I originally got into bw as a way to reconcile the aggressive editing I was doing in colour. Once I saw the emotion generated from those dark shadows and extreme contrast I was hooked.
Having started my photographic journey 51 years ago, as I hit my teens, there was only film available and I could only afford B&W. I soon learned to develop the film myself and, eventually, print from it.
I enjoy shooting in colour but only where the colour adds to the scene or is the subject matter itself. I grew to love the fact that shooting in B&W helps simplify any scene down to shape, texture and tone. I had a Leica M9 monochrom for a while and loved it and, in many ways, I wish I still had it.
That said, there is some great mono conversion software out there and, although I still shoot some B&W 35mm and 120 film, converting a colour DNG / RAW file to B&W is quite easy. So, I usually set my camera to view in B&W, shoot DNG (colour) and JPEG in B&W and decide what works best when I load the results into Capture One.
I'm not a fan of JPEGs now that I've learned enough about how to get what I want from DNG / RAW files. However, I've recently acquired a new (to me) camera and had a go with JPEG as well as DNG / RAW. I've tried it before with other cameras and the JPEGs have been okay but nothing I'd have been happy posting or printing. However, I've been impressed with some of the JPEGs produced. I might do a bit of tweaking around exposure, contrast, shadow and highlight detail. I tend to dial down sharpening as many cameras over sharpen for my taste, even at standard settings. So, for the most part, JPEGs are a 'trial run' and, if I'm happy with the 'look', I'll recreate it via Capture One.
Cool post. I still maintain that you are either better wired for one or the other. I am sure some people are able to switch back and forth, but over time, I think you develop a way of seeing that is bound to either colour, or b+w. I keep being asked to shoot in colour, and I don't. I can't really explain why, but it is not how I see.
I am a color junkie; I crave color and color is always an important quality of anything in my life, not just in photography. I almost always edit in color, whether muted or bright. It depends on the image and how I feel about it at that moment. I am after all, a hobbyist, not a pro. I will sometimes edit an image in BW here or there, but generally only if there is very little color to begin with or it's just not coming together for me.
My husband rarely edits in color, as he is color blind and nothing looks as it does in reality to him anyway. He has a hard time editing with something he truly can't see properly. I notice a lot of men shoot black and white, and I've often wondered if it's because biologically speaking, they don't see color as well as women do?
Great post, Marcel. I've had similar experiences, bringing multiple cameras for different purposes and then completely sticking to one. As for black and white vs color, I used to shoot only color landscapes, but mostly do black and white now... that in-between period was tough, there wasn't much of either I was liking. I've starting shooting some film again now too... finally able to let go of the fact that it's only going to be black and white and there is no raw file to go back to!
Thanks Dan. When shooting b&w I just find it absolutely liberating that I do not have to choose between color or b&w in the editing process. Just focusing on highlights and contrast. That is if I even post-process the shots from the Pentax Monochrome, as I usually don't edit those at all.
An interesting and timely post Marcel, as yet again I debate whether to use colour or black and white for my next post. It took me back to my film days when I had two cameras - an AE1 for black and white and a T90 for colour...I always found that I shot more on the AE1 and that my colour results often didn't represent the scene as I'd hoped it would. The more I shot in b&w the better the images became and I learned how to interpret the colours of the English landscape in mono.
Fast forward to now and I just use the one Fuji digital, setting it up to record fine Jpegs in a black and white film simulation (usually Ilford PanF or Acros) but also having the benefit of the colour file in Raw. This is great for seeing how mono would look in a landscape shot but sometimes leaves me with indecision (as I have now for my post) because the colours are often pretty amazing too. So whilst having the choice of b&w or colour by using this approach gives you freedom of choice I think it also promotes indecision (for me anyway) whereas restrictions encourage me to do the best I can and improve as I do this.
I also think it promotes indecision having both options. I decided to only use b&w a long time ago, so even when I shoot in color, I will edit the photos to b&w.
As you said, intention matters. I started mainly with bnw, and switched mainly to colour. I find bnw more artistic, but colour more real. Like - this is how it was.
