Comments on: Why Black and White Photography?

By: Danny G.

Danny G. — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:56:10 +0000

I love black and white photography. When I was learning how to shoot with a 35mm SLR in the late 1960′s, I shot primarily in b&w. Many experts say that shooting in b&w helps you learn composition. Perhaps that is true.

By: Sarah Treanor

Sarah Treanor — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:50:41 +0000

I love both B&W and color photography, however it seems that most of my photos tend to always end up looking their strongest in B&W. Which has always seemed curious to me, since I don’t really plan for my photos to be B&W while shooting! I suppose it is my love of high contrasts and bold design elements that just lends my images to live best as B&W =)

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:32:32 +0000

I use Black and white a huge amount in my 3D design on pc and it does give a beautiful result , I also use it in my photography where I can.

By: Aum Kleem

Aum Kleem — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:49:27 +0000

I prefer shooting in black and white but lately have been introduced to the concept of floral art in black and white …
Wonderful article. I tried this image … a yellow sunflower in black and white…. it seemed to have lovely shades of grey…

By: Clive Sinclair

Clive Sinclair — Tue, 10 May 2011 07:36:54 +0000

Colour and B&W both have places in photography. I do however disagree with advocates of B&W saying colour is distracting. If colour distracting either taking a photograph or after it has been taken, then is the subject ‘strong enough’, or is it composed well?

I do believe it is harder to create a good B&W photograph than a colour one. After all most of us ‘see’ in colour.

By: Harry Joseph

Harry Joseph — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:11:31 +0000

I scanned some color film pictures that were shot with Kodak Supra and I was amazed by the tonality of the picures. They came out way better than what ever came out straight of my camera using the Monochrome feature. Even better than color digital pictures that were manipulated for hours using photoshop(although I’m not an expert).

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:18:06 +0000

I prefer shooting pictures and converting them to black and white. Black and white pictures are so beautiful to me. They are flawless. A color picture shows everything that a person sometimes wants to hide. Black and white is pure, soft and speaks in a way that color can’t. I do enjoy black and white photography with a splash of color. I personally enjoy little baby girls, tucking a bright colorful orange or yellow flower behind their ear and bringing it to color while the rest of the photo i take down to just black and white. It turns out amazing.

By: marie

marie — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:52:18 +0000

black & white and monochrome images add a dreamlike and timeless quality to them, its like walking around in another world. it leaves so much to the imagination- if the photo subject is a person with light coloured eyes, you have to imagine- are they green or blue? is the hair light red or blonde? black or brown? what shade of lipstick is that? what shade of green are those trees or how blue is that water? sepia-toned and antiqued images lend much of the same questions. and to me, that is the measure of a powerful photograph- to leave you guessing.

By: Mr Bach

Mr Bach — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:27:31 +0000

I shot mostly B&W when using film, and that’s continued in the digital era. Perhaps the one overwhelming reason to shoot mono, is you don’t have to worry about white balance.

B&W can be enhanced with an IR filter, and the Minolta A1 allows me to change the contrast and color tone, with sepia being an all-time favorite.

If you think B&W is boring, take a look at the photos of Ansel Adams.

By: Phillip A Jones

Phillip A Jones — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 07:04:09 +0000

My 2 Zone Technique in Theory.
*Based on the concept of visual change in negative exposure of one stop ( a factor 2x). This change in tone is referred to as a zone in Black and White photography. Most prints contain about 9 zones. The 18 % reflectance gray card responds to zone V (5). In the Munsell system of color notation, middle value of 5 has a reflectance of approximately 18 %.
*I print all of my Black and White Photos in the range of zone 3 to zone 8, it give me 5 zones to Hand color in the final print. Only the neutral colors ( Blacks , Grays, and Whites), have no hue and zero chroma.
*In my Prints I add color to predetermined points of interest in the fore ground , middle ground, and back ground. I will also add colors to the bottom, in the middle and on the top of each print. This enhances the third dimension and gives the print some what of a fourth dimension. The colors have a tendency to levitate and float.
*I use only color film to create my Black and White Photo Art. Color films have three layers and Black and White Film have only two layers. I find that color films record the true mood of each scene as it really is. Reds are red, blues are blue, and greens are green.
Black and white films records the tones and not the hues and the chroma of each scene as it exist. I use my color prints to aide in my color balancing process Hand tinting each black and white print.
*I have a simple formula that I created, to achieve my color balance and color contrast of each final print. The foreground = A, middle = B, back = C. The bottom = 1, middle = 2, and top = 3. I can place my hues of color in one of the cubes to create unimaginable illusions of Grandeur.