Color street photography

[williams_gallery]

<p>Hi Marie - Take a look at the work Helen Levitt did in color. She's a master who made it work for her despite much of her street work being made in black and white. <br>

Personally I've never been able to put my finger on it, but I've tried working in color and the images lack impact for me. The way that hues change as we increase and decrease exposure when working them in Photoshop is a major problem for me. I like printing my black and white work dark - too dark for a lot of photographer's taste - it's harder for me to pull that off in color. I find black and white to be the more expressive of the two mediums, but each has its place. Unfortunately when shooting commissioned portraits, often the client asks for color and so that's that. <br>

I probably do my best with color when I try to forget I am shooting color and work as usual. If you walk around with thoughts of consciously making "colorful" images then in my opinion your head is not where it needs to be to remain open to what will unfold. Probably the BEST aspect of working on the street is the knowledge that I am not in control and that I can only hope to stumble upon people and situations worth making images of. Having one's head full of preconceived notions is a distraction. Make the call as it pertains to the shoot ahead of time and then forget it until the work is on film (or memory card or whatever...)<br>

Matt</p>