Shooting in black and white forces a photographer to amp up their game. Without being able to fall back on bright colors, the photos have to be compelling in different ways. This challenge is well worth it, though. Just like black and white portraits capture the soul of a person, great black and white pictures show the essence of their subject. Here are a few things you should especially pay attention to when shooting B&W pictures.

• Composition
• Contrast
• Shapes and forms
• Tones
• Texture
• Details

These aspects are alway important in photography, but for black and white photos the stakes are higher. At the same time, the black and white shooting process makes it easier to work on composition, contrast, etc. As the additional color noise disappears, you automatically start to look at the structure of your photos. So whether you create monochromatic photos in post-processing or shoot in black and white directly, you can gain a lot from B&W photography.