I generally believe that the best artistic results in virtually any endeavor, not just photography, come when restrictions are placed on the artist. Restrictions force focus and intention that wide-open options may not. Having the option in digital to "do whatever" means you may never achieve the finest work that you may have had you been restricted one way or the other. This is a subset of the thinking shared here that going down a chosen path helps you to go "deeper" in your skill set. But even then, abiding by rules, self imposed or not, will further help, I believe.
I do not fully agree. Restrictions or other limitations might be good to have focus on what you want to achieve. On the other side, letting go those limitations can free you and get you results you would not have captured by those restrictions. But maybe some people thrive by this, other by more guided limits.
Oh course I can't disagree with you, simply because everyone is different and I'm basing my theory on my writing teaching experiences. But... I'd be interested is seeing a side-by-side test. Writing would be among the easier arts to measure quality. One writer is given a wide open subject matter, no word count limits and flexible deadline. The other given a subject, hard deadline and word count limit. See what results. I feel pretty confident from my teaching experience that the restrictions would generally win. However, to your point, the restrictions would certaintly prevent experimentation. And whether this is applicable to all arts, and all people...well, I can't make that claim.
Hmm nice. I think writing might be different in relation to photography. So for writing I believe you're definitely right, but doing a photo project with or without limitations is another story. Maybe we should test it. Doing a project in a certain topic, first with some restrictions and after that completely free. I am up for that challenge! Game on.
Ok...but can we wait to summers over? Seriously... maybe put out a call and randomize who gets the restrictions and who doesn't! If you can be patient, I can with with you starting mid-September
This one hits hard on me right now. After recently selling my Leica M10 Monochrom after 4 years, I am missing it for my black and white work. Some of my best BW photographs were taken with color cameras, but nothing compares to shooting in black and white when you have no other choice. As you mentioned in your wonderful piece, it forces you to be more creative. The best example that comes to mind was a vacation to the Northern California coast and walking on the beach during sunset. The colors were glorious but I had a BW only camera, so I was forced to make shots I wouldn't have otherwise been able to see if not for the limitation.
Went to the Cotswolds in June of this year, and did nothing but B/W. I'm a B/W guy all the way, except for the occasional image that just had to be in color. That said, as I've matured, let's say, the number of images that "had to be in color" is shrinking.
I spent my early years shooting and printing in B&W, but when I switched to digital over 20 years ago, I “thought” I should mostly shoot color. I confess that most of my color photographs from that period didn’t feel right to me, yet I continued to force myself to work in color. Only a couple of years ago did I let go of this self-imposed restriction and allow myself to work mostly in B&W again. It’s been a breath of fresh air and has made photography much more enjoyable again. There are still some subjects I choose to capture in color, but more often than not, I’m seeing the world in B&W.
Goo thing to allow yourself to work in b&w again. Have you tried to edit those color shots you felt were not right to b&w? Might be interesting to see how you feel about them now.
Yes, earlier this year I started reworking many of my older color shots in B&W and have been very happy with the results, in comparison to the color renditions I did originally.
Great article. As someone who has pickup my camera again and taking things a bit more seriously. It’s great to learn approaches from someone in industry like you. Thanks again for sharing
An interesting article Marcel and an approach that resonates with me. Thanks for sharing.
I don't really think of myself as a black and white photographer, although the majority of shots I share are in that format. For me it's a question of whether colour is part of the story, if it's not then I prefer the timeless quality that black and white provides. You are right that over time you start to see images that way, think beyond the capture and through the edit, visualising how the final image will end up, especially if you are shooting it in colour.
I like both color and BnW. Choosing which route for me depends on the feel and the story.
Of course I shoot only in color (I don’t shoot film and I don’t have a dedicated BnW camera) but there are times it’s very clear (as I shoot) whether the edit will be done in color or BnW. Sometimes I like editing a shot in both color and BnW — each tells a different story and sometimes one capture has both to tell.
