A newspaper wants to review your latest book in its print edition (but not on a full-color page). More good news: You’ve got an upcoming appearance at a conference, which still prints its programs – in black-and-white.
You chose the photos for your book jackets, website and social media. As an author or speaker, you know the right photographs are truly attractive, sending a silent message that you’re approachable and inviting people to read your work or attend your next event. Both headshots and candid images reflect the quality of your brand. How would those photos translate into black-and-white?
The transition could be beautiful or messy because, even more than a color photo, a good black-and-white image requires contrast. Without contrast, you wind up with a muddy sea of gray tones, or dark hair looks solid, like a hat. Some photos will convert easily to black-and-white use; others look flat.
Using a copier or printer to print your color photo as black-and-white can be an easy test.
Do you like the result?
If not, get publicity-ready by adding an optimized black-and-white photograph to your media kit. You could start by trying to adjust your own digital photo using photo editing software.
Atlanta photographer Jerry King of J King Images captured the full-color headshots on my homepage and About page, and I asked him for some tips.
“As long as there is good contrast between lights, darks and colors in the image, a black-and-white conversion should work,” he said.
“If someone were using their own software, I would advise them to keep it simple. Convert the color image to black-and-white using the software’s auto feature.”
If it looks good, run with it, he added.
I use picmonkey.com to handle most of my photo editing needs. Jerry was right; using the automatic conversion worked just fine.
Jerry also suggested requesting some black-and-white images from your next photo shoot.
Look at other authors and speakers. Although using the same profile photo throughout their social media properties is a popular choice, you’ll notice many present multiple headshots for other uses, rather than recycling the same one or two photos.