Classic Black&White Versus Color

Classic Black&White Versus Color

by William Lulow

Many people were delighted when Kodak first introduced its Kodachrome film for 35mm cameras back in about 1935 or so. Prior to that, most images were rendered in monochrome tones because that was all that was available. And, back in about the 1820s or so, when the process of making photographs permanent with chemicals was introduced in France and England almost at the same time, people were equally amazed that they could look at a printed scene. Prior to this time, painters used the Camera Obscura to help with getting perspectives correct in their paintings, but had no way to preserve the images. 

Now however, with the proliferation of color film in commercial use in the 1950s, and with the advent of the digital age, color is ubiquitous. but sometimes it can be confusing if there is too much of it in one photograph. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. This image I shot in Amalfi, Italy on a recent trip was made with normal, landscape settings on my digital SLR. I immediately thought that the image on the LCD was too confusing in color and kept in mind that I would probably have to convert it to B&W just to see if it played better in that format. I think it is better in B&W because it has a more classic feel to it. 

The thing to remember about color renditions is that certain colors, mostly the bright ones, tend to attract our attention. So reds, pinks, bright yellows or bright greens are what we see first. In this case, even though I sensed I might have captured a nice street scene, I thought that it would look much better as a classic Black & White image. What do you think? I have tried, in these instances, to adopt what I call the “Cartier-Bresson approach” of kind of waiting for interesting people to pass through the frame, since it is almost impossible to get a scene with no people these days. Every place is crowded, and that adds to the kind of anonymity that Cartier-Bresson was striving for in his images. You just stand there and wait for something interesting to happen! 

Here are some additional monochromes:

My point is that even though we see the world with all its colors, when you are trying to say something in a photograph about a scene you saw or something you like, or even a portrait, Black&White, in all its classic-ness is often the way to do it. Remember, that before color, we shot scenes with good old Tri-X Black&White film. Color film was much more difficult to process, requiring more precise temperatures of solutions and stricter time limits. Black&White was much easier and more readily available. People had amateur darkrooms and learned to process film themselves. It was the way we all learned the science involved with making images. 

One of my original portraits shot in the studio with my original 4×5 view camera:

So certain images cry out for color and some work better in monochrome. Depending on the scene and the purpose of the photograph, photographers must decide which works best.

This image just cried out for color:

The juxtaposition of the red surf board on one side of the image and the rest of the scene mostly monochrome, made for an arresting image. 

With the advent of the digital process, it is now possible to include both B&W and Color in the same image:

Here, the warm flesh tones of the people against the gray background of the city make the people stand out more. (Done with masking and filtration in Adobe Photoshop). 

So the takeaway here is that certain scenes are aided by both modes of rendering in photographs and it takes being able to see your own work as others might and being able to look objectively at how you want to show your pictures. It’s not always easy to do but it merits the practice.