Color V. B&W
26 May 2009
I started taking pictures seriously about a decade
ago. I immediately gravitated to film because I found
a) the digital cameras largely sucked, b) the papers
for printing (especially black/white) sucked and c)
the low light performance wasn’t there. Things sure
have changed.
But I loved the black & white process.
Shooting Tri-X and pushing it a few stops then using a custom development ritual (and it was a ritual) to get what I wanted was a known thing. Printing in the darkroom was a bit of a pain (especially with 35mm negs) but there was something to be said for that darkroom ambiance; put some good music on the ipod, turn on the safelight and lock the door. Nice. Kinda miss it sometimes until I think how much more productive I am these days.
Back then I shot 99.999% black & white film. Want color too? Carry another body. Yes, kids, you had to choose. Don’t get me started with ISO adjustments.
I still see primarily in the tonalities of black & white. It just gets burned into your vision, and that was kinda the point.
But now I have the option of either color or black & white, and sometimes I hesitate. I have grown to love color for its own idiosyncrasies - as someone famously said (and I paraphrase because the speaker/words escape me at the moment) color is for the crass. And sometimes crass is good.
So today I was editing a series of pictures shot last week and came across this image. In all honesty, I’m completely blown away. Its beautiful, even if I do say so myself.
I mucked with it in black & white and then in color. I liked both, each for slightly different reasons. Here they are...
But I loved the black & white process.
Shooting Tri-X and pushing it a few stops then using a custom development ritual (and it was a ritual) to get what I wanted was a known thing. Printing in the darkroom was a bit of a pain (especially with 35mm negs) but there was something to be said for that darkroom ambiance; put some good music on the ipod, turn on the safelight and lock the door. Nice. Kinda miss it sometimes until I think how much more productive I am these days.
Back then I shot 99.999% black & white film. Want color too? Carry another body. Yes, kids, you had to choose. Don’t get me started with ISO adjustments.
I still see primarily in the tonalities of black & white. It just gets burned into your vision, and that was kinda the point.
But now I have the option of either color or black & white, and sometimes I hesitate. I have grown to love color for its own idiosyncrasies - as someone famously said (and I paraphrase because the speaker/words escape me at the moment) color is for the crass. And sometimes crass is good.
So today I was editing a series of pictures shot last week and came across this image. In all honesty, I’m completely blown away. Its beautiful, even if I do say so myself.
I mucked with it in black & white and then in color. I liked both, each for slightly different reasons. Here they are...
So which do you like
more?
PS. I’ll have to admit that the color version is
largely a black & white presentation with some
subtle color. Its all about tonalities - told you its
burned into my head.