Visual Wilderness
  • Get Started
  • Shop
    • SPECIAL OFFERS
    • STREAMING SERVICE
    • Browse by Topic
    • Learn To Shoot
    • Post Processing
    • Online Classes
    • eBooks
    • Landscape Photography Guide
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • Guest Photographers
  • About
  • My Account
    • My Account
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
  • 0Shopping Cart
Black and White Landscape Photography from Bandon, Oregon by Craig McCord

How to Simplify Your Black and White Photography Compositions

November 19, 2022/in Composition/by Craig McCord

When I first began my journey in nature photography in the early 70’s, like most I started out with black and white photography. I also did my own processing and printing of black and white nature photos.  I can’t say my black and white photographic skills were that great in those days.  To put it differently, much of my work really sucked.  But it has been a quite a journey for sure.

Composition in Color Photography

As time progressed and skills matured, I began shooting solely in color.  As a result, my nature photography style began to make use of strong foregrounds to help accentuate near-far relationships.  Using a strong foreground as a key nature photography compositional element has become, I believe, a hallmark of many contemporary color nature photographers.  Nothing wrong with such an approach mind you, and I have seen many talented photographers who are masters at this technique.  Along with the strong foreground element, color also often becomes an important ally in helping lead one’s eye through the nature photography composition.  Nonetheless, I had become bored with this approach in my own color photography work.

Consequently, a couple of years ago I decided it was time to return to my original love … black and white nature photography.  In doing so, I found that to be most effective I had to adjust my photographic style to accommodate the need to simplify my black and white photography compositions.  Without color as a compositional element, I needed greater focus on the subject.  This required three things …. simplify, simplify, and simplify.

By focusing on the main subject you can create a strong visual impact with your black and white nature photos. Nature photography composition for black and white photography requires you to focus on light and shadows, objects, textures and contrast. Here are some tips for creating effective black and white photography composition:

Using Textures for Black and White Photography Compositions

The focus on texture can also offer a means to make your subject stand out from the background as seen in the image of the Wizard’s Hat on the Oregon coast below. Strong textures are used to draw your attention to the rock, but textures in rest of the images been de-emphasized or eliminated. Besides textures, I have used the edge of the surf to form a leading line towards the rock.

Black and White Photography from Wizard's Hat Sea Stack by Craig McCord

The Wizard Hat sea stack, Bandon, Oregon

In a similar manner, the focus on texture can also offer a means to simplify.  An example is how the image of the wharf ruins juxtaposes the smooth texture of the water, created using long exposure techniques, against the rough textures of the wharf pilings.

Wharf Ruins at Bandon, Oregon Marina by Craig McCord

Wharf Ruins at Bandon, Oregon Marina

An important consideration when wanting to emphasize texture is lighting.  Side lighting can be highly effective for textures because the angle of light will create a tactile quality of the subject or key element in your image.  To illustrate, side lighting in the image of Cathedral Rocks in Yosemite national park actually contributes to a feeling of depth and a sense of the geological characteristics of the area.  On the other hand, I used soft light and got close to really making the subject all about the texture in the Winter Ice Crystals image.

  • Nature photography from Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite National Park

    Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite National Park

  • Macro Photography by Craig McCord

    Winter Ice Crystals

 

Tonal Contrast for Black and White Photography

Tonal contrast in black and white photography can be used quite effectively to simplify your composition. To illustrate both the images of the backlit aspens and sea stack in Brandon, Oregon have mostly tones on the extremes of the tonal scale.  The backlit trees against the shadow of the hillsides behind isolates and emphasizes the subject, the trees.  It pays to be mindful of such conditions when considering compositions.  The results can be quite dramatic.

  • Sea cave and sea stack at Bandon, Oregon by Craig McCord

    Sea cave and sea stack at Bandon, Oregon

  • Black and White Photography from Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming

    Backlit aspens in the Grand Tetons National Park

However, to be clear, your tonal contrast does not have to be extreme.  In the image Aspen Field, there is a wide range of tonal values which were further emphasized by employing certain post processing tools in Lightroom.  It is also important to consider that certain low contrast conditions such as fog and other weather phenomenon can be effective in conveying a certain mood.  In any case, employing and controlling tonal contrast can truly help your composition stand out.

