Street Manual

A field guide for street photographers.

by Luke Carey

TechniquesPremium card2 hours

High Contrast Black and White

When shooting for black and white, expose to crush the shadows and blow highlights deliberately. Midtones are the enemy of drama. You want graphic, stark, contrasty frames.

Look for scenes that are already high contrast - bright sun, deep shade, neon at night, flash-lit faces against dark backgrounds.

Watch for: busy midtone scenes that produce flat, grey, uninteresting monochrome. If there's no strong light-dark separation in the scene, black and white often isn't the answer.

Camera Settings

Expose to crush shadows. Shoot RAW + B&W JPEG to see the conversion in real time.

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