The Villages Loc: The Villages, Florida

Just noticed the Street Photography section, and see that the vast majority of pictures are in Blank & While (not all, but most). Is there an underlying reason for making use of Black & White for this subject matter?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

There will be various answers of course, but mine is that yes there is a fairly simple reason.

When Tri-X film was king of the road for the home darkroom we all claimed that taking people pictures in color got us images showing the color of their clothes, but with BW we got pictures of their souls. While that was true to some degree, the major reason was because shooting and developing BW film was vastly easier and less expensive than color film.

Even with modern digital equipment that all still applies for Street Photography!

First, the people (never mind their clothes) aren't the subject. The subjects for Street are actually the intangible relationships between people and their surroundings. The relationships don't have color, and most often color is just a distraction from what the photograph is intended to show.

But even when color can help make the important relationships more distinctive there is a problem with speed and complexity. Street is commonly a rapid fire, spur of the moment, bit of event photography. There is little or no time to think about composition, so almost any way to simplify the methods we use will be productive. Even considering color as part of the process of composing is for many, maybe most of us, too time consuming when shooting Street.

Some photographers have more talent with color composition of course, and they work it into Street with fabulous effect. Even the more casual Street photog today, with modern digital cameras, has the chance (totally unavailable to Winogrand et al in decades past) to see their images in both color and BW, and to choose between then after the fact.

I like color Street. It's a joy to see. It just isn't as common BW Street. In my own photography it is a simple technical decision whether color adds or distracts from the purpose of the image, noting that pretty colors are never the purpose of Street Photography.

The Villages Loc: The Villages, Florida

apaflo: Thanks for your insightful response. I can always learn a lot from your knowledgeable answers to questions raise.

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

Thanks for the clarification.

Duane

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Yes, Floyd has some great answers to our questions. For me it depends on the image. Some have more impact in B&W and some in color.
Just my very short and simple answer.

Don

10MPlayer Loc: California

As a casual observer and infrequent photographer of Street I find busy colorful backgrounds make it hard to discern the subject from the clutter. Often in BW it's more clear what the subject is supposed to be.

kathyk Loc: Worth, IL

I'm new to street photography and was also wondering about B/W versus color. I'm going to try some shots, I was wondering do you use a digital camera and do you use full auto? I'm also new to photography so I'm still finding out what shots I like best and working on how to do them.

Voss

Hi, kathyk. Yes, yes. Probably the vast majority of us use digital cameras, and I use full auto maybe 90% of the time. (The other 10% is full auto except for manual focus.) Shoot in color and convert to B/W during editing. That way, you have a choice as to which looks better. And, yes, get out there and try it.

kathyk Loc: Worth, IL

Thanks for the quick response, I'm on vacation now so I'm hoping to get some shots.