The Relief Black and White vs. Color Another major reason is that, I had this photo originally rendered in color, and I thought I’d like it better that way. But I really never posted it anywhere except in Flickr which actually is set to private (I think), as I only use Flickr for cross-posting to other websites. Though in fact, I’ve had a hard time deciding on whether I should convert it to black and white or retain its color. It was, for me, an agonizing decision, I find it so difficult that it really took me over a year before I went back to it and finally decide what suits my taste best —- of course, I ended up converting it to black and white or to the tone I am most comfortable with over the years. Overtime, it has become easier to identify if a photo should be in color or black and white, but still, it’s not that easy and it will take a while to train a pair of eyes in seeing both. Seeing colors is not much of a problem as our world revolves with colors and that the planet is colorful by nature. But it takes keen eyes to genuinely appreciate colors. So learn to appreciate colors first. Seeing in black and white, on the other hand, needs extensive training (unless your eyes are set to see black and white). Train your eyes by learning to see contrast and shadows around you, as you know, contrast and shadows play very important roles for effective black and white photographs. Another trick is to study other black and white photographs and understand how it should have been if it was in color, observe the lighting conditions around you, examine each element that you see and try to imagine how it would look if it’s black and white… and the list goes on and on. Do this until such time when you look at a scene, you’d know instantly it’s a black and white scene. But then again, it is your choice, it is your preference, it is your art, it is your idea; and most importantly, it is your story to tell and it is up to you on how you present the story to your viewers. It is all subjective.
Cadiz City, Negros Occidental
This particular photograph has been sitting in my hard drive for over a year now, until last night when I saw it while browsing for images I plan to submit for selection in an exhibit. And the only reason why I didn’t really put so much attention to it is because I’ve already chosen what I think was the best amongst a series of shots of the same subject I made during that day. And that chosen one is located right here.
The dilemma of choosing over black and white and color still haunts me from time to time. We all know that not all photographs are best conveyed in colors and not all photographs are better in black and whites. A photographer will have to understand what he really wants to express in the first place, and decide if having colors in his photograph would represent his message clearly, or would it be more convincing if it’s in black and white. It may sound simple, but really, it’s pretty tricky. But whichever one chooses, one must adhere to the very reason why he opted for such tone, as it is how he thinks is more appropriate for the image. Or it is how he wants to be recognized. Ultimately, it boils down to individual preferences. Again, it’s all subjective.
