1. So what do you MF shooters prefer the look of in quality and resolution, color or b&w?
2. I've been doing a lot of b&w work since I got my Mamiya 7 but haven't done color yet.
3. I really dig Martin Parr's work but I'm trying to come to a conclusion on which medium I want to work with for the next couple years.
numbers added for clarity;
1;not sure 'in terms of quality' works as a question that can be applied to b&w v colour, however b&w film and self processing for most people provides more oppotunity to experiment and increase skills or redo a subject/picture and changing the light/contrast in the picture...even though 'life' is in colour this is what i like about b&w, it forces you to look at the compostion, subject matter,
light and shape within the frame...when done well, the end print excites and chalanges the minds eye, it lets you see things that you ordinarely ignore, the same picture in colour, often the colour is the distraction, it doesnt excite the minds eye/or hold the interest of the viewer as long, can become boring to look at over time.
having said that doesnt mean shooting colour or viewing colour prints is dull or boring (more of a chalenge for casual oppotunities to appear though). in the right circumstances colour is the best choice and more visualy stimulating than the same shot if taken with b&w.
In terms of 'resolution', again i am not sure the comparison applies, they are different animals...grain ect
2; its easy to answer, dont limit yourself to just one or the other. my personal preferance is toward b&w but for certain things colour is my choice. my list where i would use colour is long-sunsets ect ect , but suffice to say if the colour in the scene is what is visualy exciting, then thats what i want to capture. also i use colour for everyday snap shots and family outings/bbq ect..they are usefull just for the recording but more often than not colour clashes in a scene to much to make a
fine art print.
3; i had a quick look at some of his work. JMO but i quickly split his work into 3 ruffly even catergories. 1st cat was pictures that were best in colour and a percenatge of those were excellent pictures. 2nd was a group of pics that i thought would work just as well or better in b&w. 3rd was a group that didnt impress my much, little more than snap shots taken on the weekend at the horse races, ok if you were simply reporting the days events but nothing worth looking at more than once and would be just as boring if taken with b&w.
of course for most of us this later cat is what most of our shots fall into
