SLIDESHOW/BLOG: It's better in Black and White

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December 25, 2009

Anonymous The Meadville Tribune Fri Dec 25, 2009, 08:42 PM EST

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"If its good in color it'll be better in Black and White."

This is something I heard a lot when I was a young photographer developing and learning how to make black white prints in the darkroom.

I don't completely agree with this, but I do think the majority of photographs taken would be better, stronger images in black and white. Color can confuse the eye and disrupt the reading of a photograph, making the meaning a little harder to grasp. If the color in a photograph isn't part of its subject matter, then it doesn't help us understand the story.

For instance - a story about hot air balloons....probably color is best. A story about a raging fire...again color. A story about a beauty queen's wardrobe, probably color. But all three of these have something in common--the colors in the photograph aid in telling the story.

A photograph about a family who lost everything days earlier in a fire--all wearing different colored shirts and patterns on them, your eye gets drawn to the clothing and away from the expressions on their faces in the color photograph. In black and white your eye moves to the faces first. Or a nice moment of two children playing together in a driveway, there interaction is priceless and you see a slice of Americana, but in the background is a bright red car that your eye is drawn to. In black and white you're drawn to the faces first and you get a chance to really absorb what the photograph is telling you.

Last week while photographing Saegertown wrestling I saw som beautiful color reflecting up from the yellow mat. I photographed everything without a flash to take advantage of this light. Many of the photographs were beautiful in color, but the meaning of the wrestling match got lost in the artistic qualities of the photograph. As I prepared a few for the paper I realized that I had a nice night as a photographer, but not as nice as a journalist. Now I do believe you can cross over the artistic/journalist line and still be a good communicator and I guess this is what I try to do on a regular basis.

I decided today to present these images in black and white, because I simply think they read better that way. The first slide is in color, that picture isn't about the wrester's individual-ness, it was about the shapes of the wrestlers and I thought in this case, the color was as much apart of the story.

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SLIDESHOW/BLOG: It's better in Black and White

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