Lozbug said:
Just a thought with blank and white photographs then, as everything photograhped, like ever, is in colour, surley no one would bother with B&W at all? Just a thought... i personally like B&W very much, more so than colour. individual preference though i suppose.
I am very much with you on the power of B+W photography. I recently saw an exhibition of work by Philip Jones Griffiths, and the images would lose an awful lot if they were colour.
B+W landscapes or colourful images such as flowers does bring an extra degree of difficulty to taking the image though, IMHO. Without the colours, texture, shape and composition are more important. 90% of the images I take are with B+W in mind. Having been motivated by some stunning images taken of the Lakes in B+W on a large format camera, I went with the intention of trying to emulate this work in some way. Unfortunately, most of my images look better in colour, so the trip was a bit of a failure for me. Still, I hope to get up there when the snow is on the ground. Then, nature will have already made the B+W conversion for me.
Personally, I find B+W generally more challenging than colour for flowers, landscapes etc, and not always the best option, but easier for bringing urban photography to life. I always find myself searching out moodier, gloomier weather to take my B+W images. Landscapes on bright sunny days are generally left in colour by me, but most everything else is converted to B+W. For B+W landscapes, there is no better tutor than Ansel Adams IMO.
Whenever I look at the work of my favourite photographers, they virtually all shot, or continue to shoot in B+W. It is a bit of a forgottem medium at the moment, but it may well make a significant come back yet.
Dave.