Guides · 9 min read
Black and white portrait photography
Black and white portrait photography records a face as light and shadow alone, so the light does all the work that color usually does. A strong monochrome portrait needs light from one side to shape the face, a background darker or lighter than the subject, a true black and a clean white somewhere in the frame, and an expression worth looking at. Shoot in color and convert carefully afterward, and you keep control over every tone.
Monochrome was the default for the first century of photography. Kodachrome, the first commercially successful color film, arrived only in 1935, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, almost a hundred years after the first portraits were made. Many of the most recognizable portraits ever taken are black and white for that reason. Yousuf Karsh's 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill, which Britannica calls "often-reproduced," is a lesson in light. Karsh built his dramatic lighting on techniques he learned as an apprentice to John H. Garo, a Boston portrait photographer. The same principles work for a phone picture taken by a window.
What makes a black and white portrait work?
Four things, in the order they usually go wrong.
Directional light. Without color, the only way to show the shape of a face is the gradient from light to shadow across it. Light from directly in front, such as an on-camera flash or a phone's flash, removes that gradient and leaves a flat gray disc. Light from one side shows the cheekbones, the jaw and the eyes.
Separation. A dark-haired person against a dark wall merges into it. Either the background is darker than the subject, lighter than the subject, or a rim of light along the hair and shoulders separates them.
A full range of tone. A good black and white print has a true black and a clean white somewhere in it, with the face sitting in the middle grays. Most failed conversions are all middle gray: no blacks, no whites, nothing for the eye to anchor to.
Texture kept, not smoothed. Color hides skin texture under hue. Monochrome shows it, which is why lines, freckles and stubble look good in black and white. Heavy smoothing makes a monochrome face look like plastic faster than it does in color.
What lighting is best for black and white portraits?
One soft light from the side is enough for almost every portrait. A large window works as well as studio equipment. Turn off the ceiling lights, place the person about three feet from the window and turn them so the window is at roughly 45 degrees to their face.
The classic portrait lighting patterns all come from where that one light sits.
| Pattern | Where the light is | What it looks like | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loop | 30 to 45 degrees to the side, slightly above | A small shadow of the nose falls toward the cheek | Almost anyone; the safe default |
| Rembrandt | 45 degrees to the side, higher | A small triangle of light on the shadowed cheek | Character, older faces, men's portraits |
| Split | 90 degrees to the side | Half the face lit, half in shadow | Drama; strong in black and white |
| Butterfly | In front and above | A small shadow under the nose | Glamour, smooth even skin |
| Rim or back | Behind the subject | A bright outline on hair and shoulders | Separating dark hair from a dark background |
A white card, a sheet of paper or a white wall on the shadow side bounces some light back and softens the shadow if it is too heavy. For drama, use a dark surface on the shadow side instead.
Look for catchlights, the small reflection of the light source in each eye. A portrait without them can look lifeless, and in monochrome the white catchlight is often the brightest point in the frame.
Which backgrounds suit monochrome?
- Black. The most forgiving. Put the person a few feet in front of a dark wall or a dark sheet, light only them, and let the background fall off. Everything except the face disappears.
- White or pale gray. High-key and airy. It needs more light on the background than on the person, or it turns gray.
- A plain mid-tone wall. Works if the subject is clearly lighter or darker than it.
- Avoid busy scenes. Without color to tell objects apart, a cluttered background becomes gray noise around the head.
Should you shoot in black and white or convert later?
Convert later. A color file keeps three channels of information, and that lets you decide afterward how each color turns into gray. Shooting in monochrome on a camera that saves RAW is fine, because the RAW file still holds the color. Shooting a monochrome JPEG throws that choice away.
The setting worth turning on is a monochrome preview. Many cameras and phone apps show the scene in black and white while still saving color. Seeing in gray while you shoot makes it much easier to judge light and contrast.
On an iPhone, the Portrait mode lighting options "Stage Light Mono" and "High-Key Light Mono" simulate black and white studio backdrops. They work on simple head-and-shoulders shots in good light and struggle with hair edges and more than one person.
What camera settings work best?
- Aperture. f/2 to f/4 for one person blurs the background. For two people at different distances, f/5.6 to f/8 keeps both faces sharp.
- Shutter speed. At least 1/125 s for adults and 1/250 s or faster for children.
- ISO. Raise it before you let the picture blur. Grain looks natural in black and white in a way that color noise does not.
- Exposure. Expose for the face. Check the histogram after the shot: you want something touching the dark end without the face being pushed into it.
- Focus. On the nearest eye.
How do you convert a color portrait to black and white well?
Removing the color is only the first step. A straight desaturation gives you a flat gray image, because many colors that look different have nearly the same brightness.
1. Mix the channels. Raising the red and orange channels lightens skin and lips and smooths blemishes, the digital version of a red filter on black and white film. Raising blue darkens skin and adds weight, which suits some character portraits. Find the mix where the face glows a little against everything else. 2. Set the black and white points. Pull the darkest shadows to true black and the brightest highlights to clean white. This single step fixes most flat conversions. 3. Add contrast through the middle. A gentle S-curve. Watch the face; it should stay in the midtones. 4. Dodge and burn. Brighten the eyes and the lit side of the face slightly, and darken distractions at the edges. 5. Add grain only if you want it. Fine grain can hide noise and give a film look. Skip it for a clean studio look.
How to make a picture black and white walks through these steps on an iPhone, Android and a computer. The free black and white converter applies a channel mix and contrast in your browser without uploading the photo anywhere.
Which faces and clothes suit black and white?
Almost every face does, and older faces often look their best. Lines and texture read as character in monochrome. Clothing matters more than in color: a red sweater and a green sweater can turn into the same gray. Pick clothing that is clearly lighter or darker than the skin and the background, and avoid fine patterns, which can shimmer.
What about black and white portraits of couples and families?
Everything above applies, with one more problem: every face has to be lit and in focus. A stacked or diagonal arrangement keeps faces close together so one light covers all of them. Black and white family portraits covers group portraits in depth, and black and white or color helps decide whether a given photo should be converted at all.
If you already have a color photo of two to six people and want the studio version, Graydrop restages it as a 9:16 monochrome portrait on a black background, like the examples on this page, in about three minutes for $12.99, with a watermarked preview before you pay. A family portrait from a photo shows how it works. It does not take portraits of a single person.
The people in the example photos on this page are AI-generated, so no real person's photo is shown.