Why Black & White

Athiril · May 20, 2010

Our existence isn't black and white, and not all dreams are in colour.

ozphoto · May 20, 2010

For me, it forces me to look beyond the "pretty colours" to make the image sing.
B&W needs tone, texture, form etc to make impact on the viewer.

Plus it is much easier for me to process and print a B&W print than a colour one. I enjoy the time I spend making "Fine Art" prints alongside nice images to give as gifts to family and friends - shutting out the happenings of the outside world for a few hours, relaxes me and refreshes my creative outlook.

Shadowtracker · May 20, 2010

As I told my daughter; "Black & White tells a story, color makes it pretty" but that's only a partial truth. First Love, for sure. Latitude in different approaches and interpretations of the same negative is another. Forgiveness in exposure is there as well.

But overall, there is a timeless quality to b&w photos that isn't there with color. I do shoot some color sometimes but usually not for the same end result. My sister-in-law, years ago had seen some of my color photos. Her comment was "you see in b&w when you take color." It took years to understand what that meant but now, I'm certain she was right.

B&W leaves certain thing to the imagination as well and this, I think is a most important component of my "why" for it. The tone of someones hair or skin, the details of texture, the shading shift on curvature indicating depth. The brightness of color distraction often prevents reflection. And what is a b&w print, if not a reflection as well as insight?

Lanline · May 20, 2010

B&W offers endless options... Each B&W film has it's own unique balance of grain, sharpness and tonal range. Then you have a multitude of developers & development practices to further entice the desired result from the negative. Then when you get to the real silver darkroom printing, again more options for paper, development and toning.

To me it's the like the difference between a boxed microwave meal and the dinner your mom spent the whole day preparing.

The B&W process is truly an art form.

mopar_guy · May 20, 2010

PhotoBob said:
Just wondering what people's thoughts are on why they practice photography in black & white.

What is the attraction or impetus to photograph in black & white?

This question has provoked all of the standard answers about fine art, etc. The OP didn't use the words "art" or "fine" in his inquiry. I guess that I'm not as sophisticated in my tastes as some of the artists that respond. Sometimes I just happen to have some Plus-X in the camera and I make a black and white print.

Sometimes I will see people using a digital camera while I am lugging around my Speed Graphic. It can really drive some of these digisnappers nuts and I love the look on their faces.

Changeling1 · May 20, 2010

Chazzy said:
Black and white is for fine art. Color is for family snapshots and calendar art.

Actually I take my family snapshots in black and white too. Call it the force of tradition.

How about "Color is for avatars, black and white is for photographs"?

photoncatcher · May 20, 2010

Firstly, it's what I started with. Back when I first shot a roll with my Brownie Starmite, color printing was almost un heard of, and very pricey. Secondly, control. When I'm in my darkroom I have complete control of my final image. I know that I could do the same if I set up to print color, but I'm also not willing to, or able to afford the expence of color printing. I also feel that a black and white image will force the person viewing it to see more than the colors, and actually take the time to see the composition, and subject matter.

Vonder · May 20, 2010

I think color can represent reality far too accurately. Our vision, as primates, is color, so color photographs to me are like seeing. What I see with my eyes is reality. Unless I've had too much to drink.

B&W strips the reality away. We don't see in B&W so every B&W print is interpreted - you add the colors yourself, if your mind works that way, or you ignore the missing color altogether and focus on the smile, her eyes, her posture, the way the clothing or lack thereof accentuates things. Does the photograph move you? Make you feel happy, sad, or evoke fear?

Rarity too, plays a huge role in my appreciation of B&W. As I don't process my own C-41 or E-6 I get them from a lab, and I usually print the whole roll with C-41. So I have 15, 24, or 36 color prints. With B&W I develop my own film. I scan the roll and then decide which, if any, I will print. So I have far fewer B&W prints around, but the ones I do have are much better because I chose them. Nobody else is involved. It's me versus the enlarger, the negative, the filtration. I control it all for better or worse. That makes it personal. I kinda like that.

seadrive · May 20, 2010

I love all the different shades of gray, much more so than the different shades of red, green and blue.

"The photographer’s problem, therefore, is to see clearly the limitations and at the same time the
potential qualities of his medium, for it is precisely here that honesty, no less than intensity of
vision, is the prerequisite of a living expression.

This means a real respect for the thing in front of him, expressed in terms of chiaroscuro through
a range of almost infinite tonal values, which lie beyond the skill of the human hand."

- Paul Strand

tkamiya · May 20, 2010

This may be a bit weird but when I see well done B&W photographs, I don't see them in B&W. My eyes see shapes and compositions, then my brain fills up the rest. I see them just as naturally as I were seeing the real scenes.

I do shoot both in color and B&W and I like them both but for different reasons. Why I also shoot in B&W? Because I like its possibilities. It's less cluttered. It's simple. It's soothing. Just some simple shapes can be made an work of art. The same is not always true when I add color.

*just* my opinion....

Rick A · May 20, 2010

Does anyone else do this, look at a well executed color photograph, proclaim its beauty, then move quickly to the next. Then you look at a well made B&W print and find yourself staring at it, not willing to move on, or coming back to it repeatedly. That is "why blackand white".

jamesgignac · May 20, 2010

It's what I shoot with when I don't need colour - and I don't need colour unless my palette is clear in my mind before I line up the shot.

