B&W or not?

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Processing an image from our recent Key West trip. Ran this one through Silver Efex. Not sure which I prefer. Hoping for some feedback.

Screen Shot 2015-02-26 at 8.35.27 AM.jpg
 

rocketman122

Senior Member
One opinion: B&W sort of died out 50 years ago. Photography, magazines, movies, television. The world is in color. :)

cmon wayne. not true.
@Eduard the picture would look great in BW. but the exposure and the editing is off for it. it doesnt pop and looks way too muted with tones. it needs a bit of exposure in the water and needs some dodging and burning to make it stand out. the color in its form looks like some old film and has a retro look to it.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
cmon wayne. not true.
@Eduard the picture would look great in BW. but the exposure and the editing is off for it. it doesnt pop and looks way too muted with tones. it needs a bit of exposure in the water and needs some dodging and burning to make it stand out. the color in its form looks like some old film and has a retro look to it.


What is not true? As an opinion as stated, it is of course 110% correct. And the world definitely is in color. Our eyes and cameras and photo labs and computer monitors are in color. And photography, magazines, movies, and television all did abandon B&W about 50 years ago. The public wants color. This thread wants color.

I was very active in the 1960s (50 years ago), and was influenced by the popular photography media then that "art" is done in B&W, so I hardheadedly stuck with it (way too long). Had a Nikon F and was buying B&W film in 100 foot rolls, many of them. Of course, the family naturally wanted color, but the media kept promoting the work of Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson, etc, etc, who all of course worked back in the 1930s, before color technology was developed. But I was young and impressionable (didn't know any better). And B&W was easy in the dark room. But now, those years are gone. :)

Re Eduards posted picture. It says NO EDITS, so I will just comment. The levels (white point and black point) are naturally done, proper for many things, but here, the sun is sort of a specular highlight, it has no detail, and could be clipped more. The key for B&W is to create ample contrast, specifically to have some very black areas and some very white areas. It was Ansel Adams best advice. I'd move the White Point down to where the water begins, about 200 level (clipping the sun, who cares? It helps the water.) Clipping color can change the colors, but this is B&W, little concern except for clipped detail.

Blacker blacks and whiter whites is contrast (opposite of flat).
 
Last edited:

480sparky

Senior Member
Yeah, the world is in color. But that doesn't mean B&W is dead.

They don't make Model T's and '57 Chevies either.......... but there's still people who buy, sell, drive and fix 'em up. People still listen to vinyl records. Are those things 'dead'? $1000 bills were removed from circulation years ago, but I'd bet you'd take one if offered, even if you called $1000-bills 'dead'.

If B&W is dead to you, that's fine. You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.
 

J-see

Senior Member
I prefer the colored version but like the water of the B&W more.

In the color version the sky overpowers the water while in B&W both work nicely together without the one being more "there" than the other.
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
I say what ever conveys the mood better for YOU ,is what you should go with.

I personally like the color version of it, but you may have some other feeling about it. Go with that.
 

WayneF

Senior Member
Yeah, the world is in color. But that doesn't mean B&W is dead.

They don't make Model T's and '57 Chevies either.......... but there's still people who buy, sell, drive and fix 'em up.


As a hobby to spend money on, but certainly no longer the most prudent choice for an every-day car. :)
Some people like to reenact the Civil War battles too, but frankly, it is history now. :)

Try taking a roll of B&W film into Walmart, Costco, Walgreens, CVS, or any other one hour lab.

Probably can also say, try BUYING a roll of B&W film while you're there (but I am unsure what might actually be on their tiny film shelf now).
 

480sparky

Senior Member
...........Try taking a roll of B&W film into Walmart, Costco, Walgreens, CVS, or any other one hour lab......

By this analogy, shooting .NEF is dead since WalMart, Costco, Walgreens, CVS or any other one-hour lab won't accept them.

Nor will they accept medium & large format film. So that must be dead as well.
 
Last edited:

skater

New member
I like the color version more because it's a sunrise/sunset picture. B/W doesn't really work for those for me.

On to the larger question: You young whippersnappers! Back in my day, my D70 wouldn't even DO black and white shots! All we had were color shots, and we were happy with it!

Just kidding. I never played around with B&W before, but lately I've dropped the color from a couple shots and have been pretty happy with the results. Like anything it can be overdone - I remember a set of pictures (not mine!) from an office holiday party wherein a third of the pictures were sepia-toned, a third were blue-toned (why?), and a third were normal color. Most distracting set of pictures I've ever seen. But dropping the color from a picture isn't quite the same thing as taking a B&W film picture - didn't B&W film have finer grain? With digital, to the best of my knowledge, even if we could turn our sensors to B&W mode, it doesn't actually improve the sensor's resolution in any way - it's still essentially the same picture, just with fewer colors. (Man, now I want to run out and buy some B&W film and pop it into my N65...)
 
Top