5 Tips for Creating Timeless Monochrome Wedding Photos

Monochrome wedding photos will always be popular among couples. They have classic elegance and a depth that modern tech solutions simply can’t compete with.

Doing a good job and giving clients deep, authentic black and white pictures, however, isn’t easy.

You need the right equipment and you need a good technique to make each photograph outstanding.

If you want to master the art of the monochrome picture, try the following wedding photography tips.

 

High Contrast and Light

 

You need two elements to make monochrome wedding photos shine – high contrast environments and excellent light.

Having enough contrast will reveal all of the details in the shot, even when the color is missing.

That’s why a portrait is going to be such a wonderful choice when doing monochrome pictures. Dark brown eyes, contrasting a pale complexion create beautiful focal points.

Shooting during the right time of the day will give you enough light to create both the lights and the shadows to make monochromatic pictures dynamic.

If you’re missing such an opportunity due to the time of the wedding or the weather conditions, count on your external source of light.

Flashes and projectors can help you simulate perfect natural light. Just make sure the sources of light are positioned optimally to illuminate the main subjects of the picture.

 

Pro Wedding Photography Tips: Focus on Texture and Details

 

The absence of colors allows viewers to focus on intricate textures, details or other little things that give the photo uniqueness.

As a wedding photographer, you need to have a very keen eye for detail in order to make monochromatic shots spectacular.

For example, you can focus on the lace of the veil and the face of the bride behind it. The lace adds a nice, delicate textural element.

The human features that are semi-visible behind the fabric enrich the shot even further.

Don’t be afraid of experimenting or getting very close to the subject of your picture. Different perspectives and angles can work really well with monochromatic shots.

Highly textured surfaces will also create shadows and light in a fully natural way. Think about the bark of a tree, for example.

It’s very textured and it can help you do some intricate photographic work. Look for similarly textured items that you can play with or use to give pictures unusual focal points.

Working with reflections, especially if you have a water surface to shoot off of can also give you a textural element.

In this instance, it will be sleek and clean. The reflection itself will create a nice illusion that’s going to work super well in the absence of color.

 

Small Aperture and Low ISO

 

A very sharp focus is an important prerequisite for exquisite black and white photography.

Don’t underestimate the importance of technical work when attempting to create monochromatic wedding pictures.

Out of all wedding photography tips pertaining to black and white pictures, this is probably the most specific one.

A small aperture and keeping ISO as low as possible will both help you reduce digital noise.

Depending on the lenses you’re using, you may have to make manual adjustments each time you decide to shoot a picture.

As a general rule of thumb, low ISO settings allow you to give the picture more contrast and depth.

Having the ISO set at around 100 is preferrable but needless to say, play around and explore the various options to find out how they impact the end result.

Similarly, a slower shutter speed and aperture give your camera the opportunity to capture more detail.

The one thing you need to account for is shooting a moving subject. If that’s the case, you’ll have to deal with some motion blur.

That’s why you’ll once again need to know your equipment really well and experiment with settings to determine what works.

 

Always Shoot in RAW

 

Here’s another technical essential we need to discuss in relationship to the quality of monochromatic wedding pictures.

This is especially important for photographers who decide to shoot and color and the convert the picture to a black and white one (more on that opportunity in the following section).

The RAW format gives you more information than the standard JPEG.

Even if you do decide to shoot in black and white, the RAW format will give you more information on the blacks, whites and greys contained in the image.

You will find post-production a lot easier and the depth of the picture will be enhanced immediately.

There’s one important thing to be mindful of when using the RAW format. It will require a lot of space and you should be prepared.

Extra memory cards will come in handy because RAW pictures will eat up at the available space at an incredible speed.

 

Focus on Professional Editing and Post-Production

 

Whether you’ve captured pictures in black and white or you intend to turn colorful photos into monochromatic ones, post-production work matters.

You will need to complete a number of important steps to give the outcome the desirable sharpness and depth.

One of the first things to try if you’re working with colored images is to desaturate the pictures in the image editing software program of choice.

This is one of the fastest ways to see what the image will look when it becomes monochromatic. Desaturation, however, is a destructive process that alters the original.

So, the best thing to do is to create a copy and work on that.

The second way to get rid of color involves the creation of a grayscale image – something you can accomplish effortlessly wit most picture processing apps and tools.

Through grayscale creation, you will be adding a black and white “mask” on top of the colored image.

This method of editing is completely non-destructive. You are retaining the original picture, which means you can work on both a colored and a monochromatic version of it.

Once you’ve done these initial adjustments, you’ll need to decide what else to tweak for the sharpest and most intricate monochromatic picture.

Contrast adjustments will almost always be necessary. Decide which element you’d want to have standing out and tweak lights/shadows accordingly.

There are also texture and clarity settings you can play with.

When adjusted correctly, these settings allow you to increase the intricacy of a texture and turn it into the star of the show.

Adding radial gradients is another excellent editing technique that puts emphasis on the element of the photo that you want to prioritize.

 

Monochromatic Wedding Photography Tips for Pros: Continue Training Your Eye

 

The simplicity and minimalism of monochromatic photography make it look deceptively simple.

That’s not the case.

It takes a lot of work and understanding of photography golden standards to accomplish the perfectly balanced monochromatic shot.

As a professional, you should continue working on training your eye and discovering visual interest in the fine details.

Start by exploring the work of other artists. Examine the way they use light as a picture element.

Analyze the aspects of the picture that shine and the ones that seem to miss the mark.

When doing your job, ask yourself what a certain picture is going to look like if you make it monochromatic.

Pinpoint a few shots that you believe would be enhanced through the adoption of the black and white aesthetic.

Tweak them in an image processor to find out whether your hunch was correct or not.

If you are making your very first steps in the world of black and white wedding photography, try portraits first.

They are easiest to master and they can produce the most dramatic results. Continue experimenting with more complex and intricate shots.

Don’t forget to have fun and put your creative mind in the process.

Enjoying what you’re doing and taking a few small risks will pay off in pictures that break boundaries and surpass traditions in the realm of wedding photography.