Before I began experimenting with any kind of photo editing I had never considered removing all colour from my photos. I think I initially saw the power of black and white in a photo when I started using Instagram back in 2012 and they had all the different filters you could quickly and easily transform your photos with. This was way back when I was still in school, but even then I saw how changing a photo into black and white worked so well when it came to people. My first ever black and white photo was of myself playing the guitar (one of my most loved hobbies) and for some reason it just worked. I was smiling and looking down and it just captured the moment perfectly. It showed more than me just playing the guitar;
it somehow depicted my emotion more than it would have in colour.
Some might say that’s down to interpretation...perhaps it is...but this is why to this day I love using black and white edits - which ultimately is perfect when it comes to photographing people!
Take a wedding day for example. It is full of all sorts of emotions. You’ve got the nervous yet exceedingly happy bride and groom. The smiles of their parents, family and friends. The tears of joy (mainly from the mothers) and the laughs from all. A perfect day for capturing all kinds of emotions. The same goes for photos of a family. There are all kinds of emotions there! And all kinds of people too right? Young, energetic children, loving mum and dad, wise grandparents etc.
As the photographer you aim to capture these in a way that when the happy couple and or a family look back at your photos they feel what they felt there and then;
they want to remember those feelings, those happy times.
Don’t be intimidated by the nature of this...The simple transformation from colour to black and white can bring these emotions to the forefront of your photos.
Take a look at this photo:
As you can see it is quite simple. In this photo you look at the photo as a whole; you are drawn to the red coat, drawn to the lighting, there is a lot going on.
Now check it out in black and white:
What is the focus? It’s her face...which is what reflects her emotion.
The white light is so much more prominent on her face that you are automatically drawn to it.
Here is another example. This is one of my personal favourites in black and white:
All you are focused on is his smile, the rest fades away with the colour. Which is the whole point of it! Without the distraction of colour, all you can feel is his smile and how happy he is am I right?
Using B&W to create nostalgia:
I use black and white edits for all sorts of photos. Take a look at this one for example.
I absolutely love this in black and white. Although this isn't particularly about the emotion..it does something similar: it depicts a deeper meaning. In this case, I wanted to give the family a timeless photograph to reflect this time of their life and black and white, to me, has a certain nostalgia to it that makes it feel like time has just stood still for them in this moment.
Black and white photography is powerful; it evokes the feelings behind the image, the feelings the photographer has captured.
It empowers the meaning of the photo that, in colour, would perhaps be simply: pleasing to the eye.
So there it is, why I use black and white! Check out some more of my monochromatic work in my gallery :)
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