(For example, I’ve just been editing interior shots of the Nidarosdomen cathedral in Trondheim, Norway. With architecture, I often love to do some — or lots of — BnW edits but this is an example of where I didn’t even TRY to go there: the way some masterful lighting technician lit the second and third floor galleries, the way the stained glass windows looked in color and the subtle glow of the floor lighting on the stone all made it so that, for me, the visions are so much better with the color element, imo, even though the shots are dim and the color subtle. I didn’t even bother going mono…)
Interesting approach which I sometimes employ myself. Takes me back to the one roll of film days during my formative years. Usually intend to make a final decision in post. I like the flexibility.
I originally got into bw as a way to reconcile the aggressive editing I was doing in colour. Once I saw the emotion generated from those dark shadows and extreme contrast I was hooked.
Having started my photographic journey 51 years ago, as I hit my teens, there was only film available and I could only afford B&W. I soon learned to develop the film myself and, eventually, print from it.
I enjoy shooting in colour but only where the colour adds to the scene or is the subject matter itself. I grew to love the fact that shooting in B&W helps simplify any scene down to shape, texture and tone. I had a Leica M9 monochrom for a while and loved it and, in many ways, I wish I still had it.
That said, there is some great mono conversion software out there and, although I still shoot some B&W 35mm and 120 film, converting a colour DNG / RAW file to B&W is quite easy. So, I usually set my camera to view in B&W, shoot DNG (colour) and JPEG in B&W and decide what works best when I load the results into Capture One.
Nice approach!
Paul, do you edit the jpgs, then? or do you use the jpgs to decide, then convert/edit the raw?
I'm not a fan of JPEGs now that I've learned enough about how to get what I want from DNG / RAW files. However, I've recently acquired a new (to me) camera and had a go with JPEG as well as DNG / RAW. I've tried it before with other cameras and the JPEGs have been okay but nothing I'd have been happy posting or printing. However, I've been impressed with some of the JPEGs produced. I might do a bit of tweaking around exposure, contrast, shadow and highlight detail. I tend to dial down sharpening as many cameras over sharpen for my taste, even at standard settings. So, for the most part, JPEGs are a 'trial run' and, if I'm happy with the 'look', I'll recreate it via Capture One.
Your answer is what I expected. Makes perfect sense. Thx.
Cool post. I still maintain that you are either better wired for one or the other. I am sure some people are able to switch back and forth, but over time, I think you develop a way of seeing that is bound to either colour, or b+w. I keep being asked to shoot in colour, and I don't. I can't really explain why, but it is not how I see.
Can't agree more. You will go far deeper when sticking to one or the other I believe.
I am a color junkie; I crave color and color is always an important quality of anything in my life, not just in photography. I almost always edit in color, whether muted or bright. It depends on the image and how I feel about it at that moment. I am after all, a hobbyist, not a pro. I will sometimes edit an image in BW here or there, but generally only if there is very little color to begin with or it's just not coming together for me.
My husband rarely edits in color, as he is color blind and nothing looks as it does in reality to him anyway. He has a hard time editing with something he truly can't see properly. I notice a lot of men shoot black and white, and I've often wondered if it's because biologically speaking, they don't see color as well as women do?
Great post, Marcel. I've had similar experiences, bringing multiple cameras for different purposes and then completely sticking to one. As for black and white vs color, I used to shoot only color landscapes, but mostly do black and white now... that in-between period was tough, there wasn't much of either I was liking. I've starting shooting some film again now too... finally able to let go of the fact that it's only going to be black and white and there is no raw file to go back to!
Thanks Dan. When shooting b&w I just find it absolutely liberating that I do not have to choose between color or b&w in the editing process. Just focusing on highlights and contrast. That is if I even post-process the shots from the Pentax Monochrome, as I usually don't edit those at all.
