When you go digging through photo history, you come up against a mountain of powerful B&W photography. Yeah, I know B&W came first but if some of these iconic shots were colorized, would they lose their power?
Confession time: I seldom convert (or even consider) my shots as B&Ws, but I was playing in Lightroom and one my newer shots really seemed to pop after subtracting all those rainbow colors my camera chip is so proud to capture.
So, since I’m home sick (again) I started considering Ted Grant’s statement:
When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!
So, here is my original and my B&W conversion. Which shot do YOU more readily connect to?
Leave a comment, tell me what you think!
Sunday, 6. September 2009
I prefer the color version.
But then, I’ve never been a huge fan of black and white. I occasionally see a great shot in black and white, but not often.
Monday, 7. September 2009
Interesting. . . . I looked at the two photos as I would have two headshots in a stack of headshots for casting purposes. The color version actually looks more forward-moving, like she’s active and coming in toward the camera. The color also allows me to see how light plays on the plains of her face, but that’s a technical thing.
The B&W one actually feels more closed off to me. Flattened and further away from me. It is definitely a different kind of interesting, a quieter one.
I wouldn’t pull both of these shots for the same part, that’s for sure!
Sunday, 13. September 2009
It’s not so much that I “connect” with the B&W image as much as the B&W treatment seems to add a classical element to the photo. There a reason so many fine art photographers still work in monochrome.