Therefore I mostly shoot b&w. I can also process it myself as I don't have the means to do colour at the moment...(actually I've lost my darkroom recently due to a move so I can't really do either...but that's another story.)

I enjoy b&w portraits as well and have done quite a bit of that sort of work for others. Night-life, bar-hopping with friends usually finds me with at the very least an Agfa Isolette loaded with b&w & a Metz 45 CT - I can shoot nice and slow films at small apertures and have produced lots of shots of my wild friends this way; kind of an old-world in the modern age sort of thing. I'm sure there are about 100 other uses I have but I'm done spouting on this topic.

Now when it comes to D*g*tal the only reason I see b&w to be handy is that you don't have to mess around pre- or post-production to figure out white balance (ugh...) - but otherwise D* B&W is rather sad in my opinion.

ralnphot,
I always do that...not sure what it is exactly but I do tend to keep my favourite b&w shots by others or myself around me more often.

removed account4 · May 20, 2010

Athiril said:
Our existence isn't black and white, and not all dreams are in colour.

years ago i read an article that stated
that we always dream in black and white + silent
and when we wake up, it comes to life as color with sound
how they came up with that theory or understanding is beyond me ....

Maretzo · May 20, 2010

I like it for the forms and shapes, dynamic range, and the facility to process the film

Larry Bullis · May 20, 2010

ralnphot said:
Does anyone else do this, look at a well executed color photograph, proclaim its beauty, then move quickly to the next. Then you look at a well made B&W print and find yourself staring at it, not willing to move on, or coming back to it repeatedly. That is "why blackand white".

Very interesting. I'm going to watch myself as I work on cleaning up the disorganized stuff around my studio and see.

The way I evaluate my own images is to see whether it's hard to look away from a print. If they cling, it tells me they are worth showing. I have a few I've been looking at over and over for more than 30 years. Always amazes me when that happens. Sometimes, I don't realize that an image has that kind of power until some years later.

perkeleellinen · May 20, 2010

I chose B&W for the purely functional reason that back when I started shooting colour was considered 'too difficult' to process and print at home and I accepted that wisdom as fact.

Last year I started printing in colour and now I don't shoot much black and white at all!

I do miss the red safe-light, though.

msage · May 21, 2010

Black and white photos have something about them, it's like they have a soul. Color photographs, for me, just don't normally have the same impact. It's so difficult to put into words. Color photography is just color most of the time, black-and-white photography really speaks to me. I'm not sure if this makes sense to anyone else but color is "cheap" to me. It is not a matter of convenience, lack of equipment or lack of knowledge to print color, it is a conscious choice to photograph in black-and-white. it's not that I have not been moved by color photography, I have, but I am always drawn to black white photography given a choice of the two.

Henry Alive · May 21, 2010

The main reason: I like it more.
Henry.

Willie Jan · May 21, 2010

A Black and White picture must have a higher grade in content to impress the viewer.
When you show a color picture, often the colors create a cloud in your mind to not look further than that.

Edward_S · May 21, 2010

perkeleellinen said:
I chose B&W for the purely functional reason that back when I started shooting colour was considered 'too difficult' to process and print at home and I accepted that wisdom as fact.

Last year I started printing in colour and now I don't shoot much black and white at all!

My experience is similar, although I probably shoot about half B&W and half colour now. I find B&W to be a much harder discipline so it's nice to relax with printing some colour from time to time.

I think B&W can be much more 'emotional' than colour - i.e. capable of provoking intangible feelings in the viewer. Perhaps because we know that B&W pictures are a less literal representation of reality than colour pictures, we are more willing to augment them with our own feelings. (A bit like reading a book rather than watching a film).

If I might be permitted to mention a specific name, I find that the colour pictures that I am most drawn to are those of Charlie Waite; he often uses a subdued palate and a restricted range of colours, perhaps more similar to monochrome. And more recently he has done B&W work too, which maybe is not surprising.

Larry Bullis · May 21, 2010

Edward_S said:
... I find B&W to be a much harder discipline so it's nice to relax with printing some colour from time to time....

This may seem strange to those who don't print color, that black and white could be harder, but for me, also, it is very true.

I believe that it is because when printing color - unless you are really at the top of the craft and working the medium almost like a painter in your vision and modifying color toward specific ends - the process of making color prints is one of removing what's wrong. If it's too green, you take the green out. If it is too dark, you make it lighter. And so on.

With black and white, it is not so simple, because there are more right answers than just one. You can decrease or increase depth and contrast to enhance or suppress emotional content. You can make night out of day. There is a great deal of flexibility, which means that many decisions must be made.

Maybe it is because I've made so many color prints as an indentured technician, but I find color printing generally devoid of challenge, tedious, and definitely not much fun. When things don't go right, it's less a challenge than a major pain. Black and white, for me, is far more challenging, and far more interesting.

Wyno · May 23, 2010

Funny you should ask that. My partner keeps asking me why I shoot in B&W. She prefers colour, but I've I know that I can express things in B&W that she can't. I think it's because you have to concentrate more on what's actually in the picture rather than the way colours interact.
Mike

Rolleiflexible · May 23, 2010

I'm colorblind.

BetterSense · May 24, 2010

I don't think color is ever going to catch on.

Existing Light · May 24, 2010

BetterSense said:
I don't think color is ever going to catch on.

the whole color thing is a fad, just like digital

Why Black & White

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