Why and When I Choose Black and White
I failed the first photography class I ever took. This was not a learning annex class, or even a class in high school. Nope, this was in college. I was a photography major. It's a long story (I'll tell you some day, if you're really interested, but it included a final project, procrastination, and possible food poisoning). The professor and I started off on the wrong foot and never got on the right one. He opened the first day of class with a proclamation. We were all experts in the technical aspects of photography so the class would cover none of that. We'd work on the art of forming our style.
Wait, what? This was my first photography class. I had no idea what I was doing. Looking around the room, I saw everyone nodding their heads. They were excited to move on from whatever technical training they'd received in high school and into the wonderful world of "exploring their style." I was behind from the very first day.
The darkroom was a real struggle for me. The chemicals were toxic and smelly, the process took forever, and every step of it was expensive, which put the pressure on me to get it right the first time. This rarely happened. I used packs and packs of paper and bottles of chemicals. After a couple of tries (and a different professor during summer school), I managed to finally pass my first photography class.
I also failed the second photography class I ever took. I did a lot of summer school in college.
The third photography class I took was with an adjunct professor who had been a war photographer in Vietnam. He was salty, and tore the filters off his cigs before smoking them in the classroom (probably still not the most toxic thing in the classroom). Also, he cussed more than I imagined anyone could in one sentence. But he was also the kindest teacher I'd had at VCU. When he saw me struggling (yet again), he took me outside the classroom right then and there and taught me a lesson about light and tones. He showed me how to use light and shadow to convey an emotion or mood. It's the reason I love black and white. It's why I look for high contrast and deep tones in images and try to see how a story can be told without color. He beat it into my brain and cussed it right into my heart.
Poorly scanned version of that lesson where he dragged me outside to show me light and shadow. 2002(?)
Digital technology has brought so many changes to photography. But none so profound as the ease of switching between color and black and white in editing programs. Before digital, a photographer had to choose if a moment was better captured in black and white or color before they even picked up their camera to take the first image. Now you can waffle back and forth after the fact, switching casually between black and white and color in Lightroom to determine if a story is better told with or without the addition of color.
Most times I can decide quickly and easily if a moment deserves color or black and white treatment. When color helps tell the story, I gladly leave it in. Color can add warmth, softness, or separation between subjects that you just don’t have when you take the color away.
I love the softness that the above color version has, and the way her hair is highlighted in the color version. The black and white version draws the eye more toward the burp cloth and the pattern in her shirt, which aren’t the most important parts of the image.
On the other hand, sometimes color distracts from the point of the photo. Sometimes an image is just a picture when it’s in color, and then it becomes iconic when it’s black and white.
This image is much stronger for me in black and white. The textures of the carpet and sweater, and the wrinkles of the body suit all add to the black and white photo, while I feel like the tones in the color version are more distracting and lead the eye around the image instead of directly to the newborn’s head and fingers.
Most of the time, I’ll make the decision and leave an image one way or the other (color or black and white). Sometimes I can’t choose and I’ll make a copy of the photo so it can be both color and black and white. I don’t like to make every image both versions though, because I feel like it detracts from the images that are stronger one way or the other.
I also ask in my client questionnaire so clients can weigh in ahead of time: Do you a) LOVE them! The more, the better; b) LIKE them but prefer color; or c) Dislike them and would not print or share them. That will help me gauge how often to consider flipping an image black and white while I move through a client’s gallery. Even though I’m the expert and the artist, I still take your preferences into account.
Here are a couple of examples of newborn sessions where I did a mix of black and white and color. This one with a 6 day old newborn, and this one with a dog included. Go check them out.