Creating Black and White iPhone Images

It's time for another fun iPhone post! We've been learning a lot about DSLR tips so I figured we should make things simple and fun and switch back to iPhone photography. It is spring break after all! It is almost 70 degrees here; we are loving the warm sunshine. Bring on springtime. Bring on better iPhone photos.

If you're looking for another way to improve your iPhone photography, today's tips will help you create great black and white images with your iPhone. Once in a while I'll take a photo that is too harsh from really bright sunshine, and I won't like the way it makes the colors look. Or I'll want a photo to look a little more timeless or less distracting by having too many colors in my scene. This is where black and white comes to the rescue! It can often save a photo from being just... BLAH and make it more interesting by converting it to a black and white photo. Let's see how we can get this to happen. 

I made a quick video of how I like to convert my images to black and white JUST using my iPhone photo editor. This is quick and easy! First I'll show you a method starting with a preset B&W filter, and then a second method doing it from scratch.

Here's the before and after of this photo. I shot this in mid-day sun; I like converting images that are shot in harsh lighting conditions to black and white.

Here's a perfect example of an image that looked kind of boring and the colors were yucky, but in black and white it looks much better. The contrast from my subject and the bright window behind him makes it much more interesting. 

Sometimes I like the extreme contrast that the preset filters provide, but sometimes it can be too much. It all depends on the photo. Play around and see what you like! 

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