This year we start with BW photography in tribute to its eminent role and significance in the evolution and development of photography as art and expression. Black and white by removing the color element helps photographer to concentrate on the basics: tonal contents, shapes and shadows, forms and patterns, composition and content. By adopting the b/w approach, the creator can appreciate more the importance and functionality of contrast, tonal grading, shadows and highlights, texture and fine detail, chiaroscuro, backlight etc. and creatively render most photography subjects.

Black and white has some similarities but does not coincide with monochrome. It’s all about grayscale (that is why bw photos are also called grayscale). BW photos are created by either shooting on BW film or by converting original color digital image files to BW. Maybe some monochrome images are grayscale but some other may have shades and tones of any one color i.e. only green, or purple, or cyan or anything. But BW images exclusively have gray tones going from black to white and all the in between shades.