Why Black and White Works
I touched in my last post on the impact of color in photographs. Indeed, color can communicate so many things about an object, a person, or even a situation. As such, in many photographs, the color is a main point of emphasis.
Without the color, this would just be a pretty bland picture of grasses, wouldn't it? (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 200-500 mm f/5.6 @ 440 mm, 1/500 sec, & f/5.6)
So if color is so important to photography, and art in general, why is it that it seems like black and white pictures are almost always perfect without the color? This may come as a surprise to those that aren't as familiar with photography, but there is a method to this color chaos. The obvious scenario when black and white comes into play is a situation where there isn't much color to begin with, and so some other facet of the image is intended to be the focus. Take this picture of the inside of a lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida.
the inside of the aptly named St. Augustine Lighthouse in St. Augustine, FLorida (taken with a Nikon z6 & nikon 50/mm f/1.8 @ 1/80 sec & f/7.1)
Looking down from near the top, there isn't much color to be seen. The black stairs and railings along with the black and white checkerboard pattern on the floor aren't terribly exciting to look at from a color standpoint. With that being said, the architectural design is pretty fascinating and becomes the main point of focus. So to eliminate needless distraction from the little color there was, I decided to make this image all black and white.
While a focus on design can be a scenario where black and white makes sense, another lack of color situation that is quite common is shots taken in midday sun. The harsh light leads to bright, washed out highlights, with highly contrasting dark shadows. The hour before sunset is often referred to as "golden hour" because the fading sunlight gives a pleasing, golden hue to subjects that is relatively evenly distributed (see the first picture above). In contrast, midday sun washes out most color, leaving subjects feeling drab. This is a common occurence for me when I'm traveling. I often have less control over the time of day that I go to places due to myriad factors, so I have to make due with the lighting I am given. For example: going to the beach. When on a trip, nobody else in my family typically wants to go to the beach right before it gets dark (for perfectly understandable reasons outside of photography), so I have to deal with harsh, midday sun. This has led to a lot of black and white beach photos in my catalog.
Driftwood Beach near noon- Jacksonville, Florida (taken with a Nikon z6 & tamron 12-24 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 15 mm, 1/800 sec, & f/8)
In my experience, these two situations, a focus on the subject's shape and/or design and colors washed out in harsh light, are the most common reasons for choosing to make a picture black and white. I'm sure that in the future I may well run into more, but these have been the most prevalent in my four(ish) years of photography experience up to this point.
There is one more big reason that I haven't covered yet, though. For the amount of technical depth that there is to photography, and art in general, there is always the element of personal taste. Sometimes, I look at a picture and just think something along the lines of: "this would look better black and white."
this shot of my dog coco was one that i took and just saw black and white written all over it. Maybe i just want an excuse to post her as well! (taken with a nikon z6 & nikon 50 mm f/1.8 @ 1/500 sec & f/1.8)
At the end of the day, if it's your art, you get to make the final decision. Being your own boss has its drawbacks at times, but this is not one of them. I think that is what I will leave you all with. I believe that there should be a method to your artistic choices, and if asked, it's always nice and sounds good to have some form of justification. But, there's a reason that art and science are different fields. At the end of the day, a feeling is enough justification for me.
I know it's a shorter post this week, but it's been quite a hectic one. Looking forward to this weekend, I'm shooting my first NCAA Division 1 hockey game at Michigan State and I couldn't be more excited. I'll be back next week with another topic and as always, let me know if you have thoughts. Until next time!
