Why do you shoot B&W instead of Colour?

[Bosk]

As a newcomber to rangefinders and film in general, I'm keen to know why so many rangefinder users choose to shoot in black & white as opposed to colour, a trend which seems to be reversed when it comes to DSLRs.

So what is it about black and white film that makes you prefer it over colour? 🙂

 

[Nachkebia]

Who said I am shooting only BW? no no no 🙂 I don`t think there is any logical argument you can state why someone likes bw, it is more to do with emotions 🙂

 

[sleepyhead]

Part of it is that B&W tends to be grainier, and some of us like grain.

Part of it is that you can process the film at home and tailor the speed and contrast depending on your lighting conditions and developer.

Part of it is a Purist thing.

Part of it is that the range of tones (black to gray to white) in the original scene that B&W film can handle is wider than with colour film (in general).

Part of it is speed, you can shoot at 1600 ASA and beyond with B&W with the right film/developer.

 

[Rich Silfver]

Why B&W film?

a) Easier to develop at home,
b) Easier to print at home,
c) Consider more 'artistic' and immediately implies you are more serious about photography,
d) Many RF photographers are into 'retro' and B&W film is as retro as it gets,
e) Many uses cameras where they guess exposure - many b&w films allow 2+ stops and can still deliver useful negatives,
f) Many RF/classic camera users have 'heroes' that produced the majority of their work in b&w - so it's understandable that the followers wants to do the same,
g) People likes how b&w images looks - and find colours 'distracting',
h) People like patterns, shadows, human expressions (and prefer b&w film to remove the colour from such scenes and hence just focus on what the subject 'should' be, and,
i) all of the above.

 

[varjag]

Why do you photograph rather than take videos?

 

[lubitel]

Why do you photograph rather than take videos?

thats a good analogy!

 

[Nachkebia]

I think though, shooting BW is much easier, same way as shooting wide angle, because BW by itself is dramatic already.

 

[Bryce]

Making B+W's, start to finish satisfies my need to be a craftsman. The process is 100% hands on, in a way that color processes simply can't be.
The end result (a paper print) feels like true artwork to me. "Retro" isn't the feeling I'm after; it's timelessness. B+W prints have a literal feeling about them that color can never seem to match, in spite of the fact that color prints are generally more accurate to reality. Permanence is both a feeling and a reality that endears the process to me; my prints will survive 100+ years and they look like it. Grain in B+W's feels good, like whole grain bread versus Wonderbread. B+W relies entirely on composition, texture, and form to stand up; removing color from the equation shows these aspects of the image starkly.
So no rational reason, other than maybe proven permanence. I don't plan to stop, though.

 

[clintock]

j) Black and white negatives and prints never fade (so long as the prints aren't made on an ink-jet printer).

 

[VinceC]

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."

 

[Mackinaw]

Two reasons:

B&W images tend to be timeless. Color pictures, after a few years, seem dated.

When photographing a person in color, you're taking a picture of what they are wearing. When photographing a person in B&W, you're photographing their soul.

Jim Bielecki

 

[tomtodeath]

the magic.

 

[Macpod]

easier for b/w to look good. color requires good processing and expensive film.

1 dollar chinese film processed at home looks goodenough for most people. cant beat that for value.

girls also love a guy who has a darkroom

 

[Bill58]

For me, color is distracting and "blinds" you to the detail of the image.

 

[Andrew Sowerby]

I don't exclusively shoot B&W but I like it because grain looks better in B&W and I hate trying to get colour balance right.

 

[Jon Perry]

Why do you shoot B&W instead of Colour?

Because the subject requires it.

Jon

 

[sebastel]

opposed to some other contributions let assume, i made the experience that it is easier for me to do colour. for reasons i do not fully understand, my B+W results are just not that pleasant.

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, which greatly influences also my preference of rangefinder cameras over SLR (both analog + digital).

just to add, i personally _like_ B+W more, while as a consequence of my abilities, i do more colour stuff.

cheers,
sebastian

 

[Terao]

Photography is an abstraction of reality. Using B&W helps my brain understand that its an abstraction rather than real, it eliminates confusion. I have no particular interest in a photo of a place or person that looks like reality - I have my memory to meet that requirement. Of course you can abstract reality in colour film as well (hello Velvia) but even with extreme manipulation in development or digital colour still somehow gets in the way...

For me its actually not a nostalgic thing - I was brought up with colour photography because my father shot colour slide in the 50s. Colour certainly has its place and I do shoot it. With digital its all moot anyway - I can process each frame how I want, and in fact I often do - fire up multiple interpretations of the scene in Photoshop and decide which I prefer.

So I guess for me there's a continuum - some stuff is always going to be colour, some is interpreted according to what pleases my eye, and some is always going to be B&W...

 

[pvdhaar]

I really like to look at B&W prints because they have a timeless quality. So every now and then I load B&W into the camera. But each time I do that, I run into subjects that cry out for colour..

I guess in the end the wisest move is to stick with colour film and have B&W prints done..

 

[J. Borger]

Because there are very very few colorpictures that apeal to me the way B&W pictures do.