Digital photography has not only brought photography to the masses in a way never before seen in all of the history of photography it has brought new life to specialized types of photography as well. Specialized forms like infrared, macro, black and white and more.

While one can argue that macro photography isn't really a specialized form of photography one can't argue that about black and white. While any image can have its color removed and therefore be turned in to a black and white photo the really good black and white shots aren't so easy to create. Just look at Ansel Adams as an example. His black and white photos were not only visually stunning, but truly works of black and white art. You don't see black and white images of this caliber everyday. But, you could if those that wanted to do black and white were to take the time to learn just what makes a good black and white image. For that a good book on the subject is a must have, while no book can tell you how to convert this image or that image in to the perfect black and white photo. What the book can do is give you the information and know how to do the conversion yourself for your own tastes.

One such book is Mastering Black and White Digital Photography by Michael Freeman published by Lark Books. This attractive book is well designed, easy to read and understand and is loaded with tons of examples that are sure to inspire the creativity in any photographer.

The book covers everything you need to know about black and white digital photography from visualizing in monochrome, to basic color conversion, to working with the channels, to third party converters, to shadows, highlights, tone distribution, editing and effects, printing and so much more. This is a very complete and thorough book on the subject of black and white digital photography.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: The Language of Mono
Chapter 2: Color into Grayscale
Chapter 3: Digital Black and White
Chapter 4: Image Editing and Effects
Chapter 5: The Print

While the chapter list above isn't very long, each of those chapters is jam packed with useful information. This book is anything but superficial. In fact it is one of the most in-depth books on black and white I have seen.

With the information that it contains you will be creating your own stunning black and white images in no time. I especially appreciate the information on printing. One of the hardest things to do with black and white is to get really nice black and white prints, or that is black and white prints that don't have color casts and other problems. Since all of today's photo printers are designed more for color printing than black and white printing black and white is one area where you can use all the help you can get, at least until companies like Epson and HP put out a black and white only photo printer with 6 or 8 shades of gray/black/white inks.

This is a wonderful book on a wonderful and fun subject. I highly recommend it for anyone that wants to do black and white digital photography. The information contained is priceless in my opinion making this a must have book for anyone with a digital camera, a desire for black and white and a photo printer. The Digital Revolution is here, this book will help you jump on the band wagon for a fun and specialized form of photography that even in a full color world is anything but two-tone.