Black and White Portrait Photography

Black and white portrait photography, in my opinion, is often more interpretive than color portraits. It has an immediate element of transformation, because, people see in color.

So, take away the color and what do we have?

We have mood. We have a new type of interaction with the viewer. Black and white portraits are not how anyone has ever seen you and that is a wonderful way for a portrait to work.

​Black and white portraits are also not just one thing though. It is not simply the lack of color that drawn the viewer in. In my old film days, I spent hours and hours printing my own black and white photos. Having that experience makes me keenly aware of the possible variations in black and white. The types of films, the film grain, the chemistry used, the papers used for printing, the quality of the enlarger, and toning methods all came together to make an image without ‘color’ an image with emotion. 

The beauty of digital photography is that one good image can become 10 amazing, and different, images within a much shorter timeframe. Repeated tweaking of the image takes minutes and is certainly much cheaper than printing them was.
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A photographer shouldn’t just be desaturating an image and calling it black and white photography. There should be more thought put into it. If you take the color out you should be adding something in. Since it’s not color being added in we are tasked with adding things like: drama, brilliance, and peace. This is done by means of: contrast, grains, brightness, tones, etc., etc. It takes a little time and the results are well worth the effort.

Naturally this type of image will not work for all your photographic needs. For instance, it’s unlikely to be the best option for corporate portraits or holiday photos. 

However, if you have always wanted a fine art portrait done you should look to include some black and white options.

Give me a call, I'd love to talk black and white photography with you!