topic Re: "...black and white is more." in Share Your Photos

"...black and white is more."

BrighamBB — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 13:31:02 GMT

"Color is everything, black and white is more." Dominic Rouse

I believe black and white often shows detail and structure and texture that can be hidden in even the best color photo.

EOS R5, RF24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, length 52mm, speed 1/200, aperture f/8.0, ISO 500.

Re: "...black and white is more."

shadowsports — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 13:53:37 GMT

Good Morning Sir.

Re: "...black and white is more."

BrighamBB — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:18:06 GMT

And to you! Hope all is well.

Re: "...black and white is more."

Tintype_18 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 21:00:46 GMT

I agree. B& photography seems to be neglected these days.

Re: "...black and white is more."

LeeP — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 22:42:06 GMT

In the film world, black and white is very popular.

When the RE1 comes out, I plan to convert my R100 to monochrome.

Re: "...black and white is more."

SignifDigits — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 15:41:57 GMT

I am having fun printing out some photos and putting them on the wall. I thought I would prefer this one better in monochrome but really couldn't make up my mind. In the end I decided to put them in the same frame and see which one people prefer. I agree that B&W seems underappreciated. I notice somtimes it's been used more in some movies - Oppenheimer used it to good effect, I think.

Re: "...black and white is more."

LeeP — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 01:09:34 GMT

I love black and white, but I don't have the patience to buy something like a Pentax K3 III Monochrome that is (1) overpriced for what it is, but (2) hobbled so that it can't "see" color. I also roll my eyes at those who get into their I-know-more-than-thou mode about the esoteric theoretical advantages of a monochrome sensor. I'm sure their esoterica is theoretically a "thing", but I just do not see neither the advantage nor the utility of a dedicated monochrome camera. A client will not be able to tell the difference between a color film image flipped to black and white, a black and white film image, a color digital flipped to back and white, a color digital in monochrome mode, or a dedicated monochrome camera. A client will not be able to see the theoretical advantage so why waste over $2K on a niche camera? I've won in competitions with color images flipped to black and white digitally. Given that reality, on my Canons, I shoot color and play with flipping to monochrome. With my film Pentaxes and Nikons I shoot a variety of emulsions.

Re: "...black and white is more."

BrighamBB — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:08:09 GMT

Lee, I couldn't agree more on the choice to shoot color and then examine the monochrome processes available in production. With the growing variety of lightroom presets, as well as my own favorites, it gives us as photographers so much freedom to focus on composition in the viewfinder confident that multiple images worthy of our efforts available.

Re: "...black and white is more."

BrighamBB — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 18:10:25 GMT

I really like what you did here with to find the ripples on the water that captured the trees' reflection in a manner fitting of various monochrome and color processes. I loves this kind of experimentation. Great minds...

Re: "...black and white is more."

SignifDigits — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:41:55 GMT

I wish I could take credit for having a great photographic mind, but, alas, I cannot. I have decent intuition - sometimes. I knew something interesting was going on in front of me but not exactly what. When I got back I saw all the starbursts and the tree reflections that had attracted me without my being fully aware of what I needed/wanted to capture. When I got the picture to processing THEN I "saw it". Kudos to those that are gifted with "the eye" - I am still working to develop "the eye". Folks here say learning is possible for some 🙂

Re: "...black and white is more."

LeeP — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 00:54:28 GMT

Some of the so-called "eye" is just experience and--if we're being honest--glorious flukes. Given that you're working with a digital camera, shoot a lot of pictures. See what you see. Keep what you like. Delete the rest. Study the ones you like and figure out what the "it factor" is. If you get a glorious fluke, keep it. Study it for what you like about it. Remember these notes and go back out and try to put some of them in motion the next time.

Sometimes, just shooting pictures is what you need to do and see what happens.

To that end, I went downtown today armed with my Vivitar 110 pocket camera from 1975 and shot a roll of 24 black and white. We'll see what comes of it. The Vivitar was an 8th grade graduation present. I saw a Lomography thing on my Instagram feed that mentioned 110 film and I took it as sign. Shooting with the camera made me wonder how I ever was able to get anything good out of it, but it was the camera on which I learned composition. So a few years later when I got my Pentax ME, it was a quantum leap because I had already begun developing the so-called "eye".

Be prepared, you will come across snobs that will prattle on as they try to bully you intellectually for not knowing what they know. Don't give them a second thought. There are "real" photographers who know what they are doing, who are thrilled that you are "doing", and will be happy to answer questions.

There are a LOT of the latter--aka good--people here on this site.