Sunday, March 20, 2011

Black & White

Before digital, choosing B&W over color was a conscious and predetermined choice.  You decided what you wanted and picked your film.  The digital revolution has changed all that.  With a few exceptions, all digital cameras capture color images.  They generate images that exceed the quality of 35mm film and rival medium format and also offer the ability to choose B&W over color.  So, what to do?  Color or B&W?  Coke or Pepsi?

I love working in B&W.  As I said in my blog post on New York in the Snow, “B&W is just more subtle and interpretive than color photography.  B&W images are not direct renditions of their subjects, but are abstractions from reality, representing colors in shades of grey.  Wikipedia.  B&W captures the essence of a scene, the very feeling of a scene without the distraction, the baggage if you will, of added color.  The eye is free to see the substance of the scene without being overwhelmed with color."