Marcel Borgstijn
Few Beuks from MY Cleadon ( Reference ) Library :-
Black and white negatives - Their exposure and development
Hans Gotze
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The complete art of printing and enlarging
OR Croy
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The Fine Print
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The Complete Printmaker - Techniques/Traduions/Innovations Revised & expended edition
John Ross / Clare Romano / Tim Ross
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Sun Prints
Linda McCartney ( Preface Paul McCartney )
( Method Pictures produced )
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Picasso and Printmaking in Paris
National Touring Exhibitions - Stephen Coppel & British Museum 1998
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printmakers' secrets
anthony dyson
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Fishing Industry - 26 Prints A3 Size approx
Edited & Design Ian Tinwell & Sharon Bailey
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A Retrospective of Etchings and ScreenPrints - Imperial War Museum 1878 - 89
Panayiotis Kalorkoti ( Imperial War Museum )
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JACK VETTRIANO - Love , Devotion and Surrender - Limited Edition Prints 2006 ( Six A5 Size )
Jack Vettriano - Portland Gallery 2006
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Damien Hirst - Printmaker - Bowes Museum 5th Nov 2010 - 27th Feb 2011
Damien Hirst - Bowes Museum Nov 2010 - Feb 2011
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Lucky Kunst - The rise and fall of Young British Art
Gregor Muir
The Reason Artist - Pablo Quentino Ralpho " Rango " D'Art-Ford is a Pauper ( Despite Collages selling @ £4K & Prints @ £400 )
( Went off Damien Hurst when I read about the " Installation " that made him " Famous " . Not Right )
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Ivar Gabot
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Bard of Cleadon
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Barred of SLInked-In
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Other ( Fellow ) Poet's Thoughts :-
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Le Poete / Irish T'inker
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Rodin's Thinker
Irish T'inker
Represent Intellect
Le Poete - Respect !
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Lyrics by © HughofDurham@Gmail.com
© BardofCleadon@Gmail.com
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Ivar Gabot
Chartered Management Accountant
Lowest Paid Qualified Accountant for The Empress for over Twenty Years
( & THE BEST )
Philosopher Pauper and a Poet
Chilled Skilled Wordsmith
One Hundred and Sixty-Three Songs since Lockdown
One Hundred and Eighty-Nine in Total
Cleadon Library - Not a Business but a Mission to Educate the World One Book at a Time
An interesting and timely post Marcel, as yet again I debate whether to use colour or black and white for my next post. It took me back to my film days when I had two cameras - an AE1 for black and white and a T90 for colour...I always found that I shot more on the AE1 and that my colour results often didn't represent the scene as I'd hoped it would. The more I shot in b&w the better the images became and I learned how to interpret the colours of the English landscape in mono.
Fast forward to now and I just use the one Fuji digital, setting it up to record fine Jpegs in a black and white film simulation (usually Ilford PanF or Acros) but also having the benefit of the colour file in Raw. This is great for seeing how mono would look in a landscape shot but sometimes leaves me with indecision (as I have now for my post) because the colours are often pretty amazing too. So whilst having the choice of b&w or colour by using this approach gives you freedom of choice I think it also promotes indecision (for me anyway) whereas restrictions encourage me to do the best I can and improve as I do this.
I also think it promotes indecision having both options. I decided to only use b&w a long time ago, so even when I shoot in color, I will edit the photos to b&w.
As you said, intention matters. I started mainly with bnw, and switched mainly to colour. I find bnw more artistic, but colour more real. Like - this is how it was.
Intention is key
I generally believe that the best artistic results in virtually any endeavor, not just photography, come when restrictions are placed on the artist. Restrictions force focus and intention that wide-open options may not. Having the option in digital to "do whatever" means you may never achieve the finest work that you may have had you been restricted one way or the other. This is a subset of the thinking shared here that going down a chosen path helps you to go "deeper" in your skill set. But even then, abiding by rules, self imposed or not, will further help, I believe.
I do not fully agree. Restrictions or other limitations might be good to have focus on what you want to achieve. On the other side, letting go those limitations can free you and get you results you would not have captured by those restrictions. But maybe some people thrive by this, other by more guided limits.
Oh course I can't disagree with you, simply because everyone is different and I'm basing my theory on my writing teaching experiences. But... I'd be interested is seeing a side-by-side test. Writing would be among the easier arts to measure quality. One writer is given a wide open subject matter, no word count limits and flexible deadline. The other given a subject, hard deadline and word count limit. See what results. I feel pretty confident from my teaching experience that the restrictions would generally win. However, to your point, the restrictions would certaintly prevent experimentation. And whether this is applicable to all arts, and all people...well, I can't make that claim.
