I’ll let you into a little secret. None of my Black and White images actually contain black, they’re all just ever so slightly a lighter shade of black in the shadows… this is just a style preference, but it works, actual black in monochrome photos can look more dull than a slice of unbuttered toast.

Of course all photography is subjective, but there are some ‘rules’ as to what makes a great monochrome image, but I’m not going to get technical. A quick and easy way of taking photos that will ‘work’ in monochrome is to light your subject more than the rest of the image and distance your subject from the background. For example, let’s say you have a dog, we’re gonna call your dog ‘Steve’. So go get Steve, make him sit patiently like the loyal chum he is, take Steve to a big field (he’ll bloody love that). Take Steve to an area where there is a lot of shadow, handily there are often tree’s near fields. Don’t sit Steve in the shadow, sit him in the glorious sun light just before the trees. Now Steve is bright but the background isn’t. All of those trees are nicely out of focus but Steve is lovely and sharp. Take a shot with as little ground in as possible, open that bad boy up in your favourite image editing app, convert that image and BOOM! By now you’ll have a tear in your eye(s) and you won’t believe the splendour on the screen in front of you. You’re welcome, you and Steve.