Someone once said that if you want to hide the flaws of a photo image, change it into black and white. Well, that very often could be true, but is it so in reality? And why you need to change into BW when the world is so colourful?
“I can get a far greater sense of colour through a well-planned and executed black and
white image than I have ever achieved with colour photography.”
Ansel Adams, an American landscape photographer
Colour photography is way too standard and common. And almost every time I shoot a landscape scene or a person, I try to imagine it in black and white. Changing my mindset in such a way removes the normality of whatever I am pointing my camera at and helps me look at my subject from a different perspective. Of course, I am always taking my pictures in colour and converting them into BW during post-processing.
Black and white is like an escape from the real world and a gateway to some abstract and symbolic wonderland. Admittedly, my photos can often turn into a creative disaster and I am still far away from achieving any wonderland effect, but I will get there, eventually.
Black and white photography makes an image more compelling, more open to interpretation, more mysterious, dramatic, and emotional. In contrast to colour photos, those in BW seem to convey an alternative and even invisible view of what’s around us.
