Black and white photographs have long been associated with artistic photography, to the point that many people view any use of colour as degrading and dumbing down from the purity of monotone.

It is true that stark black and white images can be very intense and dramatic. Brooding skies look all the more foreboding when bereft of any hopeful blue in the sky. It is also true, through a perceived connection through their use in newspapers, that there is an inherent integrity and truthful reality to any image in black and white.

Intense colour can stimulate the senses.

Light is not just the single most important element underpinning photography, it is the foundation of seeing itself.

Light, bouncing off various textures and surfaces, reflecting off different materials, defines shape and depth around us. The physical world is painted around us from a palette that ranges from intense highlights through to darkest shadow.

Although it would be a fundamental mistake to see light and tone as purely an issue in black and white photography, the lack of any hues in monochrome imagery mean that the entire scene is rendered solely in light and shadow, so light and tone is a far clearer issue.

As a general starting guide, if you are looking to achieve a strong black and white image then you should aim for near black in the darkest shade, near white in the highlights and an even spread of mid-tones connecting the two.

However, this is a very vague rule of thumb. Stark images of almost pure black and white only can be very dramatic and make extremely intense scenes. At the other end of the scale, images produced in only soft gradated tones look dreamy and ethereal.

2.1.0 Shadow & silhouette
The less light there is in a scene the less detail will be visible. However, the deliberate absence of light can actually add to a scene in some cases.

Shadows can add significantly to a shot, or even become the subject matter.

Backlighting within a view can create some intriguing silhouettes.

Here the photo of a lone female wandering the abandoned ruins of a Rabat in Tunisia is made to appear all the more mysterious by the fact we can see no expression to gauge any feeling or emotion. The lack of any detail within the figure also emphasises the eerie silence we perceive from the scene.

2.1.1 Spotlit studio work
Removing all light completely bar an intense spotlight to catch the edges of a subject can produce very abstract images drawn in light.

Framing is any visual element within your scene that surrounds your subject in part or in total, and encapsulates and enhances their prominence within the shot.

4.1.0 The crop
Rather than centering a subject, consider placing them a third of the way across the canvas.

This opens up the background and gives the subject space to interact with in a clear context. This is widely known in heated photographic arguments as the rule of thirds.

Often, in an attempt to step back and capture the whole scene, a bland shot may be the result.

By moving in closer and adopting a more radical crop, a far more intimate shot can be acheived.

b. Lines converge upon the horizon.

5.1.0 positive and negative space
Anyone that has walked into a glass door has already experienced a painful lesson in positive and negative space. Anything solid and in your foreground is positive. Any gaps in between is the negative. (If you ever want to improve your drawing skills, try drawing only the negative space of a complex view).

A sharp definition between positive and negative space enhances the feel of depth to a shot and clarifies the planes of foreground, middleground and background through your chosen view.

One stifling rut that photography rules often fall into is the notion that all photographs must be balanced in the weighting that is apportioned to the left and right of the canvas and that anything in breach of this rule is bad composition.

Certainly it is true that the weighting of every shot you take is crucial, but a deliberate imbalance of the subject matter can often produce dynamic and compelling imagery.

The crux of this issue is a clear distinction between deliberate artistic imbalance and ignorant unbalance. To set out to give one side of the canvas a heavier weighting with a purpose in mind is one thing; to end up with a sloppy unbalanced image through lack of judgement is another thing altogether.

7.2.1 physical juxtaposition
The physical and visual juxtapositions here are numerous. Light building and dark spider. Rigid square windows and round organic spider. Straight lines of windows and angled spider. Blurred backdrop and focused foreground.

This all leads us to the philosophical juxtaposition between man and nature.

7.2.2 philosophical juxtaposition
This photograph from the outskirts of Imber, a deserted village used by the British Army for training purposes, captures the theoreticl conflict that has dogged this embattled hamlet for over 60 years.

In the background we see a church (St. Giles). A church would normally signify a place of peace and sancturay, but in the foreground we see a blunt warning that unexploded debris is scattered throughout the area.

7.3.1 waterscape reflections
Large landscape shots featuring an expanse of water are crying out for you to find the reflection of the mountains or village perched on the coast. In attempting to fit the sky in, never inadvertently crop out the reflection below.

These shots show the nightlife of Amsterdam reflected in the canals.

7.3.2 revelation reflections
Revelation reflections are not as grandiose and lofty as they sound. This is merely where you employ a reflection in your shot in order to display details that would be otherwise hidden.

Using this classic 'looking in the mirror' stance also enables you to get two angles of the one pose in the same shot.