fetzler Loc: North West PA

Linda made some important comments regarding B&W. Some images demand it.

In the past, photographers chose B&W as it is archival. I have family photos taken between 1880 and 1900 that are in fine shape and color photos that are 40 years old that are not so good. Indeed B&W negatives can be viable for 500 years is processed and stored properly. The viability of digital files is as good as the media on which they are stored and the availability of readers. How many folks have an 8" floppy drive? Unless Giclee prints are made silver negatives are the best.

whwiden

If you want to experiment with black and white, perhaps find a location that gets a mix of direct light and shadows in the early morning or late afternoon. Maybe use a tripod so you get the same shot. Go ahead and use digital if you don't have film. Take a couple of contrast filters and try different things. Shoot in raw plus a JPEG rendered in black and white. If you are interested in pursuing this in either film or digital, let me know and I will provide detailed recommendations along these lines.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Good stuff! I agree.

I do think a lot of war photography would work better in color. It would be more horrific. I’m thinking of a Robert Capa photo of a Spanish soldier just as he was fatally wounded. It would be really gross, seeing all the blood, but as an anti-war editorial image? Priceless.

CaptainPhoto

photographers are looking at textures, tones, shapes, lines, contrasts of light and shadow.
Linda, you are spot on. I just finished a B & W workshop conducted by Mary Louise Rasvesa from Bella Vista Photography and these were the focal point she brought out.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

I think that most good digital photographers today know when they push the shutter whether the final result will be color or b/w, regardless of how it was captured.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Bill, you make a point. However, if one looks at the photos of David Douglas Duncan (and he protested the war), most were black and white. Sometimes the viewer's imagination can present a stronger, imagined, color than the photographer might be able to capture. Larry Burrows captured a number of color photos in Viet Nam. However, a good deal of them show muted colors, but then tropical mud will dull anything. Here's a fairly good collection of photos from Viet Nam. http://time.com/vietnam-photos/. Most are black and white. Some are color. Though, most aren't really clear and focused. it might be good to view and see which are stronger.
--Bob

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Jack, personally, I make a decision as to black and white or color prior to pressing the shutter. I've also visualized the processing that will be required to produce the image I'm seeing at that time. Rarely is black and white an afterthought produced in the "darkroom". It's planned ahead of time.
--Bob

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

I shoot in color, and sometimes process in bw in post. Other than a cpl I never use a pre-shoot filter. I remove color, punch up the blacks and whites, adjust the white balance, adiust highlights and shadows, adjust contrast To me the point of bw is to show off the structure and texture. The point of color is to illustrate the real world as interestingly as I can or create my own version.
I do find good bw to be more illusive than good color.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

Exactly! It takes skills and artistry I don't have, but I'll keep working at it - maybe some day.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Beautiful in both but hands down better in B&W. You nailed the zone system!!! In addition, one could post process the B&W more ways than one could do in color.

Tomcat5133 Loc: Gladwyne PA

A couple issues for me. I believe (it was long ago for me) we used b&w film. So we knew we were shooting b&w.
I love b&w but the process of converting is not a problem for me but it take a whole process to get to a good b&w conversion.

Years ago I bought the budget LEICA DIGILUX 2 (a gift for my birthday from my wife) with the intention of only shooting b&w.
It was 2004 the Amalfi coast in southern Italy. And the small format Leica could shoot in color or b&w. But I still love the
b&w. These are the originals (I have since made adjustments) to the many photo I took.
I know their are good monochrome cameras now. But very expensive. I am putting collections of my work and travels
over the years and would like to sell prints online. I would like to be only b&w but think that would cut down purchases.
Good luck.

danersmiff

I had originally shot this in color, but the old timey style lamp post suggested black and white.
I shoot mostly color, but I let the picture talk to me, also...
I don't normally set out to shoot black and white, except when shooting the moon... or
something other that also may "look " black and white...
I did leave a hint of blue in the sky, and water, though...

from page 1, the o/p wrote-- Any thoughts?[/quote]

(Download)

lsupremo Loc: Palm Desert, CA

Your quite right Linda they are two different worlds, Ansel Adams played around with color for a while, but never liked it very much. He said he saw things differently in color, but it was because he felt that he had less control of what he wanted to say with a color image. We now have Photoshop and can previsualize and create colored images that couldn’t be created in his time. You were pretty much stuck with what you put on the film. He also played around with people images but said they all looked like rocks.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Ages ago someone gave me an Ansel Adams coffee table book. It was very nice. I looked at the images and thought how much better they would be in colour! Decades later I actually started shooting B&W film. I found that I actually enjoyed seeing the action, the shapes, etc. without the distraction of colour. When we're tuned into the colour of a scene, it's hard to like it in B&W. When the essence of the scene is our object, B&W does that well.

Recently I did a study of artists' paintings, converting them to B&W and comparing them. The best paintings made the best B&W in that they had nice contrast and colour placements. (Colours with the same tones or densities were not lapped.) In the tree image above, notice that what we like about it is the colour and the nuances of colour. When displayed in B&W, it lacks something. If the bones of the tree were presented against a light background, we would then better see the structure of that wonderful tree.

As Linda said, photographing for black and white presentation does take consideration.

Now, as to the OP's deliberate question: Probably most of the images would be in colour. Our brains have become accustomed to seeing photos in colouir. However, I would also suggest that of those B&Ws that were included we would see the lines, the shapes and the structure of the image more clearly.

Stephan G

Let's not forget that in B&W days, we also used different papers for desired effect in final print. I still have my paper sampler in one of my cartons in the garage.