Change Color With a Click

Color sometimes distracts viewers from the subject of a photograph. That's one reason black and white remains popular with artists. And why you should consider adding black and white to your digital photography toolkit.

Plus, most digital cameras have made shooting black and white pictures easy. "Black-and-white mode" is a common feature on point-and-shoot cameras. Just make a quick menu selection, and - voila! - your digital camera's sensor translates the scene into black and white. If you like what you see, just shoot, and the camera will record the scene as a black and white image.

Or shoot the same scene in color mode and in black-and-white mode... then compare the two.

If your camera doesn't offer the option of shooting in black and white, you can still get the same effect. Most good photo editing software packages let you convert a digital color picture into a black-and-white photo. So even if you think a shot would look good in black and white - but you can only capture it in color - you  can still get the look you want.