Why Do You Shoot B&W?

There are no more TV shows shot in B&W. Very few films/Cine are shot

in B&W, except a few exceptional ones, including Schindler's List, for

an example. It seems the mass market prefers color. I'll

occasionally shoot some C-41 B&W, but was never happy with the

results, usually the lab's fault. I shouldn't travel with chemistry

these days, or even those days prior 9/11. BTW, I have done

souping/enlarging during my HS/College days. Now, I am limited to the

C-41 process because I travel to places w/o "pro" labs: Skikda,

Algeria; Daqing, China; Ulsan, Korea; Kuantan, Malaysia; Krasnodar,

Russia (B&W film and processing was avail.), and others the last

16-years. I just hope they get the developing process right. I can

always print here if they goof the printing up, which has happened

(Algeria, waiting in the Gendarmerie to prove I took no pictures of

the refinery on my way back to my trailer in the compound). I was let go.

The most beautiful films/movies were shot in B+W.

 

There's a difference between moving images and stills.

 

The "masses" have an average IQ of 100.

 

I like color if it's impactful, but if it's ordinary, hum-drum, 'normal' slice-of-life stuff, it just seems to be a distraction. With cinema, the director controls all of the elements in the frame, so the color is orchestrated. Same with fashion/commercial photography.

 

I am anxious to start developing Tri-X again. I haven't done it since college (1987). I just hope Tri-X will be around as long as i am, and that Kodak doesn't further muck-around with the formula. If anything, i would love a re-release of 'special' Vintage Tri-X, but i am not hopeful.

1) B&W film is about 50% cheaper than "pro" colour negative or transparency film;

2) i can process it myself (making it even cheaper still);

3) because I process and print myself, I enjoy the ability to control the entire photographic process from capture to final print;

4) i can't afford a digital camera (and related equipment for digital processing and output) that offers a decent viewfinder and quality of film (not suggesting one doesn't exist, just that i can't afford to buy one);

5) stop bath in the right dilution goes great with fries/chips ;P

I shoot BW because:<br>

-Sometimes - if not most of the time- it goes to the essential; removing color enhance emotion.<br>

-The Do-It-Yourself (processing, printing) is fun and creative.<br>

-Because it is hard to get a good shot<br>

-Because I like the shades of grey and beautiful texture<br>

-Film is cheaper than slide :p<br>

-Darkroom work is rewarding... sometime<br>

Now before I get bashed... I am sure the same satisfaction can be obtained with shooting color, I actually shoot color slide and I enjoy it... but I find my real joy in taking BW pictures.<br>

 

Thanks!

Because I can develop it myself (and print too, if I ever set up a darkroom).

 

Because it is silver, which will outlast colour film dyes

 

Because it's stunningly beautiful, if you know how to expose and print it right. When you've seen the work of a black and white master, you'll want to be like them. It's not surprising that top portrait photographers do so much work in black and white.

 

Because it's sharper, much sharper than even the best colour film

 

Because it's suited to many subjects, since photographs are memories, and memories are in black and white for me.

 

Because old B&W pictures last much longer than old colour pictures. Colour prints fade much faster.

 

Because I'm shooting for myself, not for the mass market

 

On your travels-- if you can buy black and white chemicals, you can process yourself-- and it's easy to order over the web even if its on available in the country.

 

Wai Leong

Stephen---I don't know how to answer that. Good question. What comes to mind is that I

really like the way BW looks. I started my (photography) life shooting BW. I like it. When I'm

working for somebody it's almost always shooting color. When I'm shooting BW it's for me.

There's nothing more relaxing for me than the Leica with Tri-X. It's always with me. I enjoy

shooting color in the Leicas and Nikons and digital in the Canons, but give me one camera

and it'll be the M with BW. It's me. [Now if I could just get some of it processed........but

that's another story.]

If you have to ask.......

May we also have your bank account #, your ss # and your visa #, Please ??

 

:-))

I agree with everyone. I just don't have the option, it's C-41 or nothing. The recent Salgodo post stunned me, beautiful. I definitely would shoot B&W if I were rooted. I spend up to a year on-site, shouldn't travel with chemicals, and don't want to wait for the results, becauese I can give copies to my familiar and anonymous subjects. My main point was: why not try to record reality. God gave us color sight, why not use it.

black and white is the choice if you are interested in <b>form</b> and grayscaling in PS is not particularly good. ditto the pseudo B&W C41. and yes, you can process it in your bathroom.

What John Fulton, above, said. After 20 years im back to doing my own B&W developing. What goes around comes around.

I shoot B&W [film] because I like B&W photos.

I like it!

It's inexpensive, especially if you bulk load, and the negatives can be just as printable after forty plus years as when I shot them. I like the look of B&W prints.

You can still shoot great BW using C41.

 

Many/most Russian citris have pro-labs.

Because it's Art.

because dogs are color blind

They look better, more often than not. Unless the color is the primary feature (i.e. a sunset), color seems to divert attention away from "what's really there." The masses like color movies because they think they look like the real world, proving of course that they don't pay too much attention to the "real" real world. They don't like to read subtitles either and listen to the beauty of Swedish, French, Portuguese, and forever. . . Thai, Japanese. If you like black and white movies, check out the classic Japanese movie, Woman of the Dunes, and see what sand "really" looks like.

Stephen,

 

Sadly, you're one of the few who can't process B&W at home. Of course, if you're stuck someplace for a year, can chemicals be shipped in? Or maybe you can find local substitutes? You could try Caffenol developer. And my last company was pretty generous about travel expenses...

 

I'm lucky that B&W is gorgeous. I can't afford to shoot 4x5 (or 8x10) in color very often.

Larry, What about last year's Spanish film "The Sea Inside"? It's color and has some of the very best acting I've seen in a long, long time. I guess it even qualifies as Art. (And for what it's worth, it's based on

a true story.)

To me shooting in color is capturing a scene, hopefully a unique one but all the same. Sometimes from an artsy point of view colors can make abstracts and make you sit back and appreciate what you've done.

 

B&W on the other hand throws that sense of mood or emotion into the process - the light. It is more difficult to take a good black and white shot and capture the mood of the situation with the correct tones and shadows and contrast as you intended, to add the emmphasis to a recording that if shot in color would be everyday ho - hum.

You can be twice as creative with B&W than as with color....the lack of the distraction of color forces your viewer to fixate on the greys and blacks and whites and mentally process your recording in tonality rather than in the color that is already there, which we see every day and take forgranted.

 

I too recently started to process my own B&W after a 25 year break in the action....and that makes shooting in B& W extra fun once again.

Some things are just too colorful<div></div>

whats the right tool!<div></div>

Nothing to do with costs for me. It is just more timeless. No bitching about color cast. It is

what it is when it's done very well. And it stays that way for longer. A 'luminosity' is available

that is also not available in color in some subjects.

just ask steve<div></div>