When do you choose color vs BW?

[Ccoppola82]

For my film work I have always selected BW because it is what got me into film and I love darkroom work. After being inspired by some great color photographers, I’ve been giving some thought as to when to use color vs BW in both film and digital. For example, in a very good video I watched with Sam Abell, he says “blue is too strong a color, so I shoot in grey skies” and things along the lines about bad weather makes good photographs. So, I would like to pose the question to members her that shoot both color and BW, when and why do you choose one vs the other? Interested to hear feedback.

 

[Prest_400]

This will be an interesting thread as I tend to be on the fence.
Lately been shooting mostly just medium format B&W. Finally after many years I've secured access to a community darkroom and it is a delight being able to do the whole process up to printing with my own hands.


But still, I have quite some Color Neg film frozen and some slide. The former I don't load very often now as it will later take ages for me to send into a lab and then it's for scans. Slide, with the initiative of some photo club members, we are splitting the use of some E6 kits and develop on an agreed period. I have to find an afternoon to finish off some leftover Provia frames.


Having a single proper medium format camera without interchangeable backs makes the decision more crucial, as it locks me into the choice.


I haven't warmed up to 35mm B&W. I prefer the larger and fewer frames of medium format. This opinion might change as I print some negatives from early this year if I find a rainy day.

Consumer Color neg film goes along nicely for a snapshot aesthetic in 35mm and I find myself using it during summer.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Color is if I want to have more information.

To me human candids are bw. It divides humans from the rest more clearly.
I like to take candids on film and with bw it means easy to print under enlarger.

I started with ORWO slide film, btw. Sometimes I just like to take pictures on color film.
I do take most of digital in color and like it just as color film.

 

[johannielscom]

This only works in B&W for me.

Jozefkerk Assen by Johan Niels Kuiper, on Flickr


This only works in color for me.

Forget Your Past by Johan Niels Kuiper, on Flickr
​

I really don't know why. But it's gotta be the one or the other, and often it's really chance what I have loaded and what I shoot, and whether it works.

I like it that way. If photography were an exact science, I'd be painting or drawing I guess.

 

[charjohncarter]

I hardly ever am in the situation to choose. I only take one camera usually with me. But when I wish I had color is when the scene is low contrast and it has different colors.

 

[Mcary]

Though I shoot digital/capture in color I generally have my eye out for scenes that I think will result in good monochrome/B&W images. As far as color goes I generally prefer scenes with just a few colors say for example two or three strong/bold colors that contrast well against each other giving a strong graphic feel to the image or for portraits/people softer colors that help bring out the person/subject.

 

[Dogman]

My love of photography began with B&W. A friend showed me some B&W drugstore prints he had made to use for sketching. I loved the photos. I went out and bought my first serious camera a couple of weeks later. Then came a darkroom and the whole thing started rolling. I shot a lot of slides but mainly I used miles and miles of Tri-X for many years.

When I started using digital cameras I mostly shot color because color was what you got with Raw files. After awhile, I started looking at these old files and discovered most of them had more appeal when converted to B&W. At that point I began to pay more attention to shapes, textures and light than to colors. Today the vast majority of my photos are composed as B&W. All my cameras are set to preview the images in B&W. When using EVF cameras, I see the scene in B&W.

 

[shimokita]

My friends prefer color so if I am shooting with/for them it's color. On road trips where I am in a location for a couple of days I randomly shoot color for variation, depending a bit on the weather.

 

[DennisM]

B&W vs Color

B&W vs Color

For my film work I have always selected BW because it is what got me into film and I love darkroom work. After being inspired by some great color photographers, I’ve been giving some thought as to when to use color vs BW in both film and digital. For example, in a very good video I watched with Sam Abell, he says “blue is too strong a color, so I shoot in grey skies” and things along the lines about bad weather makes good photographs. So, I would like to pose the question to members her that shoot both color and BW, when and why do you choose one vs the other? Interested to hear feedback.

