of greys for the majority of the image so that the final photograph had depth and interest. 

That practice has stayed with me over the years. I always try to capture a well-exposed image in-camera while out in the field. That way, I have data available in all areas of the image. Granted, with RAW files the amount of recoverable data is sometimes mind-blowing, but in my opinion, it requires effort in post-production that could be better spent elsewhere. The question I posed in a soon-to-be-released book was this: “Would you rather spend an hour trying to make a recovered blown-out sky look natural…or would you rather spend 15 minutes fine-tuning a well-exposed sky and 45 minutes eating cake?” Obviously, cake is the way to go! 

There will, of course, always be room for artistic interpretation. If you love to shoot your black and whites with a high-contrast flare…then midtones be damned! But remember, you can always remove details in areas of an image during post-production. You can’t easily add detail where none was captured. Better to have this flexibility with your images, right? 

Black & White Tonal Separation 

The next thing to consider while creating a black and white image is tonal separation. When you take a color scene and simply desaturate the image, you will find that it often becomes difficult to distinguish between where one component ends and the next begins. This has to do with the similarity of tones between many colors. That weighs into how you ultimately compose a scene if you are determined to put components and colors with different tonal ranges next to each other. Personally, I wouldn’t pass up a landscape photograph you want to shoot because there isn’t enough tonal separation between green grass and yellow flowers, for example. There are many things you can do to help increase the dynamic range within your images, both in the field and in post. If you’re looking for an organic solution, you can start by looking for areas of light and shade. Overly harsh mid-day light can be problematic, but there is nothing wrong with having lighter and darker areas within 

your image. It will help lend dimension to your finished photograph. Using the best quality light during the “magic hours” will help ensure that data captured in your brightest and darkest areas isn’t lost. 

Another trick you can use in the field is to use colored filters to increase the contrast within the scene and separate tones. There are 5 main filters one can use when shooting in black and white, though for shooting landscape and nature images, you’ll mostly see red and yellow to darken a sky/make clouds pop, or green to separate greenery from the background.  

Finally, editing programs often give you more than one option to affect the tonal separation of colour channels and the contrast of an image. Shooting in RAW will give you the most data to play around with. More data gives you more control over your final image!

Black & White Landscape Composition

This one is big. Beyond the standard composition concepts that help create powerful images (rule of thirds, leading lines, etc), you also have to look for scenes that specifically translate well to black and white. Now, no composition rule is accurate 100% of the time, but generally speaking, shapes, textures and patterns translate well to monochrome. Some other things that tend to work well are reflections and clouds. 

Long exposures tend to work well: movement in the clouds or water looks great in black & white landscape photography. Another long exposure option is the creation of a minimalist image by smoothing out water completely to highlight a static subject that it is surrounding. But be careful to include some dynamic areas of light and dark when doing this or your image may fall flat. 

Black & White Landscape Photography – Final Thoughts

Like most other photography skills, “seeing in black and white” is a valuable tool for you to draw on while out in the field. The more you shoot monochrome the easier it will become to spot the scenes that have potential. Having a wide skillset will help you to adjust to any conditions and landscapes you encounter, and allow you to consistently create better black & white landscape photos. 

This article was written by Shannon Kalahan, a professional photographer, author, blogger, teacher and owner of Seeing Spots Photography. She is a longtime Light & Landscape contributor, well known and respected for her engaging, well-researched articles and blog posts, not to mention her outstanding landscape photography. Be sure to check out all her content throughout the website.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out this article by Jack Curran (RIP): How to Edit Black and White Landscape Photographs

Enjoy this video: Why I Shoot Black and White by James R Burns Photography