"Mastering: Black & White Photography" is the definitive work on how to shoot black & white images on today's sophisticated digital SLR and compact digital cameras and smart phones. Aimed at the enthusiastic amateur photographer, jargon-busting text, illustrated with the author's own stunning images, explains the theory behind digital photography, along with a guide to the equipment and software needed to take outstanding images. He answers the much-asked question: should you shoot in colour and then convert to black and white, or shoot in monochrome from the start. From the basics of exposure and good composition, file types, manipulating captured images using popular software, and applying special effects (such as split toning, simulating film grain, lith prints and using cyanotypes) a number of projects are described for photographing, for example, people, landscapes, architecture, and animals. A final chapter on printing gives invaluable advice on outputting and displaying images.

John Walmsley is a freelance photographer and workshop leader for Focus on Light.