As Elliott Erwitt said: "Color is descriptive. Black and White is interpretive." That about sums it up for me.

 

[olifaunt]

I've been shooting mostly B&W for the past year but am looking forward to loading some color film as soon as I can finish this last B&W roll in the camera. I love both, but my B&W inspiration has slowed down to the point where I have trouble finishing the roll so I want to shake things up; I've been seeing a lot of scenes that would work lately if only I had color film loaded.

 

[rob.nyc1]

I've been shooting only black and white. I think it gives me more artistic freedom over a given scene. I can more easily make different parts of the scene pop or drop out, depending on what I'm metering, without the rest of the image looking mediocre (black and white is pretty forgiving). And I can push it pretty hard in low light scenes when necessary, with great results.

It's weird, but with color film I find myself capturing what the eye is literally seeing. But with black and white, I'm more able to make a personal statement about the scene using highlights and geometry.

Then again I'm pretty new at this, discovering things after every roll.

 

[Freakscene]

When? In 1998 I chose black and white and have stuck with it for my own work since.

Maybe that wasn't what you were asking...

Marty

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I've been shooting only black and white. I think it gives me more artistic freedom over a given scene. I can more easily make different parts of the scene pop or drop out, depending on what I'm metering, without the rest of the image looking mediocre (black and white is pretty forgiving). And I can push it pretty hard in low light scenes when necessary, with great results.

It's weird, but with color film I find myself capturing what the eye is literally seeing. But with black and white, I'm more able to make a personal statement about the scene using highlights and geometry.

Then again I'm pretty new at this, discovering things after every roll.

Check out Alex Webb's photography; he does the same thing but with color. 🙂

 

[rob.nyc1]

Check out Alex Webb's photography; he does the same thing but with color. 🙂

Wow I just checked him out. Really amazing stuff, thank you for sharing! If only I had an ounce of that talent 🙂


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Archlich]

This is an excellent question. It has always been very easy to answer the question "why do you shoot B&W" but never quite so when it comes to color...

 

[Dogman]

As a short addendum to my post above, I will go with color over B&W only when the colors add to the mood of the scene photographed. Hard to describe but, IMO, many times color detracts from the image.

 

[retinax]

As a short addendum to my post above, I will go with color over B&W only when the colors add to the mood of the scene photographed. Hard to describe but, IMO, many times color detracts from the image.

This is what I used to do when shooting digital. Now I only do black and white, because it's beautiful and I can print it in the darkroom. But sometimes I come across something that makes me want to do colour. At some point I might, but not too soon.

 

[Bill Clark]

Only digital for color. I can change color digital to black & white.

Black & white film only. No color film anymore. I still use C-41 to develop Ilford XP 2 Plus film. I’m falling behind as I have a few rolls of film to develop.

I don’t really think or fuss about it as I sometimes use a film camera and at other times digital.

I like my iPhone. Made some nice panos with it. Family reunion on my wifes side made a group photo, a little over 100 people, with my iPhone. Photos came out just fine. I was lucky!

Hope this helps.

 

[olifaunt]

This is an excellent question. It has always been very easy to answer the question "why do you shoot B&W" but never quite so when it comes to color...

Because some pictures need color, or they won't work the same:

Garry Winogrand:

Vivian Maier:

Joel Meyerowitz:

Fred Herzog:

 

[Godfrey]

For me, color work is the domain of digital capture exclusively now. When I work with film cameras, I always fit B&W film.

I see very little point to dealing with the complexities of color film processing, the limited DR and latitude of color transparency, or the difficulties of inverting color negatives to positives. I can do all of them easily enough, but why bother with all that? Doesn't make any sense.

B&W film is easy to process and easy to render as I like it, and retains all of its charm for me.

When capturing digital, I capture exclusively raw image data. I might have B&W or color rendering in mind when I make the exposure, based on whatever the scene and my mood at the time of shooting happen to be, but I leave the decision on how to render it to the rendering time after the capture is made. Proper focus and proper exposure give capability to do either with equal versatility and quality.

G