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03-31-2022, 04:52 PM - 11 Likes   #1
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Clackers' Beginners Tip 15: Why Black and White?

As you know, I have quite a menagerie of pets. I own a chameleon that can't change colour. He has a reptile dysfunction.

And today I thought of a colour that doesn't exist... but then I realized it was just a pigment of my imagination.

Is shooting in black and white an artistic affectation? A clumsy attempt to mimic the old masters of photography, to try to co-opt their look on your contemporary shot? Just one more iPhone filter? It's certainly not to be 'more true to life'. Real life is in colour.

No, I think it's problem solving, actually.

So a tip for beginners - colour is *so* powerful in our minds, that it can dominate the impression we have of any scene. All interior designers understand this. It draws attention to itself - think of a red stop sign, a pair of blue eyes, an orange sunset.

This is why if the real topic of your photo is geometry like my picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge below (somebody who complains they can't see the cyclist properly is completely missing the point, he is not the subject), texture (like feathers), tones or patterns, then getting rid of colour means getting rid of its distraction to that topic.

In fact, for a long time, colour was thought to be too distracting from those graphic design elements for use by serious photographers - it took Joel Meyerowitz, Ernst Haas and others to show that's false, it depends entirely on the subject matter.

To finish with, there's the story of an old man sitting next to a young punk on a bench in the park.

The punk has a mohawk 16 inches high and all different colors and the punk can just feel the old man staring at his hair.

After a few minutes, the staring gets too much and the punk turns to the old guy and says:

"What's the matter, old man? Never did anything crazy before?"

The old man replies: "Well I screwed a peacock once, just wondering if you're my kid."

The rest of the series here: Clackers' Beginners Tips (Collected) - PentaxForums.com

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Last edited by clackers; 04-14-2022 at 09:26 PM.
03-31-2022, 05:02 PM - 3 Likes   #2
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If you ever do a US tour post it here first so I can get tickets. Thanks
03-31-2022, 05:18 PM - 3 Likes   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by ramseybuckeye Quote
If you ever do a US tour post it here first so I can get tickets. Thanks
I think lawyers representing Steven Wright and the Rodney Dangerfield estate and a bunch of others would be ready to serve copyright writs. RB!
03-31-2022, 05:23 PM - 2 Likes   #4
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Thank you for introducing black & white images to your lesson set. I can only hope you will take it another step or two further in some subsequent lessons.

NB: The punk is not his kid unless it was a peahen.

03-31-2022, 05:27 PM - 1 Like   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by AggieDad Quote
Thank you for introducing black & white images to your lesson set. I can only hope you will take it another step or two further in some subsequent lessons.
Yeah, I'm open to ideas, AD, the role of the colour channels in B&W postprocessing could be one.

QuoteOriginally posted by AggieDad Quote
NB: The punk is not his kid unless it was a peahen.
It's almost as if the old guy wasn't serious in his reply to the youngster, Don!

Last edited by clackers; 03-31-2022 at 07:48 PM.
04-01-2022, 04:49 AM   #6
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Colour is an illusion. Reality is black and white.
04-01-2022, 04:57 AM - 1 Like   #7
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Another educational thread Ian. thanks for the contribution.

On a related note we often use black and white conversions for vetting the contrasts in a new logo or wayfinding sign or vehicle wrap. If the essential bits don't stand out in B&W they won't in color either.

04-01-2022, 05:48 AM   #8
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I think we must distinguish between film and digital. Obvious digital has a number of advantages, but I still have not seen digital bw with the same superb tonality as the old masters - Ansel Adams and others. Interresting enough one of the best danish warphotographers - Jan Grarup - states that some of his stories demand bw film to tell the story with an appropriate feeling.
Grarup has won many international prizes

Last edited by niels hansen; 04-01-2022 at 06:02 AM. Reason: forgot something
04-01-2022, 01:27 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by Paul the Sunman Quote
Colour is an illusion. Reality is black and white.
I always dream in Technicolor, but if I do it in black and white it is usually a nightmare...
04-01-2022, 02:27 PM - 1 Like   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Paul the Sunman Quote
Colour is an illusion. Reality is black and white.
Reality is an illusion caused by lack of psychopharmacological enhancements.

Last edited by 35mmfilmfan; 04-01-2022 at 02:28 PM. Reason: Mis-spelled 'is'
04-02-2022, 11:13 AM - 1 Like   #11
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Images taken at night sometimes look "wrong" in color because our eyes shift to seeing in black and white at very low light, like the light of a full moon. Black and white can work better for these scenes, making the image look more like what you saw.
04-02-2022, 06:11 PM - 1 Like   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by Just1MoreDave Quote
Images taken at night sometimes look "wrong" in color because our eyes shift to seeing in black and white at very low light, like the light of a full moon. Black and white can work better for these scenes, making the image look more like what you saw.
Actually, at very low light levels, there's a blue tinge to our surroundings (much loved by colorists in film production).

When it comes down to it, no 2D photography replicates what we see with our stereo eyes, field of vision, rods and cones, and sharpness directly ahead and less distinct peripherally, so IMHO arguments by some photographers that their pictures or lenses are 'truer' than others are tremendously flawed.
04-02-2022, 06:14 PM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by Paul the Sunman Quote
Colour is an illusion. Reality is black and white.
Remind us not to ask you to defuse a bomb and cut the green, not the red wire, Paul!
04-06-2022, 11:48 AM - 1 Like   #14
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I truly enjoy these articles...
Thanks!
04-06-2022, 04:47 PM - 1 Like   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by ROBEFFY Quote
I truly enjoy these articles...
Thanks!
Thanks, Robeffy, another one coming out tomorrow, on the topic of Focus Peaking.
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