Aspen Field by Craig McCord

Aspen Field

Photography Composition and Focal Length

As I adjusted my style for black and white, I found myself avoiding my once loved ultra-wide shots, opting for more normal to moderate and long telephoto shots to isolate detail.  More like a transition from the wide grand landscape compositions to the more intimate landscapes.  Using my long 100-400mm I was able to isolate the detail of the Upper McCord Creek Falls and thus simplify this image.  And as in the previous examples, I used tonal contrast to emphasize the patterns resulting in almost an abstract black and white photography composition.

  • Waterfall Photography from Upper McCord Creek Trail,

    Located on Upper McCord Creek Trail, this waterfall is named after W. R. McCord (no relation). McCord was an Oregon pioneer who built the first fish wheels near th mouth of the stream.

  • Intimate Landscape Photography from Hocking Hills, Ohio

    Rock Shelves, Old Man’s Cave Creek, Hocking Hills, Ohio

Black and white compositions really cry out for simplification. Using more normal to longer focal lengths aid in eliminating distracting elements and directing one’s eye to the main subject.  In the image Rock Shelves of Old Man’s Cave Creek, a focal length of about 70mm was used to create this intimate landscape.  The lighting provided an added feeling of depth.

Using Negative Space to capture Black & White Photos

A strong use of negative space can also be quite effective in simplifying your nature photography compositions.  What is negative space?  It is simply space surrounding the subject, which is often unoccupied.  Effective use of negative space forces you to focus on the subject.  Minimalism is a technique that strongly uses negative space in this manner.  To demonstrate, I used this technique in creating the image of the dock pilings along the St. John’s river shown below.  The negative space created by the long exposure and morning light on the water forces total attention to the dock remains.  In a comparable manner, I used shadow, light and contrast to create negative space around the sandstone texture of a cave window of Rock House in Hocking Hills, Ohio.

  • Minimalism in Black and White Photography by Craig McCord

    Foggy morning along the St. Johns River in Orange Park, Florida. The fog and long exposure enabled this minimalistic rendering of the dock remains.

  • Intimate Black and White Photography by Craig McCord

    The side of window from inside Face Rock cave at Hocking Hills State Park, OH

Given these points, try to explore ways to simplify your black and white photos.  Incorporate emphasis on texture, light and shadow, isolation of subject, and high contrast.  And to really challenge yourself, trying your hand at stressing a minimalistic approach to your compositions.  In a future post I will be exploring the concept of minimalism in more detail.

About Author Craig McCord

I am a fine art black and white landscape photographer born in 1951 in Jacksonville, Florida. My photographic interests began in the early 1970’s. Over the years, I emersed myself in black and white photography after build-ing my own darkroom in my home basement.

Selections of my work exist in private and corporate collections. In 2016 the National Park Service highlighted my work as part of their centennial celebration and now have several large prints of my work on display in a Missouri regional park headquarters. I recently received recognition in Black and White Magazine, Black Box Gallery, Monovision Photography Awards,

Website | Workshops

Tags: Black and White
You might also like
When to use Black and White Photography Blog Post by Christine HauberWhen to fall back to Black and White photography?
Cover for Black and White Landscape photography post by Craig McCordLearning to See for Black and White Photography
How to approach black and white photography blog post by Athena CareyBetter BW Photography Using Tonal Contrast
Black and White Photography by Athena Carey.Why you should try Black and White Landscape Photography
The ND photography filters that Athena Carey in black and white photography blog postWhat ND Filters I Carry and Why
Athena Carey: B/W Long Exposure Images

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY NEWSLETTER

Join 45,000+ Nature Photographers and get the free eBooks, free creativity course & discount codes right in your inbox.

loader

Note: We never share your email address with anyone. More Info.

Blog | Shop | About

 Email Policy  |  Privacy Policy  |  Terms

INFOCUS NEWSLETTER

Join 45,000+ other photographers and get the Free eBooks, Free Creativity Course & Discount Codes right in your inbox.


loader

Note: We never share your email address with anyone. More Info.

All Rights Reserved, © Copyright Visual Wilderness

Sean Bagshaw’s Photoshop Workflow for Landscape PhotographyNature Photography from Mana Island, Fiji by Varina PatelMastering Low Contrast Light in Nature Photography
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OK

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy
Learn More
NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY NEWSLETTERJoin 45,000+ Nature Photographers

Unlock Your Photography Potential! Get Free Webinars, Tips, eBooks, and More Delivered Straight to Your Inbox! 📸✨

We never share your email address with anyone. More Info.

Enter your email address