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Black & white Vs. colour
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There have been a number of posts where people have made suggestions about converting images to B&W or where people have asked to see colour versions of B&W shots – this is what prompted this thread.
For me, I shoot primarily monochrome images. There are no colour versions – when I take the shot, I see it in B&W. I don’t look at the colours, I’m looking at the range of tones from white all the way through to dark. A lot of this has to do with how I learned about exposure (Ansel Adams zone VII system).
In short, the final image is B&W and for me, it’s all about the final image. When people ask to see a colour version, it would be akin to me asking them to see an unsharpened shot, without any dodging/burning/framing etc etc. When I shoot a scene, I’m always shooting with B&W in mind – never with the idea of shooting colour and if it doesn’t work out, just converting it.
I think it also applies the other way round, where people suggest changing a colour image to monochrome. In my opinion, the idea of rescuing a colour shot by desaturating/converting it, doesn’t work. The best B&W shots are the ones that were always intended to be that way.
So.. my question is this, Why do you shoot B&W?
Because it the rawest form of photogrpahy.
It leave no room for error on the end of the photogrpaher.
Its beautiful and cutting at the same time.Nothing is more beautiful than a candid shot on a dark night, taken with a fast prime on apx100 or tri-x pushed +3.
Simplicity in a picture.For me at least.
ciaran wrote:
So.. my question is this, Why do you shoot B&W?
Purely asthetic reasons.
Though. due to cost, and my darkroom being all the way in Dublin, and me being all the way in the south, I shoot mostly digital now.
I usually only think pure b&w with B&w film in my camera.
That, said, I try 70% of my shots in monochrome too.
“I think it also applies the other way round, where people suggest changing a colour image to monochrome. “
I’m a big culprit for this. I don’t see it as rescuing an image though, I just want to see what it would look like in B&W, and sometimes the people behind the viewfinder are the most blind about things like that, fortunatly, it’s possible to turn colour to monochrome, and if the option is availible, why not use it!
B&W feels far more natural and, in an odd way, real to me than colour. Both B&W and colour have expressive properties that the other doesn’t (and I’m continually trying to get a hold on colour, it really feels like a different medium than B&W photography altogether), but B&W is simply far more emotional to me. B&W peels away an aspect of everyday reality, reveals it in a more stripped-down, essential form; it has, I think, a unique ability to bypass our inner filter of how we expect the world to look and feel, to reach something more subconscious, closer to the quality of a waking dream. You automatically accept that a B&W photo isn’t “real” – you know that if you saw the same subject from the same vantage point, it wouldn?t look like it does in B&W – and yet you simultaneously recognise that it does represent a very real subject… it fosters a sense of cognitive dissonance, nudging you into a state of perception that allows you to see and feel the subject in a way that you wouldn’t/couldn’t in everyday life, no matter how familiar it may be.
Colour on the other hand is too anchored to reality to get that same effect so easily – which isn’t to say you can’t, but that the bar is set higher, as it were.
That’s my take on it, anyhow…
I, on the other hand, shoot almost entirely in colour (digital). I convert very few to B&W, and generally those few that I do tend to be quite monotone ones anyway. Whereas many photographers say their photography is about the light, mine is all about the subject. The world is in colour, I see it in colour, and a lot of information can be lost in B&W. Maybe I am missing out, and I dare say that as time goes on I will attempt more B&W photography. However, I think B&W is quite a different skill to colour, and I have never been all that drawn to it.
Street photography especially. Many people say street photography is ideal for black and white, and while not disputing that the last two events I have been to have been the Dublin Pride Parade and the Orange Order march in Belfast. It could be argued that these are not classical street photography, but in both these cases B&W would have missed so much relevant information.
I’m nowhere near the stage where i see the shot and think “I’m going to expose for this in black and white” … I just go on the “feeling” for the shot when i’m looking through the results .. I find myself more and more converting to Black and White – for the atmosphere, charachter, drama and various other emotive responses to a photograph.. Thats about as close to a reason as i can offer right now :)
Lorraine
I shoot always in colour – some shots are more suited to b/w or some kind of duotone variation. It really depends on a shot by shot basis imo – some shots colour just doesnt look right – and others the b/w is less of a picture for not having colour.
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