Why do you shoot B&W instead of Colour?

[ghost]

Imagine how effective would be color picture for people who are color blind, and now imagine how effective would be black and white image if our eyes could only see in black and white.

when i was a kid, i used to think the world was black and white back in the days of "i love lucy".

by your own argument, color is more effective because we see in color.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Because I like it.

 

[Silva Lining]

I shoot both - although most of my film shooting is B & W my digital stuuf is mainly colour.

I find that I need to make a definite decision to shot colour film or B & W digital!

I do enjoy developing B & W though....

 

[rool]

by your own argument, color is more effective because we see in color.

Exactly.
And that's exactly why it is easier for me to shoot in colour.
I have a profound admiration for people able to shoot good b&w; it's difficult for me.

 

[telenous]

Certainly my English, but not sure I totally understand...
Anyway, I think that color can't always be abstracted. I shoot mainly colour because it's easier for me but I shoot with colour in mind and a lot of my colour shots would look even more crappy than they already are if I abstracted this element...

Sorry if I'm off topic, as I said, not sure I fully understood.

It's my turn to apologise - it seems the term 'superfluous' was stronger than I intended. B&W is basic in some sense that colour photography isn't. Colour adds a variable, which interesting though it is, adds in the complexity of the scene in ways that (sometimes) produce diminishing results. B&W is not the only way, having options is always best, and yet I 'm sure one can see the appeal of B&W in the simplicity it manifests itself.

Best,

 

[ghost]

having some training in drawing helps shoot in bw.

 

[rool]

@telenous: OK, understood now ;-)

@ghost: now I know why I have difficulties shooting b&W, I can't draw for the life of me!!

 

[ghost]

well, maybe you don't actually need to draw. studying drawings might be enough.

 

[raid]

There is B&W photography and then there is color photography. It's like film based photography versus digital photography. We could discuss this topic to death here and we still would have no winners or losers. I happen to enjoy color photography more than B&W photography because it gives me another factor to control and use in a photo. Both types are great to have.

Raid

 

[matt fury]

matt, shame on you! underexposing bw should be a crime.

Well in that case, underexposing b&w would be a misdemeanor and underexposing color a felony.

I mostly shoot indoors or at night. I push my film and have fast lenses, but I still often find myself in a situation where wide open @ 1/15th isn't quite enough, but I don't mind giving it a shot anyway.

 

[ghost]

are we talking a one stop push, or even more? tri-x, neopan 1600, delta 3200?

 

[matt fury]

tri-x at 1600 or 3200

 

[ghost]

2-3 stop push...ok, we're taking you in. you have the right to remain silent...

 

[x-ray]

Because its raw.
Emotional.
Perfect.
No distractions.

Excellent! My subjects would not be improved by color.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=5045

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

Because some subjects are not enhanced by color, others are.

A street shot on a cloudy day in Paris ... color adds nothing. A sunset in the rockies ... color is everything.

 

[Nando]

I think some subjects are enhanced by B&W. I find most people tend to look more attractive in B&W for some reason. A subjective observation... I know.

Personally, I haven't learnt to develop B&W film yet so getting something like FP4+ developed where I live is quite expensive.... around $25 Canadian. Developing colour negative film is much cheaper - $2.99 at the local grocer. What I tend to do is shoot in colour and scan the negatives. I make a B&W conversion of almost every scan I make. (I don't know if that is considered a faux-pas.) Sometimes I like the colour version better, sometimes I like the B&W version. For some reason, I tend to favour the B&W versions. I'm getting to the point now where I can predict which version will look better when I'm taking the photograph.

 

[troym]

B+W is simpler and more forgiving.

I can process my own B+W without too much technical skill, and I can do so very cheaply. I can also improperly expose B+W (sue me!) and still get better results than with color. To boot, using B+W forces you to look at the world in a more abstract way. It's nice training for the eye.

Having said all that, this isn't an either/or proposition. It's just that B+W is my standard film. I use color for a change of pace.

 

[Sylvaticus]

....this leads me to seeing it as a property of your visual brains, whether you are able to "see" colour or B+W pictures more easily. all the time i look upon the process of taking photos as actively seeing + perceiveing

Sebastian, I think you're onto something here (and forgive me if someone else has taken this up, I see I have half a dozen thread pages ahead of me still). I certainly see B&W and colour in different ways, I used to take two cameras, one for each, and as long as I was using both regularly it was OK. But if I used just the one for a while, I experienced a period of visual inertia when switching to the other before I could "see" again in the other mode. Much of B&W picture-making is based on bright/dark contrast, whereas colour picture making is usually colour contrast at similar intensity. That is possibly why many feel that transforming colour to B&W is not really successful, the bright/dark contrast is seldom there. And colour phography is possibly, superficially at least, "easy" because that is the way we see things every day.

I wonder why oil paintings are so rarely done in grayscale? Colour washes yes, and engravings for printing in one ink.

And you've probably inferred correctly that I no longer take one for B&W and one for colour. I no longer have a darkroom, which is where much of the B&W fun takes place.

 

[ghost]

do people who prefer bw generally also dream in bw?

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

About a year agp, someone on this forum summed it up very nicely. Wish I could remember who it was.

"I shoot in color to SHOW you something. I shoot in black-and-white to TELL you something."

Vince I think that it may have been me that said that:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7039

Thanks for remembering the saying!!🙂

Wayne