Black & White Photography

I'm often asked how I select which photographs to make in black & white and what will be colour. The answer I usually give is that I have a feel for what will look good in black & white, but the answer isn't as simple as that.

I learnt to see in black & white back in the 1980's while working in the darkrooms of a newspaper. My job was to develop the films and make the prints, back then newspapers worked totally in black & white.

Later I became a photographer at the newspaper and for several years worked exclusively in black & white. I now use the skills I learnt in my wedding photography.

Once you strip away the colour you are left with the essence of the scene, the composition and tone. Colour can be very distracting in a photograph and by removing it you can focus on the real meaning of the image, the reason the photographer made the photograph at that moment in time. Black & white photographs concentrate your eye on what is really going on.

While any image can work in black & white, the best black & white photographs usually rely on strong elements in the composition, lines, shapes, light and contrast.

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The above photograph was taken on a wedding earlier this year in Scotland. I had a lot of nice photographs of the couple, their family and guests, and wanted something that set the scene and told the story of the wedding location. The guests walked to a marquee set next to a river with mountains in the distance. I made this photograph to convey the location to the viewer. It works well in black & white due to the strong lines that run through the photograph. The fence and people walking away from the camera take your eye into the centre of the image, where the bridesmaids are walking and beyond into the background. Strong directional light from the setting sun resulted in long shadows which add to the photograph. Light is really the key point in any black & white photograph.



Light and shape are the key elements in the photograph above. I went to take some photographs of the bride getting ready and found her in this lovely room with directional light coming through the window. Rather than make the photograph just about the bride I wanted to show the scene as a whole, to tell the story of the bride getting ready with the bridesmaids watching. The walls are blue and there is a fair amount of distracting elements in colour, by making the photograph black & white it concentrates your eye on what is going on and the fantastic light coming into the room.



The photograph above works because of the strong graphic elements in the composition and because of the light. When I first arrived at the church I noticed this wonderful porch on the church and had intended to photograph this scene with the bride and her dad entering the church. They came in through a different door, so I had to wait for the couple to leave the church to take the shot.

Black & white really does lend itself well to wedding photography, although of course a lot of the day is very colourful and I take a lot of colour photographs as well.