Donations help keep this page published

Donations help keep this blog going. Thank You!

Instagram!

Instagram

Friday, October 28, 2016

Why do we like B&W photography?

Most of us see the world in color. Our brains have the ability to focus in on color, too. Sometimes making the scene appear to be saturated with certain colors.

Many snapshots, tho, show a more balanced scene. We have to use filters (pre or post processing) and exposure tricks to highlight what we viewed in our mind's eye, to show others what we saw.

Nothing wrong with adjusting colors, contrasts, and exposures. That's part of the art of photography.

Sometimes, our mind's eye has a view that differs significantly from the levels present in the scene.

That's where Black & White excels.

For a long time, most photographs were in black and white. Technology advanced and then color became the norm. 

When most photographers were likely using mostly B&W, we found ways to make adjustments that showed what we saw in our mind.

Now, we have to rethink color, contrast, and exposure in order to take our color images and make them into B&W art.

An old photography course book (from the 50s, 60s, or 70s) can help us to see how colors can appear in the B&W medium. And what adjustments were made back then, can be done today. Either with glass filters and altering exposures, or in post processing with a good imaging program. 

Check out these pics. First in color. Filtered, processed, tweaked. Then reprocessed to B&W.







Try your hand at it.

Enjoy!