After digital photography broke on to the scenes, it evolved at such a fast speed that it has literally replaced film photography as the default standard for imaging in less than a decade. The changeover created its fair share of difficulties as well as growing pains, but as technology evolves, so do the processes.

But digital photography goes beyond the technology; it is about the images and their content. It is about the mood, and the formal arrangement contained in the images. The goal of The Art Of Black And White Photography: Techniques for Creating Superb Images in a Digital Workflow is to help you become familiar with digital photography and help you focus on the image again. Author Torsten Andreas Hoffmann's work is 272 pages in length, contains 35 chapters, and is divided into four sections.

Section 1, "Tools and Fundamentals," gets to the heart of digital photography, the camera and other tools that are used for capturing great images. First you will see how to choose the correct camera. In this section you will learn about sensors, the kind of sensor you should choose, and the advantages and disadvantages of using compact cameras. Next you will see why you should always photograph in RAW Mode and how it collects all of the data that you will need for processing the best black and white images. Finally you will explore the types of filters that you should use and what they can do for your images.

Section 2, "Photographic Genres and Concepts," shows that to get beyond the clichéd photo, you first have to ask yourself what characterizes a clichéd photo; in most cases it is a poor copy of a photo that has been reproduced numerous times. If you think of the Eiffel Tower, you can imagine how hard it would be to get a unique picture of this photographic icon. In this section you will learn about different types of photographic styles and what makes each of them work and not work.

Some of these styles of photography include street, landscape, architectural, surreal, and portrait. Here you will learn how to use existing techniques to capture some of these styles and how to make these styles your own. What you should come away with in this section is what really interests you and how can you make the type of image you are trying to create more authentic, and how can you impose your feelings and emotions on the image.