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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> When do you convert photos to black and white?
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 08/08/2005 05:56:01 AM · #1
I have seen a lot of great B&W pictures here at DPC. I'm sure they were originally in color. When making a decision, what factors do you consider before turning it to b&w?

Can you show samples of photos that are better in B&W?

DPC is amazing! Thanks.
 08/08/2005 06:02:22 AM · #2
when the colours are more distracting than helpful. otherwise, i always prefer a colour photo compared to a black n white.
 08/08/2005 06:16:57 AM · #3
I can't answer this one for you unfortunately! I haven't done a huge amount in black and white! As for those that I have converted, I usually discover when playing with PS! I prefer people photos in black and white more than a landscape but it really depends on the subject!
 08/08/2005 06:21:26 AM · #4
People have mixed feelings on this one. Some like the colour, others like the B&W. I am sick of looking at it, so i dont know which i like LOL


08/08/2005 06:55:00 AM · #5
Originally posted by lentil:
People have mixed feelings on this one. Some like the colour, others like the B&W. I am sick of looking at it, so i dont know which i like LOL



Lentil! For me the B & W has more of the 'WOW' factor!

08/08/2005 06:58:12 AM · #6
Whenever I feel like it :)
 08/08/2005 07:03:17 AM · #7
Color photography is hard verry hard. You can not have random colors, that's just family album photo. Colors have to be in a composition themselves if you really want to have a good color photo and that is really hard when you are not shooting everything in a studio where control everything. So when in a photo colors are too chaotic and like someone said above they are more distracting then helpful I go for b/w.
 08/08/2005 07:12:35 AM · #8
Also if it's an outdoor shot and you have a bright overcast sky, it'll look blown out/overexposed in color but in B&W it'll just give you more contrast.
 08/08/2005 07:18:29 AM · #9
I can´t really find any very good materal on the net, where I can learn how to take better B&W. And there is way too much equipment talk and way too little photographic talk.
My way of learning BW has mostly been in just analysing good bw photos and try to learn.

I have very little knowledge in bw photography, but these are the factors that I look for when I turn them to BW:

These kind of pictures are those I turn to BW:
Color distracting main subject in photo, large dinamic range, old people, very good portrets and pictures that just look good BW.

Then there is the question what kind of bw fit´s the picture:
Warm(little brown tone)/Cool (little blue tone)/ green tone.
or sepia, rustic and so on. Should it be high contrast or low, bright or dark.
I like to see large dinamic range in bw so I try to keep the contrast away from affecting the dinamic range. Low contrast is also almost always best in portrets (and low sharpness).
Portrets are best in brown and blue tones, and of course also in just black and white
Flowers and colorful schenes can be nice in bw but I would have them in wild color tones, like purple, yellow, blue or red.
Rustic look is very contrasy so very few portrets look nice in rustic (my picture here on dpc is in rustic though, but it shows more my camera than my face)

You can also convert the photo in bw and keep some small color in the photo, it can look very nice in portrets.

It always nice to take portrets of children whith toys, make them bw but keep the color on the toy. But in my opinion the toy sometime takes to much attention, so I am always careful about that.
sometimes I have only a little color in the toy.

I bought Uwe Steinmueller´s d70 ebook. on the cd are many photoshop actions and they are very good. Her bw actions have helped me alot on how to turn photos into bw.
 08/08/2005 07:24:42 AM · #10
A BW photo must have it's own story to tell in bw.
You can't (or at least shouldn't) go black and white to try to save a color photo gone wrong. If you have a clear understanding of what you're trying to say with your picture, then the question answers itself. You will simply know which way to go.
On the other hand, if you don't know what you're saying then it dowsn't matter which way you go. It won't save the pic anyway.
I think. :-)

/besides, sometimes it may be a good idea to remain between color and BW. Low saturation, so color won't get in the way of viewing, but still enough saturation to give the viewer a hint of tonality. Not the same thing, though, as a toned bw.

Message edited by author 2005-08-08 07:28:34.
 08/08/2005 10:23:47 AM · #11
case sample. photo of a native boy, which is better: color or black and white?



My Portfolio

Message edited by author 2005-08-08 10:37:48.
 08/08/2005 10:29:21 AM · #12
hmm kind of a hard question, to me it depends on the image, some images have a certain feel to them, sometimes on head shots or pics of people I shoot in b/w depending on the mood of the image or person, here are two of my favorite family shots in b/w. I kind of like b/w's more



Message edited by author 2005-08-08 10:30:38.
 08/08/2005 10:38:37 AM · #13
Personally, I try almost all my shots in B&W to see what they'll look like. But I rarely just do a color desaturation. I typically use a special Automation tool by PhotoKit to test what it would have looked like shooting in B&W with a color filter on the front of the lens. Orange, red and green filters cause some pretty interesting things to happen with the luminance.

original
simulating a red filter

But it's up to you to decide which is better when pondering a possible B&W conversion. I personally thought the B&W was WAY better in that last picture, but I had several people tell me that they preferred the color.

Message edited by author 2005-08-08 10:42:34.
 08/08/2005 11:00:40 AM · #14
It varies.

I always shoot in colour so I have the option to use the image either way.

But I usually have colour or black and white in mind for most shots at the point I'm taking them.

It's all down to what I'm looking at - where there are certain tones in the scene and/ or certain textures I'll go for black and white and where there are others I'll go for colour. But either way I'll always shoot in colour to retain the choice.

And then sometimes it's only when I see the image on screen when I'm post processing that I realise I think it will work well in black and white.

I don't just use black and white as a last-ditch thing to try on images that don't quite make the grade as colour images, that's for sure! I adore black and white and that approach just doesn't accord it the respect I feel it's due.

I don't know if this will be of any use to anyone but just in case:

A wee page on black and white
 08/08/2005 11:23:54 AM · #15
I shoot in color 99% of the time. However, like kavey, I almost always have the image pictured in my mind if it'll be BW or color. In post processing, I convert them to BW and usually get what I initially had in my mind.



Or you can always experiment on selective desat.


Message edited by author 2005-08-08 11:26:38.
 08/08/2005 12:29:19 PM · #16
i believe it depends on the mood that your looking to show with the picture. that picture posted by aboutimage - they're both awesome and both could be used, just depends on the mood your looking for.
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