B&W or color?

[Zhennie]

I wonder, how do you decide if a picture looks better in b&w rather than in color? Do you have any tips & tricks?

[Miss.Abel]

I think it comes down to a personal preference. I love BW photos but if there is a particular aspect htat i really love, I use colour selection to keep it. I don't think there is any particular rule for deciding the colouring of your picture, if there is, I have broken it hundreds of times!

I did this pic a few months ago, Love my shoes! on Flickr - Photo Sharing! love those shoes but highlighting the bows gave them just that something better.

Hope this helps!

[CaptainNH]

I'm using more and more b+w these days, I think mainly when I'm looking for more drama in my shot or want to highlight textures or the lighting. It's also a great way to "hide" a grainy colour pic shot at high ISO.

I think b+w is often better at portraying a story, because there's no distraction from multi-coloured backgrounds and the like.

Shooting (or at least working) in b+w is a great way to learn about highlight and shadow details and image contrast.

The main reason I use b+w so much though is simply that it looks so beautiful.

[teaking]

I agree with Captain above B/W does a great job capturing textures, contrast and strong shapes.. also its kinda good for surrealism as it does tend to give more of a story to an image.

[woods]

When the colors in a shot are not like I wanted or if the white balance is not well set I often try BW. It can turn a so so picture in a ok one, just need to evaluate both. After it depends on the shot...

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by Zhennie

how do you decide if a picture looks better in b&w rather than in color?

In the end, it's your call. You're the photographer.

Some things that make me consider B&W:

• the subject is old-fashioned,
• the color is distracting,
• the color is hiding important features,
• the color is unpleasant,
• I want to emphasize lines, shape, and texture, or
• a low-light picture came out too noisy.

As Michael Freeman notes in his book The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Digital Photographers, B&W is less literal than color is. It is more "artistic" and less "documentary".

[i speak in math]

I visualize what I want the shot to look like. If I see it in B&W in my mind, then I process it that way. If I see in in color, then I go that route. Sometimes, I am undecided and try both and only use the one I like better.

[pAthdoc]

I've been playing with photography for a while now, but post-production is something I've just recently started. I do love how B&W brings out a different perspective in pictures, but I also never know when I should be shooting in color vs. B&W. Is there a difference between shooting in B&W as opposed to shooting in color then converting to B&W in post-production? Is there a loss of image quality during the conversion?

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by pAthdoc

I've been playing with photography for a while now, but post-production is something I've just recently started. I do love how B&W brings out a different perspective in pictures, but I also never know when I should be shooting in color vs. B&W. Is there a difference between shooting in B&W as opposed to shooting in color then converting to B&W in post-production? Is there a loss of image quality during the conversion?

When you shoot using the in camera b&w, the camera decides how to convert a certain color to grayscale and does so regardless of mood or subject matter. When you shoot in color and convert to b&w in post processing, you decide how the colors looks and how to create a mood with the b&w (unless you are just hitting desaturate, which isn't really b&w anyway). There is a loss of information -- the color that the pixel was. There isn't a loss of IQ. If you are shooting in RAW, which you should be, the information in the RAW file is untouched and will always be there regardless of the changes you make in PP.