The Art of Black and White Photography
Originally, just as with movies, all film for still photography was black-and-white or sepia. It wasnt until the mid-20th century that color photography became feasible for the masses. Obviously color photography is now open to anyone, and given that we see the world in color, why would we want to deliberately remove color from our photographs?
This question is unique in that it brings about the answer of identifying when to take a black and white photograph or when to remove color from a photograph using an editing program such as Photoshop.
The answer to the above question is that we would want to remove color from a photograph in order to simplify it; to get rid of distracting information so that we can concentrate better on something else. In this its no different from blurring the background of a portrait or from framing a photo in such a way that distracting elements are out of the frame.
Now that we have answered the why to our question, let’s explore the when, or more precisely, the three main situations one might wish to remove color from a photo.
# Portraits - In color portraits, facial flaws such as blemishes, skin discoloration, red nose and so on, are very distracting to the viewer. By removing or stripping the photo of color, the viewer can then concentrate on the emotions, personality and life of the person portrayed in the image.
# Fine Art Abstract Photography
Abstract Fine Art Photography is the art of capturing shapes and patterns. Using color photography for this art form defeats what the photographer is trying to accomplish as color distracts from the main subject.
Note that black-and-white photographs are generally more tolerant of contrast, so fine art photographers will often strip out color from their photographs and then ramp up the contrast (again, using an image editing program).
# Whenever the photo is more or less monochromatic anyway
This final category is something of a catchall. While the main use of black-and-white is to remove something distracting from a photo, its also a good idea to try converting a photo to black-and-white when the photo really has few bright colors anyway. Another way of looking at this is to say that just as color is distracting, a washed-out lack of color is also somewhat distracting.