Black and White to the Rescue

© 2009 Simon Hucko

While editing photos from this weekend I came across a portrait I had taken of the bride. I was shooting available light in the reception tent at dusk, and so all I had to work with was a little bit of sunlight and the christmas lights and candles that had been lit. Even at ISO 800 f/1.8 1/40th (the limit for my setup, as it doesn't handle high ISO very well) things were dark and underexposed. I tried pushing the exposure, but couldn't get it very far before it got too noisy for comfort. See the original color image below:


© 2009 Simon Hucko

I decided to try converting to black and white. People tend to be more tolerant of noise when the image is black and white, probably something to do with the notion of grainy black and white film. After conversion I was able to boost the levels a little and with some noise reduction got a usable portrait. It probably wouldn't make a huge print, but it's good enough for screen viewing, and if you really wanted you could squeeze an 8x10 out of it.

Converting to black and white is also a good way to overcome color casts and fringing/chromatic aberration that you can't easily correct in post. So remember, when all else fails, try black and white.

~S

[title of blog] on flickr