Ok only color or B/w?

[Chris101]

... Now that C-41 processing is getting more & more scarce I will weed myself off the stock of color film I have ...

I don't see the scarcity. There are half a dozen 1-hour labs within a couple miles. I just think B&W looks better than color photos.

 

[jsrockit]

Color only... but luckily I don't have to make such a choice.

 

[chris000]

I only shoot Black & White now

 

[nikon_sam]

If I had to choose it would be...B&W...even though there are wonderful color films out there...I started in B&W and after years of shooting a ton of color slides I have returned to my first love...

 

[Rangefinder 35]

Color

Color

I have to say color, though I love the B&W as well. But when I look at my best shots, most of them are in color. When I used a 4x5 camera and could process each sheet of film separately, I'd shoot the B&W more often. Sometimes the color makes the image, sometimes lack of it forces one to focus on shapes and textures.

 

[paulfish4570]

I see when I know my camera is loaded with black and white. I see light.
I look when my camera is loaded with color. I look at color(s).
Seeing is better than looking. Light is far more important than color: ergo, I mostly shoot black and white.
But I must confess, I like what I got with my first roll of Portra vc160. It has subtleties that approach the soul of panchromatic film ...

 

[semilog]

^--- Paulfish nailed it. Forced to choose, B&W.

 

[35mmdelux]

There's only two colors, Black and White.

Todd

Didnt someone say black is the absence of all color?

 

[gavinlg]

Color.

I love BW but 90% of the time feel like the shot would have been better in color.

 

[nakedcellist]

B&W. I simply suck at colour.

 

[Pablito]

I shoot mostly colour , real life is in colour , b&w is special effect .

http://www.etiennemichiels.com

Real life is in 3-D.

 

[semilog]

Real life is in 3-D.

Real life often has a 1,000,000 : 1 brightness range. Good prints or monitors have about 10,000 times less dynamic range than that.

 

[thegman]

One problem I perceive with colour (if you're a film shooter) is the limitations in high speed colour film ... there's not too many choices! I think you can still get Fuji 1600 superior but I don't see it listed at Freestyle or many other places so obviously it's not a hot seller.

My experiences with Fuji Pro 800Z left me a little non plussed ... it's a nice film but exhibits a bluish tinge a lot of the time, particularly in artificial light. Black and white film negates this problem and allows you to concentrate solely on composition and content.

I was quite impressed with Portra 800 when I tried it out, would certainly use it again if I need the speed.

 

[Mephiloco]

I shoot b&w for a few reasons. It's cheaper (considering the quality) and I have more control over my final product. Also, the lack of a good high speed color stock leaves a lot to be desired. I shoot Acros 100 and Tri-X for the most part, and those two stocks can cover every situation (seeing as how Tri-X can push over 3200 with acceptable prints). Good color film stock is about 3-4x as expensive as B&W stock, then the cost of processing. If I need to shoot color I'll grab my DSLR, it does better than color negative film anyways.