grahamule
grahamule
Well, I was thinking about this the other day on the bus ride to work. And then a thread in this forum (http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111128) popped up that reminded me of it.
Anyway, I was wondering to myself why we seem to prefer b&w photographs over color. This first statement is of course itself arguable, so let me give a short list of reasons that tempt me to think it could have a little truth:
1) Reading forums (not just here). A very biased and limited selection sample. But nonetheless, when people post a picture and ask whether people prefer the color or b&w version, the majority always seem to prefer the b&w version even if the photo has very strong or interesting colors in it.
2) Talking to a few other photographer friends (we mostly use digital), I know that sometimes we get tempted to "salvage" a missed exposure or missed focus shot by converting to b&w. Viewers don't seem to mind as much blown highlights or missed focus if the image is in b&w.
3) I guess related to '2', in my very limited experience, it seems easier to convince a viewer that a photo is "good" if it is in b&w. I will admit that I am probably more critical of color photos than b&w, and let mediocre more b&w images pass as "hey, that's pretty decent." when they should be "meh."
So if I buy that people actually do prefer b&w photography, or have at least a tendency towards b&w images over color, then I started trying to think of reasons *why* people might somewhat prefer b&w photography (if you buy the premise). So the list for this point goes as:
1) Maybe we are conditioned this way. I know growing up, when I was looking through photo books of my dad's or at the bookstore of famous photographers, they were all almost all in b&w. These images, I was told of course, were "good". But 98% of the family snapshots we had were in color. These were regarded as "nothing special" photography-wise, besides of course the personal memories in them.
2) Because most of us see in color all day, every day, and when we are looking at photographs, we expect a separation from everyday reality and seeing the image in b&w helps with this. After all, wouldn't we prefer to see something we don't see everyday in a photograph?
3) Color images have too much information. By making the image in b&w, some kind of distraction is stripped away, and other attributes come forward, or are emphasized, to help the image like content, composition, textures, forms, contrast, etc.
4) Some other kind of subconscious expectation that photos be in b&w. Maybe because for years and years (from the pre-digital days) b&w was much easier to produce, so that is what a "photo" is supposed to look like.
Okay, well that is all I came up with. I'm not sure which if any of the points I really believe, but they all presented themselves to me as plausible during my 30 minute commute. Please note that I am not trying to bash either color or b&w photography, I like a good image either way - but I find myself more critical of color photographs and so more often think not as good b&w is actually good. Has anyone else reflected on this before? Thoughts?
Anyway, I was wondering to myself why we seem to prefer b&w photographs over color. This first statement is of course itself arguable, so let me give a short list of reasons that tempt me to think it could have a little truth:
1) Reading forums (not just here). A very biased and limited selection sample. But nonetheless, when people post a picture and ask whether people prefer the color or b&w version, the majority always seem to prefer the b&w version even if the photo has very strong or interesting colors in it.
2) Talking to a few other photographer friends (we mostly use digital), I know that sometimes we get tempted to "salvage" a missed exposure or missed focus shot by converting to b&w. Viewers don't seem to mind as much blown highlights or missed focus if the image is in b&w.
3) I guess related to '2', in my very limited experience, it seems easier to convince a viewer that a photo is "good" if it is in b&w. I will admit that I am probably more critical of color photos than b&w, and let mediocre more b&w images pass as "hey, that's pretty decent." when they should be "meh."
So if I buy that people actually do prefer b&w photography, or have at least a tendency towards b&w images over color, then I started trying to think of reasons *why* people might somewhat prefer b&w photography (if you buy the premise). So the list for this point goes as:
1) Maybe we are conditioned this way. I know growing up, when I was looking through photo books of my dad's or at the bookstore of famous photographers, they were all almost all in b&w. These images, I was told of course, were "good". But 98% of the family snapshots we had were in color. These were regarded as "nothing special" photography-wise, besides of course the personal memories in them.
2) Because most of us see in color all day, every day, and when we are looking at photographs, we expect a separation from everyday reality and seeing the image in b&w helps with this. After all, wouldn't we prefer to see something we don't see everyday in a photograph?
3) Color images have too much information. By making the image in b&w, some kind of distraction is stripped away, and other attributes come forward, or are emphasized, to help the image like content, composition, textures, forms, contrast, etc.
4) Some other kind of subconscious expectation that photos be in b&w. Maybe because for years and years (from the pre-digital days) b&w was much easier to produce, so that is what a "photo" is supposed to look like.
Okay, well that is all I came up with. I'm not sure which if any of the points I really believe, but they all presented themselves to me as plausible during my 30 minute commute. Please note that I am not trying to bash either color or b&w photography, I like a good image either way - but I find myself more critical of color photographs and so more often think not as good b&w is actually good. Has anyone else reflected on this before? Thoughts?
