For a long time, I was alway’s a believer in color. After all, we went from black and white TV to color. Our movies that some of us grew up in that were black and white have been converted to color. My start in photography in High school some years ago was with film and yes black and white. So why black and white?
Wedding in Defiance, Ohio
Possibly just like you, I do a lot of reading and learning photography. Why black and white? Today my mind has open to all methods. While I enjoy color, I am enjoying black and white. But why? First, we eliminate the distraction of color. Like the above, there is a lot of green around, and your eye may be seeing the color and not necessarily the couple. Second, when you have definite highlights and strong shadows, you have high contrast.
Bride reacting to speech
When I was going threw the wedding pictures, I enjoyed the above image. No matter what I did in color, I would always notice distractions and not highlight what I wanted, and that was the bride expression. Color was the distraction. Converted to black and white, and the color distraction is gone, and the focus is where I wanted it. On the Bride. It also took away the disturbance on the table.
Couple on the Bride in Defiance,Ohio
Photography is about light. How we use that light is our creation as an artist. I am enjoying black and white more and more it is one tool that at one time I did not understand, but I do now. It is part of my art. One last thing Black and White prints are so fresh and so beautiful. When you like something about a picture, but you can’t quite figure out what is wrong, eliminate the color and then look at it.