Color and Black and White (Two Photographs)

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Some of the most famous photographs in the world have been taken in Black and White and it remains an important area of photography. With digital photography Black and White is now something more often done in post processing than in-camera. I returned to Black and White in the past few years, selecting photographs that had the right elements of contrast, composition and subject. In my view it’s harder to do right than processing in color. That is not exactly the way it should be, color depends on quite a few factors: the calibration of your monitor, the color work space of your camera, the white balance you chose to shoot in, the processing software color profile, and the color profile you select in your camera. Color is a science in itself. In Lightroom and Photoshop we have the option to change the camera profiles, change the color space to suit; in addition many of the plug-ins for those applications also affect color. This photograph was taken with a Olympus OMD which has some interesting and dramatic color profiles. In short there are as many options with color as with Black and White, all worth exploring. In my experience vibrant colors can have a dramatic impact; Black and White can isolate the essence of the scene and subject. Both can be used to direct your audience to the nature of your subject. I like how the photographs here have come out but they are two very different photographs.