drmarty Loc: Pine City, NY

Black and white allows more emphasis on form, shape and mood. I think there will always be a place for kind of presentation.

coyotecall Loc: New Mexico

The question seems to be "what is the nature of beauty'? Color, B&W, "natural", "worked", none of this makes any difference. Each creator determines the end product and from then out it's in the eye of the beholder. I might love the B&W of Grand Canyon because of how the clouds "pop" or the shadows deepen the canyon light.....and in the next shot of the same scene, this time in color, love the riot of what the sun shows in all the rock layers.

billwassmann Loc: Emerson, NJ

The earliest photos were in black and white by necessity. Some people continued that way because they thought it was the "right" way to photograph. (Color film wasn't as good in the beginning.) In the early days color cost more to buy and process so I switched to color when it became cheap enough to do so. Another reason is that color can be distracting. B&W allows you to simply show form, detail and shadow without that distraction;it is more abstract. I think a nude in b&w is better for that reason.

Hando Rei Loc: Long Island New York

Whatever floats your boat ! ...as I see it !

ZappaMan Loc: Williamsport, MD

I used B&W with film since I could control the look and feel in my own darkroom with various developer formulations, but I came to appreciate the graphic nature of my subjects when depicted in shades of grey versus millions of colors. It just seemed simpler. Now with a digital camera providing color images by default I have to struggle with the composition to achieve the same effect. I'm not adverse to complexity but sometimes long for simpler times.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

If you've ever read Marshall McLuhan's book, The Medium is the Message you would understand just WHY b&w is not antiquated.

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

Not everyone sees in color, some people are color blind and some people like me are shade blind. Everybody sees color different as we do not all have the same number of color receptors in the eye. I was in photography long before color film when everything was shot in B&W and the distinguishing features of a good photographer was darkroom editing.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Black & white doesn't make an image automatically good but some images do lend themselves to black & white , while some are better in colour. As for infrared that can be wonderful or tacky and tasteless as can be the rest.

I like black & white because it simplifies the composition and eliminates some gory colours. I generally shoot raw + black & white jpeg. I can always restore the colour when it works better, still doesn't avoid me taking trash shots but maybe i get a few more keepers this way at least I hope so.

composition and lighting are probably the most important aspects of photography (along with the others) to get right and black & white helps me concentrate on those aspects.

I might never make a black & white image ron likes but like ron I don't care :) If I like it, i've satisfied my audience, me.

Trentc Loc: Denver, CO

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

bunuweld Loc: Arizona

Long before photography, many master painters created works in black and white. Goya's etchings in B&W are more powerful then almost anything he created in color:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_master_print

bw3 Loc: Vermillion, SD

I think there has to be more important things to worry about!

Papa Joe Loc: Midwest U.S.

Maybe you are reading (believing) too much. In my opinion, IF photography is considered 'ART'... then one can consider B&W images just another expression of the art.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Yet in talking to some younger members of the local photo club and listening to profs from the local university, there is a movement back to film. I must admit that there is something to being in the darkroom and seeing the magic of an image appearing on a white piece of paper.

However, I do not miss the chemicals.

I'll stay with digital and continue to work almost exclusively in the luminosity mode (you can read that as B&W - only concerned with the light).

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

B&W is more abstract and stirs the imagination of the viewer ......

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

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I do not believe that Shades of Gray ( "Black and White" ) photography is any gimmick - so to speak. Personally I like to convert a color image, and or capture a "B&W" or = if you will = Monotone image because I can pour more of my feelings into the Print. And Yes... I Always see in my minds eye, what I am seeing as a potential captured image as the Final Print... I think that it is something that is brought up from within my - and not extracted from the outside. Perhaps it is not really there at all - but the lines and shapes of WHAT IT IS are there... the Feelings are up to me as an artist. And it is a "Window" and not a flat sheet of paper one is looking at.. The viewer Looks Through it... Once it looks like a flat sheet of paper I have not succeeded as a photographic artist.

I still make use of the "Zone System" = and even in color and Monotone with digital and chemical photography.

I still make use of a "Spot Meter" outside of the camera -- I can See the Print better as I am use to that method.
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These are my personal views... Others here will and Should have their own.

That being said ... I find it very difficult to truly explain this in words... Therefore = My Photographic art would do the "speaking" for me...

I See the Music with my Ears......
I Hear the Light with my Eyes.