Aesthetics of Colour and Black & White

[leafy]

I just watched "Schindler's List" last week. To me, shooting this film in B&W is "appropriate". It looked more "abstract" that way, in many scenes that would have been too "straight in the face" if they were in colour. I think that was part of the reason that a few passages were in B&W in "Kill Bill", to make it less "real".

 

[Jocko]

There is no such thing as an honest photography, or an honest frame in a movie. All is reproduction, all is fiction. Whether film or digital, color or B&W, Photoshopped or dodged and burned, we do not even strive for authenticity - we strive instead to match an image that we hold in our minds.

B&W removes all doubt - the viewer is instantly aware that this is not 'real' but is instead telling us something other than 'what it was' at the moment the shutter closed on the scene. Depending upon the level of color, the obvious manipulations, and so on - the viewer may be tempted to believe a color image as a true representation. They will never do so with B&W.

One is not superior to the other - but B&W is no less honest than color - in fact, by informing, it is more honest in that way.

Best Regards, Bill Mattocks

I quite agree Bill - for me one of the glories of photography lies in its "trojan horse" nature. At least until quite recently, when people became saturated with images, photographs were widely regarded as representations of objective reality. Think of those Victorian Spiritualist pictures, the "Surgeon's Photo" of the Loch Ness Monster or the infamous Cottingley Fairies" - in each case the photograph was proof, when in fact it was the absolute opposite.

Photography allows us to misrepresent reality!

I would certainly never claim that either B&W or colour was the more honest medium- but I would suggest that each inspires a different reaction amongst the general public - at least those of my generation. I was born in 1963. I grew up in a gradually less monochrome world, where the two terms invariably applied to B&W were "arty" or "gritty". It was either the high-art, high-culture fashion shoot or pure news reportage - somehow "real photography", which easily became "photographs of reality". In the UK colour TVs were very rare before 1970 and many "serious" programmes remained in B&W for years. Colour meant holiday snapshots, sitcoms and movies. It was fantasy, the facile, the pretty and the obvious.

I was on a commuter train on the day when the first British newspapers printed colour pictures. My fellow passengers were so amazed they actually started talking to each other! Everyone agreed that it was ridiculous - it "didn't look real" or the paper "was like a comic". Reality was black and white. When I took up photography in the early 80s all the serious amateurs I knew regarded colour as declasse - stuff for little happy snappers' little happy snaps.

That situation has utterly changed. Colour is ubiquitous, which necessarily changes how we see B&W. This was Ruben's point, and I think he is right.

 

[Oliver]

I just watched "Schindler's List" last week. To me, shooting this film in B&W is "appropriate". It looked more "abstract" that way, in many scenes that would have been too "straight in the face" if they were in colour.

I didn't like the use of B&W on that movie. I think it just felt like trying to make the movie "old" in feel. Actually, what bugged me even more was the sweater bit - if you're doing B&W then do B&W. I know what you mean about it lessening the impact, and maybe it was worth it in that sense.

A bit off-topic, but what struck me when reading your thread.. For a while now, I've been doing all my shooting in color and convert to B&W after. But I have found I visualize better for B&W if I know I have no choice, so I've bought some more B&W film. Given the option to shoot something in color, I have trouble seeing it B&W - or maybe it changes the kind of shots I choose to take. There are lots of folks who do this successfully, of course, just not me. I don't know how I'll solve this problem with a digital camera 😉 maybe the RD1 would work, and I'd need 2 - 1 for color and 1 for B&W.

 

[leafy]

A bit off-topic, but what struck me when reading your thread.. For a while now, I've been doing all my shooting in color and convert to B&W after. But I have found I visualize better for B&W if I know I have no choice, so I've bought some more B&W film. Given the option to shoot something in color, I have trouble seeing it B&W - or maybe it changes the kind of shots I choose to take. There are lots of folks who do this successfully, of course, just not me. I don't know how I'll solve this problem with a digital camera 😉 maybe the RD1 would work, and I'd need 2 - 1 for color and 1 for B&W.

It occuured to me that maybe the theory is that B&W is about subtraction of the distracting elements, about isolation of the subject, about bringing the impact of the image to the viewer. Colour, on the other hand, is about making the scene more vibrant, bringing as many elements as possible in within scope. We often see vignetting or gradation towards the edge of a BW photo a plus instead of a flaw, this may be the reason for that.

 

[projectbluebird]

...a) As colour is the dominant media, b&w cannot be used any more undiscriminately, as my general film...
Ruben

Help me to understand here, is this saying that (for you) color is your basic film, and B+W is for special occasions?

As someone who does all of my own processing, I actually find the opposite to be true. Mostly because the lab here at school is geared towards black and white, but also because the direction my photos have evolved in is more towards the "classic B+W" of the 1950's. Funny thing that, pictures taken with cameras of the era starting to look like the era...

I will say that I think the differences are primarily based on contrast. The majority of pictures (and movies too) now are Color, so B+W sticks out, whether good or not. While most of the pictures up into the 70's were B+W, the color stood out.

I think the end result though, and one that makes me happy to be a traditional photographer. Is that I can pick and choose color or B+W or both. Though it isn't as simple as pushing a button in photoshop. (I know how to use that too)