I’m having so much fun shooting Black and white. It’s a real timesaver, and as a bonus, images look great. Nowadays, instead of trying to correct weird color shifts in images shot under terrible lighting conditions, I just whack the color altogether – and I’m loving it.

(Rollover the image to see the original color version.)

Black and white has several advantages. First, it levels the viewing experience somewhat. I’m always concerned that viewers will not be seeing my images the way I do. Black and white removes a lot of these variables – or at least reduces their influence. These images will look (more or less) the same on all reasonable displays. Removing color from the equation allows for much more dramatic adjustments while still maintaining a level of realism. (So much of the “photography” I see on the web these days is actually so abused by filter-happy PhotoShop jockeys that the manipulations are all I see. The results bear no resemblance to the original scene whatsoever.) Black and white distills the image down to composition and texture. And perhaps best of all, people love it. I shot our last company party, and after half an hour of trying to get a decent skin tone, finally gave up and converted the images to black and white. Well guess what? They look great, and my coworkers love them.

Shooting this way is energizing. It’s definitely inspiring me to shoot more photos, and that’s a very good thing.