Black and white photography - a cheap trick? • Non-Gaming • Photography • Eurogamer.net

phAge 6 Jan 2010 17:43:57 25,487 posts
Seen 4 days ago
Registered 18 years ago

Not being much of a photographer, I'm not sure how to put this - but it seems to me that very often a picture that, in full colour, isn't much to look at, suddenly becomes much more artsy and great when you press the "make-black-and-white"-button in your editor of choice. This almost feels cheap in a way. Hmm. Carry on.

Lutz 6 Jan 2010 17:46:12 48,870 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 18 years ago

Yup. I've taken a fair few (Read: Lots) of pics recently, and I've then taken the same pic in both Sepia and B&W, and I much prefer the Sepia and B&W ones over the colours. Can't explain why though. And yeah, they even look better.

But like yourself I'm no photographer, and I'm only using a Samsung point and shoot thingy.

Maybe we're just easily pleased.

Deleted user 6 January 2010 17:46:33

It can show up detail lost in a colour pic but if you see a pic of a girl on some social site in B&W you know she'll be rotten IRL.

otto Moderator 6 Jan 2010 17:47:27 49,322 posts
Seen 2 hours ago
Registered 20 years ago

Hmm, don't know why you should see it as a cheap trick.

Black and white can be a great way of turning a boring photo into a great one because it focuses on light and on shapes and patterns. Doesn't work for everything but it can really work well. However it's rarely as simple as hitting a 'make black & white' button, good B&W images usually take quite a lot of tweaking.

Silver Efex Pro is worth a look as a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom (or Aperture).

Dirtbox 6 Jan 2010 17:51:09 92,600 posts
Seen 1 hour ago
Registered 19 years ago

Post deleted

mal 6 Jan 2010 17:57:10 29,326 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 20 years ago

As Otto says, sometimes you were looking at shapes or light when you were taking the photo, and the colour can be a distraction. Some pictures just work better in B&W.

Deleted user 6 January 2010 18:22:26

It can be a bit of a cheap trick. I'll admit that if I've ever screwed a shot (exposure or whatever) I'll convert to black and white to see if it saves it. Not sure there's anything that wrong with that.

By a similar token sometimes I'm torn as to whether to convert or not as the photo will have qualities I like in colour as well.

You can't generalise really, but I do agree it can be a bit of a cheap trick, but it's certainly not in the league of HDR ;-)