Why do you photograph in black and white?

[Don Hutton]

B&W would not have made Van Gogh a better painter anymore than color would have made Edward Weston a better photographer.

Maybe, but at least no-one could have chewed his ear off about it....

[sanking]

Along those lines......When I envision an image in b&w but find all my available filters wrong or to blunt for the tone change I want, it is time for some color negative film where I can get the change I want in the b&w conversion process. Even though it may be shot on color film, the intent is b&w and I never consider one of these images anything but a b&w image

It is pretty amazing what kind of control you can get in making the B&W conversion from color negative film in CS3 to B&W. When I was in China last fall I exposed several rolls of color negative film with a Mamiya 7II camera, in conditions of very great subject light range. When I looked at the negatives I figured the range was so great that the negatives would be difficult or impossible to scan and print. However, just to see what might happen I scanned one of the most difficult looking ones, then took it to the B&W conversion in CS3. Wow, I was amazed at how the use of one of the various color corrections evened out the very high densities in some area of the print.

I am thinking back on the subject brightness range in the conditions in which those negatives were exposed and believe it must have been at leat 15 stops. Capturing that range with B&W film would certainly have been possible, but not without special developing procedures. With the color negative film I just exposed for the shadows and had the film developed at a local lab.



Sandy King

[r.e.]

B&W would not have made Van Gogh a better painter anymore than color would have made Edward Weston a better photographer.

Yes, that's my point.

[sanking]

Maybe, but at least no-one could have chewed his ear off about it....

Yeah, and without the color of the blood who would have noticed?

Sandy King

[Don Hutton]

Yeah, and without the color of the blood who would have noticed?

Sandy King

Would have been even more dramatic if he'd had grey gunge oozing out.

[Merg Ross]

Since Kirk made mention of Edward Weston, take a look at his color work from 1946 and 1947 using Ektachrome and Kodachrome. Compare, for instance, his Kodachrome of "Rock, Point Lobos,1947" with "Point Lobos, 1930" (same subject, silver gelatin print). And then, read his short essay from around 1953 entitled "Color as Form". He had the ability to embrace both color and black and white. I believe it was Steve who mentioned the "either or" proposition. I agree, it makes no difference, some happen to be masters of color, some of black and white, and occasionlly some do both extremely well.

[Bruce Watson]

The proof is in the pudding.

Really, it's not. The original phrase has been mangled unmercifully for a long, long time. Its origin isn't clear, but it's arguably most famous use comes from Cervates' Don Quixote thusly: The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Sorry. I'm just feeling very pedantic today for some reason. Hopefully this phase won't last too long and I can go back to photographing. Sigh...

[Vaughn]

Really, it's not. The original phrase has been mangled unmercifully for a long, long time. Its origin isn't clear, but it's arguably most famous use comes from Cervates' Don Quixote thusly: The proof of the pudding is in the eating.snip

"Hey, Honey! Have you seen that new proof sheet I was looking at last night?"

"The proof is in the pudding, Dear."

[Benno Jones]

I'm probably just stating what others have said in a different way, but I think the brain processes black & white differently than it does color, treating it as abstraction regardless of whether the image is familiar or not. I think most people will accept b&w abstracts as such while they'll spend lots of time trying to figure out just what a color abstract "is".

[domenico Foschi]

B/W being an abstraction of the commonly perceived world, frees us in transforming it even more, reducing it to tonalities and shapes and relationships that affect "alternative sensory organs".