Hmm nice. I think writing might be different in relation to photography. So for writing I believe you're definitely right, but doing a photo project with or without limitations is another story. Maybe we should test it. Doing a project in a certain topic, first with some restrictions and after that completely free. I am up for that challenge! Game on.
Ok...but can we wait to summers over? Seriously... maybe put out a call and randomize who gets the restrictions and who doesn't! If you can be patient, I can with with you starting mid-September
I'll DM you
This one hits hard on me right now. After recently selling my Leica M10 Monochrom after 4 years, I am missing it for my black and white work. Some of my best BW photographs were taken with color cameras, but nothing compares to shooting in black and white when you have no other choice. As you mentioned in your wonderful piece, it forces you to be more creative. The best example that comes to mind was a vacation to the Northern California coast and walking on the beach during sunset. The colors were glorious but I had a BW only camera, so I was forced to make shots I wouldn't have otherwise been able to see if not for the limitation.
Sorry to hear you miss your camera. I don't think I can sell my old stuff.
You mentioned a good example in becoming creative. And getting other shots is so surprising and thrilling. Thanks for your contribution.
Went to the Cotswolds in June of this year, and did nothing but B/W. I'm a B/W guy all the way, except for the occasional image that just had to be in color. That said, as I've matured, let's say, the number of images that "had to be in color" is shrinking.
Haha cool. Are you sharing hose Cotswold images somewhere? Interested to see them.
Right now, you can see them on my Bluesky thread https://bsky.app/profile/jaywaters.bsky.social. I posted one day for about a month in July - you can scroll back a bit to see them.
...and one for Darkrooms magazine SPOTLIGHT I saw ;-)
Cool.
I spent my early years shooting and printing in B&W, but when I switched to digital over 20 years ago, I “thought” I should mostly shoot color. I confess that most of my color photographs from that period didn’t feel right to me, yet I continued to force myself to work in color. Only a couple of years ago did I let go of this self-imposed restriction and allow myself to work mostly in B&W again. It’s been a breath of fresh air and has made photography much more enjoyable again. There are still some subjects I choose to capture in color, but more often than not, I’m seeing the world in B&W.
Goo thing to allow yourself to work in b&w again. Have you tried to edit those color shots you felt were not right to b&w? Might be interesting to see how you feel about them now.
Yes, earlier this year I started reworking many of my older color shots in B&W and have been very happy with the results, in comparison to the color renditions I did originally.
Great hearing you already did that. Cool
Great article. As someone who has pickup my camera again and taking things a bit more seriously. It’s great to learn approaches from someone in industry like you. Thanks again for sharing
You're welcome, Hrish. Cheers
An interesting article Marcel and an approach that resonates with me. Thanks for sharing.
I don't really think of myself as a black and white photographer, although the majority of shots I share are in that format. For me it's a question of whether colour is part of the story, if it's not then I prefer the timeless quality that black and white provides. You are right that over time you start to see images that way, think beyond the capture and through the edit, visualising how the final image will end up, especially if you are shooting it in colour.
Thanks Giles. totally agree
Interesting post.
I like both color and BnW. Choosing which route for me depends on the feel and the story.
Of course I shoot only in color (I don’t shoot film and I don’t have a dedicated BnW camera) but there are times it’s very clear (as I shoot) whether the edit will be done in color or BnW. Sometimes I like editing a shot in both color and BnW — each tells a different story and sometimes one capture has both to tell.
OK, so 1 shot in both color and b&w. Which do you usually prefer?
I mean, it all depends….. 😇
(For example, I’ve just been editing interior shots of the Nidarosdomen cathedral in Trondheim, Norway. With architecture, I often love to do some — or lots of — BnW edits but this is an example of where I didn’t even TRY to go there: the way some masterful lighting technician lit the second and third floor galleries, the way the stained glass windows looked in color and the subtle glow of the floor lighting on the stone all made it so that, for me, the visions are so much better with the color element, imo, even though the shots are dim and the color subtle. I didn’t even bother going mono…)
Interesting approach which I sometimes employ myself. Takes me back to the one roll of film days during my formative years. Usually intend to make a final decision in post. I like the flexibility.
Before the Pentax monochrome I also shot in color and edited it to b&w.