Black x White

Here’s a secret. I’d probably shoot black and white all the time if people let me. I’d go so far as to say it’s a different medium than color photographs. If forced to choose only one medium I’d most likely choose Black & White. Here’s another secret… I still load a roll of black and white film now and again. There’s just something about the look of black and white negative film that while I can get close with digital, it’s just not quite the same.

I used to hate doing color. The way I did color was by not knowing what kind of film was in my camara.Helmut Newton

These are a couple of photographs a friend Lauren and I made after she was done work one Friday a few months back. I was primarily testing the versatility of my yet again revised one man one light travel kit that I can comfortably carry on a plane or a train. Specifically I was testing how much control I could get in small spaces without a ton of specialize gear. Since it was just for me of course it was black and white. While I looked thru the few shots we made it occured to me that for portraits it’s easy to convice people to go with black and white.

I think people are subliminally conditioned to see anything remotely like a portrait as black and white. On television and in movies that’s about all you see when there are portraits of family as props or even in the background. Of course black and white is a viable options for anything close to a portrait. The majority of people I show the black and white version on the back of the camera or the teather monitor amost instantly gravitate towards black and white.

The few pictures Lauren and I made float in between fashion editorial and portrait (a favorite sub-genre of mine). Personally I think there’s far more opportunity in fashion and editorial to use black and white to better express ideas related to the product. Not every product or piece depends on color. In there’s a certain elegance to black and white that I think would enhance many fashion images where texture and detail and refinement are far more imporant that color. It might even help your brand stand out against a sea of loud color. Something to consider.