I have always loved black and white photos. There’s a unspoken classic feel to them. I even wanted to shoot my final year 16mm film project totally in black and white but couldn’t because there was no lab in Singapore that could process the film.
Though, I tweaked my film so only certain parts were in b/w and was really blessed that my lecturer Mr Peter Bowmar, happen to be flying back to Vancover and help brought the film back to process in a lab there.
In digital photography’s black and white is very different from shooting from film – you don’t start off with a medium that already limits you to that colorspace.
Using digital cameras, you already start with colors and then you have to strip off the extra information to do good black and white photos.
Is it as simple as using the black and white filter on Picasa? Lightroom or Photoshop? Maybe…
But to get the best results, check out this article by Roy Furchgott talking who speaks to Vincent Versace who is a purist for black and white photography.
Mr favourite parts of the article are
- “Desaturating the image will get you 85 percent there, but I wouldn’t recommend that, and I stress that,” said the perfectionistic Mr. Versace, You can improve your desaturated shot more by experimenting with contrast, sharpness and other controls.
- That can produce a “good enough” effect, said Mr. Versace. “If you are happy with good enough, I will defend your choice to the death,” he said.”
Yes, sometimes we aim for perfection but good enough.. is probably the imperfect perfection we seek.
