color versus black&white

leila_d · November 7th, 2009 11:52 AM

I've really been enjoying the folios since I have been on this site but am almost surprised to see so few done fully in black and white. I love the vivid colors of some of the folios, but personally I'm a big fan of black and white photography. What do you guys think? Am I in the minority on this one or are there other B&W lovers out there like me?

ashmedi · November 7th, 2009 12:44 PM

Black and white is OK, but then I would miss that incredible red hair of yours
I find colour to be the best so I can see the colour of the hair, eyes, and the shades of the more erotic and intimate parts. B&W is more stark, but it would show your curves well.
As a curiosity, if you were submitting a folio in B&W, would you be shoot in B&W or would you shoot in colour and covert the images using graphic software ??

I presume you know that there are millions of colour variations if you shoot colour, but if you shoot B&W there are only 256 shades/colours available.
If you shoot colour, you can always convert to B&W, but if you shout B&W you cannot convert to colour.

Because B&W only has 256 colours, file sizes are considerably smaller and would up/down load faster than colour.

So far I have talked a lot and probably haven't said anything

My personal preference is colour, but if you were in it, I would love it no matter what format you submitted it in ;-)
*thinking quietly* should be good for brownie points ... LOL

arana · November 7th, 2009 01:19 PM

Black and white is amazing I think, sometimes you can get a lot more depth with a black and white picture. +1 for black and white!

liquid · November 7th, 2009 04:27 PM

I like black and white photography as well. I find there is usually more of a focus on form, composition, shadow and light contrast, which can make for some beautiful images. The latest folio by Lastusia is an excellent example of this. I would be all for more black and white. It is timeless!

Dags56 · November 8th, 2009 11:58 PM

I like color as it shows a more realistic view of the subjest but a few black and white could be thrown in the mix to give a nice contrast.

ngaio · November 9th, 2009 10:33 AM

I'm a huge colour junkie, personally, and the more the better.

That being said, black and white photography, done well, can be absolutely amazing. It's just a matter of getting it "right", whatever that means!

leila_d · November 11th, 2009 02:10 PM

Doing it right is key! Personally I like to see high contrast in B&W, I think it gives the photos more depth.

And ashmedi, if I'm shooting film I shoot in black and white but if I'm shooting digital I shoot in color and then convert. You actually can go from black and white to color, I had to do it in my graphic design class. It takes forever though to make it look realistic but I can look very cool. If you have ever seen it Nirvana's video for heart-shaped box was shot in B&W and then converted to color which is how that got that over saturated look with the color.

arana · November 12th, 2009 02:16 PM

It is definitely a pain in the butt converting B+W into color with photoshop. All kinds of fun making little selections with the pen tool... I like color too so sometimes a good compromise is an image that is a bit desaturated.

ashmedi · November 13th, 2009 12:30 AM

It would be, it's all guess work as you have no real idea what the true colour was, so yes, you can colourize it, but you can't go back to the original, that info was never saved with file.
Similar problem on resizing, you can make any large pic smaller, but you cannot make a small pic larger, there is not enough info in the file for the software to do any more than than a blurred pixelated big pic.

ngaio · November 16th, 2009 11:13 AM

I checked out that Nirvana video... glad to have found it because I'm totally digging those crows. And yeah, the colour is amazing. That looks like a really interesting process, does anyone know any good tutorials on how to do it?

basil · November 17th, 2009 01:26 PM

I like colour a lot, but my favourite photos of myself have always been in black and white or sepia (I know sepia's lame and corny, but I don't care!!) - I find it's easier to create a real distillation of certain moods without the busy-ness of colour getting in the way. I'd have to be a much more talented photographer than I am to be able to capture the same kind of simplicity of mood in colour as I can in b+w.

alisha-x · November 23rd, 2009 02:11 AM

Jst as choosing a location and time of day is important so is the choice of wether to use B/W or colour for the folio. I have shot sets in colour but in low light levels using candleight or fairylights to light my body - almost black and white but with hints of colour. Other sets are full colour to pick up the greens of the grass and trees and the warmth of the sunlight around me... But I would like to try a black and white set, something simple and artistic, but it needs to be something which works better in B/W than colour, I wouldnt want to do a set in monochrome just to try to make it more arty if it wasnt lol!

ngaio · December 14th, 2009 04:56 PM

Hmmm, on the subject of Black and White photos, does anyone have any favourite folios on this website for use of Black and White? What about colour?

Or what about favourite photographers in general who use black and white?

kohen · December 15th, 2009 08:43 AM

I personally love color photos. Black and white are nice but without the color, you have to be really creative to get personality or emotion from the picture. I also know that colored photos are preferred when shooting for this site and I've never done a black and white shoot. I'm curious now if I'd be able to pull one off. I'm really interested in seeing some now.

liquid · March 25th, 2010 03:40 PM

A fantastic folio shot in black and white just went up today. It's by Max and is called "Ensemble". Just incredible photography and of course gorgeous subject matter. Thanks, Max!

ngaio · March 29th, 2010 10:52 AM

Yeah that's an awesome folio, I love the last photo in it:

view_image.php?g=ensemble&f=91c1274fa10e28438339b7b955e899.jpg&m=img

kohen · April 7th, 2010 08:59 AM

I think a black and white folio with some color splash would be great!

ashmedi · April 7th, 2010 09:08 AM

kohen wrote:

I think a black and white folio with some color splash would be great!

You're in luck ... Jujulz went up Apr 5th Nice folio, very interesting

#1 November 7th, 2009 11:52 AM

color versus black&white

#2 November 7th, 2009 12:44 PM

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#3 November 7th, 2009 01:19 PM

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#4 November 7th, 2009 04:27 PM

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#5 November 8th, 2009 11:58 PM

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#6 November 9th, 2009 10:33 AM

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#7 November 11th, 2009 02:10 PM

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#8 November 12th, 2009 02:16 PM

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#9 November 13th, 2009 12:30 AM

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#10 November 16th, 2009 11:13 AM

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#11 November 17th, 2009 01:26 PM

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#12 November 23rd, 2009 02:11 AM

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#13 December 14th, 2009 04:56 PM

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#14 December 15th, 2009 08:43 AM

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#15 March 25th, 2010 03:40 PM

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#16 March 29th, 2010 10:52 AM

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#17 April 7th, 2010 08:59 AM

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