Posted: Apr 16 2007, 1:39 amSo when is B&W photography appropriate (not including B&W pages, of course)? Is there a certain time where it becomes more appropriate than others? And how do you (especially Onstott) get such rich contrasting highlights and beautiful shadows that add depth to the photo?
Jenn LeBlanc (jennleblanc)
Alumnus/Alumna Metropolitan State College of Denver Jenn's Personal Page Joined: Aug 19, 2006
Posted: Apr 16 2007, 10:19 amB&W photography is absolutely preferred in some situations. When the story needs to have a certain mood, when stripping away the color simplifies the vision, when the light itself is so powerful that color would only hinder the vision then black and white is the right choice.
I have recently discovered, however, hat shooting b&W on a digital camera is not a good idea. I always shoot RAW so the original info is retained, but shooting B/W in jpeg loses all color layer info tht was originally there. The reason this is bad is because in photoshop processing you can fine tune the highlights and shadows within certain color layers for a better final print than if you do this overall.
You go in and desaturate the photo in a new channel mixer layer and then you can filter the light layers independantly, this is even more important because the BLUE layer is the one that carries the majority of the information which means that adjusting, or overadjusting blue is where the pixelazation and loss of tonality comes from.
Anyone who has printed color knows that you can adjust an entire print without touching the cyan filtration on the color head, and you can do the same in digital processing with just the red and green layers. You still need to be careful and not produce an unrealistic print, fr exaple, too much red filtration on a bunch of red roses turns them white.
It is a level of control that you don't have with b/w shooting otherwise. B/w film sees the full spectrum, it has RGB layers just like color film does and you can use filters in the enlarger to enhance or detract from certain aspects of the scene.
I won't make a blanket statement about black and white photography being the best or that it should be used in all cases of whatever. Choosing to shoot color or Black and white shoudl be done on a case by case basis. I think that chhoice needs to be made BEFORE you embark on specific story, because you will need to see differently. But now I believe that shooting black and white from the digital camera to be inappropriate because you give up your processing controls. If I am shooting b/w I SHOOT RAW+JPEG so I have a relative example of the scene in b/w but also the RAW file which has no changed color info, but the full file without any alteration.
For some examples of good use of color and good use of black and white? Most people think that sad or powerfully painfull stories should be black and white, but Heislers finl salute is definitly an example to the contrary, that story belongs in color, no question. The color introduced is very much controlled, I have no doubt he would have avoided any bright lime green or hunter orange clothing had they been present anywhere, the color you find in the story that is the most telling and powerful is red, and the use of red in the story was powerful in and of itself. You can see the Pulitzer winning story here (if for some reason you have been in isolatino for the past 2 years)
http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/
As for black and white...
I would recommend Patrick Davison's photo story about his mother who died from Alzheimer's. Color in a story like this one would be distracting because the story is told in the faces of the people more than in the surroundings. This could have been done in color, yes, but it would not have been as strong.
OK, I'm sure my wonderful computer will somehoe 'forget' all the breaks and paragraphs as I typed them, so I guess I should stop here.
THANKS MIKE...NICE TOPIC I'D LIKE TO HEAR WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY..NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK.
Jenn LeBlanc (jennleblanc)
Alumnus/Alumna Metropolitan State College of Denver Jenn's Personal Page Joined: Aug 19, 2006
Posted: Apr 16 2007, 10:23 amhttp://www.undyinglove.org/main.html
Sorry here is a link to the second story.
Oh yeah, I am still working on perfecting black and white with digital. But when you are shooting for black and white it is all about contrast and light. Simple as that. Without contrast and light all you have is mud. Take a clown for example. In color he might be vibrant and amazing...in black and white if the tones are all similar, he'll just look like mud.
Faces and emotions are powerful in black and white if done properly. It is really an argument best left to the individual, in some stories, color is a distraction, not an additional layer that adds to the story.
OK, bye now, really.
Posted: Apr 16 2007, 3:49 pmWow, I'm going to have to reread that a few times. Meanwhile, what the hell is wrong with your paragraphs!
Jenn LeBlanc (jennleblanc)
Alumnus/Alumna Metropolitan State College of Denver Jenn's Personal Page Joined: Aug 19, 2006
Posted: Apr 16 2007, 4:57 pmI KNOW! How obnoxious is that! And it is only on THIS WEBSITE that my computer hates paragraphs...
My computer at work doesn't hate paragraphs!!!
Brian Immel (bimmel)
Alumnus/Alumna Washington State University Brian's Personal Page Joined: Oct 1, 2004
Posted: Apr 18 2007, 10:41 pm
I'm sorry to all you MAC fans out there the the paragraph problem has to do with Safari. I've tried to fix it but every browser has their quirks and bugs.
I'm not a pusher, but when in doubt if you can use Firefox. That's what I design the site with mainly because it's the only browser that looks and acts the same no matter what computer you are on. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Posted: Apr 19 2007, 1:03 pmWe'll just start using html
Jenn LeBlanc (jennleblanc)
Alumnus/Alumna Metropolitan State College of Denver Jenn's Personal Page Joined: Aug 19, 2006
Posted: Apr 19 2007, 4:40 pmBRIAN thanks for the info...after all they are both loaded on my machine. It gets frustrating when different sites use different browsers better. You never know who to start with. I started bookmarking different sites on the different browsers to remind me what to check where. So there I go...now you'll be on my firefox list!
