- To convey a romantic or dream-like feeling in black and white photography, use soft light. This can be found outdoors on a cloudy or foggy day. It can be produced indoors with bounced, reflected or filtered lights. Avoid any direct light shining on the subjects. Soft light makes the contrast between black and white less intense. Since no part of the photograph is much brighter than any other, it forces the person looking at it to see the entire image. The soft edges produced by soft light give it a mellow or eternal quality. This is why so many wedding pictures are taken in black and white. The fact that wedding dresses are white and tuxedos are black and white also helps.
- To take more dramatic black and white pictures, use "golden hour" light. This is sunlight one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. The sun is low on the horizon and the light wavelengths are long. This makes the light soft but shadows more intense. This creates a lot of contrast between dark and light parts of the image. Creative use of these shadows accentuates the illusion of depth and texture in black and white photography. Deep shadows cast across features of a face will bring out contours of the shape that no color picture can.
- An effective lighting technique for black and white photography of wide shots is to use harsh light. This is found outside in the middle of the day. This type of light is the worst for color photography but does amazing things for black and white. Shadows are intense when the sun is high. This makes items jump out of black and white photographs. For example, a picture of a forest with harsh shadows defines each tree and makes the image appear more three-dimensional. This lighting can be created indoors by shining bright key lights across the subjects at an angle. This would rarely be done in color photography where the goal is to remove shadows.
- Take black and white photographs directly into the light to create dramatic silhouette effects. The object in front of the light source will cast an intense shadow. This effect is far more pronounced in black and white than in color. Subjects that are recognizable by their shape are perfect for black and white "backlighting." These include towers, prominently shaped buildings, trees and people.
- Consider using filters to produce dramatic effects in black and white photography. It may sound contradictory, but removing certain color light can provide more contrast in a black and white picture. Red, orange and yellow filters make blue look darker while red and yellow appear lighter. Black and white photographs of the sky with these filters make the clouds jump out at you. Green filters make red look darker while green appears lighter. A black and white picture of a red rose with a green filter makes the bud appear richly dark and the stem pale.