How can i achieve the highest possible contrast in my b&w photos whithout using a photo editing software.?

ex. lighting changes
or camera settings

i have a digital slr and i will be taking them in black and white
remember i dont want to use a photo editing software

i also want my pictures to look moody and/or edgy

Try a yellow or red filter for outdoor shots, this will create more contrast, particularly in the sky.

You can't, never have been able to even in the days of film B&W were developed with contrast in mind. It's in the processing that contrast was developed or held back. For digital that's on the computer.

It really is best to shoot in colour and use Photoshop, for preference, to edit them on the computer, funnily enough the colour information is necessary to select various parts of the picture, make the Blues darker, the Reds lighter for example, even though your viewing it in B&W after conversion, and it will print as B&W, it's still colour as far as the computer is concerned, and you can use that to your advantage.

You can make your B&W's anywhere from high key nearly pure white, through 'soft and mellow' to truly 'gothic' with full control.

Chris

If you don't want to use imaging software, then you have to learn and master your lighting conditions. You will have to take your photos in contrasty light until you know the effect that you want. If you want them to be moody then you would have to add some kind of warming or softening filter to the lens.

From what I understand, different effects are achieved by different colored filters with black and white. I have a filter set by Cokin thats about 30 gels. They alot of shades of the rainbow.

Here is one set I found for ya. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/30...
Read the features tab and it will explain a bit to you.