Colour Vs Black & White photographs

Hello dear reader:

I have been doing some experimentation with black and white photography and when it suits better an image, I will be sharing with you my discoveries during this post.

I think there are several considerations to take in mind to decide which option will fit better a particular project. When you want to have more attention in the person and make the image stronger the black and white definitely is the way to go. For example with the following image, I thought the black & white conveys a stronger message and focus your attention more in the runner, as in the colour version your eye gets distracted with the red colour that you find in several spots.

Estrella_Photographics 20180729 Iron Man Whistler-19

Off course there are some elements that will also be required to evaluate, such as if the colour is a subject it self, sometimes the images are all about the colours you capture, but some other times also you have to have contrast and keep in mind that the images that work the best for black and white are those that have pure black, pure white and shades of grey.

For instance I took this photograph during my last trip to Mexico, and I thought it was a nice image at the time of day where the moon was still in the sky, but later decided to convert the image to black and white as I thought it worked even better, but what do you think?

Now another quality that work very good in a black and white image are the shapes, so if you have clearly defined shapes, and a nice contrast, the image will look very good in black and white.

On the other hand for the images that look better in colour, are the ones where you want to have a more realistic approach, off course for food, landscape, product photography the way to go is colour as it would play an important part of the experience for the viewer.

Here is a photograph I took from a duck in a pond, and in this case I chose the colour version, as even though the black and white is nice, I think looses part of the essence of the bird with the bright green head contrast with the blue reflection of the sky in the water.