splatbass Loc: Honolulu

There are times when color is a distraction to the subject/story. I often shoot street in color, but sometimes making it B&W will make the subject "pop" out of a background that is too busy/colorful. Also in street the story/moment is what is important, so removing distractions can help. I find myself lately using color more than B&W, but there are times B&W really works better.

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burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Nice!

I like the first one in color, and the others in their altered states.

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Altered states have lower taxes.

splatbass Loc: Honolulu

This is what I mean. In the first pic the balloons stand out and distract from the woman (I'm not claiming this is great street photography, just an example). In the second she stands out more.

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I'm not a big fan of B&W although some of it is great. The above example the balloons stand out more in the color pic but so does the subject. The B&W the balloons stand out less, and so does the subject. I think it's a wash at best.

I grew up at a time when color pics were not around much, and when TV's came out they were B&W, and it was a long time before color TV's were out, and longer before they had decent color. The excitement of good color is still with me I guess, accounting for my personal bent toward color photo's, and lack of appreciation for B&W.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I agree - the subject stands out more in the color shot, maybe because of the red outfit. And it seems a shame with a background of colorful balloons to convert it to B&W and lost the most interesting feature of the shot.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

My photography began in the 1950's with B&W film - color film was less common then and cost much more. By the time I got my first 35mm camera - in the summer of 1969 when I graduated from college - I decided fairly soon that Kodachrome usually captured what I wanted to capture better. When I purchased my second rangefinder camera four years later, I put 'PX' film in the first camera and set a standard that I would use it only when color would convey misleading information. For example, nearly twenty years ago, sides and back of an old frame train station were painted white, but the front was painted fluorescent green; a passer-by told me that the current owner did that in response to some sort of dispute with the town, and in B&W the front looks just about the same as the sides.

In recent years I have been digitizing my years' of photos. By a few years ago, I had digitized all but the photos in my "maybe" box, so I decided it was time to make a decision, either scan them or toss them. While going through this collection, I found one that became a keeper if I kept only the left part of the photo. When I displayed it here, various people suggested that making it a B&W view would further improve it.
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