Color Vs. Monochrome

The impact of using color photography versus using black and white is situational and brings different elements to your photographs. We see in color so it's our first choice when taking a photo, but photography first started out in black and white. Color photography is based on hues, and can guide your eyes to the subject, such as a woman wearing a bright dress. Monochrome can be striking, and gives off a classic vibe inferring emotion into your images. 

Dodeca Convention- 2016. Nightmare Jack Skellington and Sally cosplay.

I love to love color:

Colors exist all around us but knowing when to use it instead of monochrome can be hard. Color can be contrasting, it can set a mood such as warm or cold tones, and it can bring loads of emotion to an image. If the color in your photos does not pull the eye to the subject or there is too much color, such as a flushed face in summer, trying monochrome might engage your viewers in a better way.

Weaver cosplay wedding-2016. 

Black and white shows the soul:

Black and white photography can be emotional and incorporate a depth to your photographs. Basically you use black and white when the light, form, or texture is more intriguing than the hue. Due to seeing colors constantly in everyday life, changing an image into black and white causes our minds to look deeper into the image itself. Playing around with contrast and light is a fun adventure, but you’ll never know what looks the best in each image until you try it out.

Mixing color and black and white:

Sometimes we get super crazy and decide that we only want the red of her dress to stand out, or the “something blue” in a wedding picture. That is when mixing the two forms of photography gets really fun and challenging.

How?

Some DSLR cameras have a built in black and white feature that allows you to experience lack of color before post production. This feature is useful to some and bothersome to others. Personally I like post production black and white better because I can make sure the image doesn’t become too grainy or have odd lighting that you might not realize was there in the colored photographs. Another tip that I learned the hard way was ALWAYS shoot in RAW or RAW and JPEG format. RAW files give you the flexibility of changing back and forth from color to black and white without losing clarity. In the end whichever way you take the photo is up to the photographer and there is no right way or wrong way. Each image is unique and tells a story.


Photos taken by : Rhiannon Evans

Shout out to bethadilly for the inspiration, here is a link to her blog: http://bethadilly.com/100-photography-blog-post-ideas/