No, It’s Alive and Well
Black and White photography is alive and well. And there are reasons why would an artist would choose black and white (monochrome) photography over color. In the days of film only, black and white could be processed faster, printed faster and reproduced easier than color images. In today’s world none of that makes any difference. Today’s color printing is as easy as hitting the print command on your computer.
Why Shoot Balck and White?
So why black and white? First of all, the black and white image immediately becomes more abstract. Lines, shapes and tone dominate the image instead of the bright colors that tend to attract the eye in a color photo. Secondly and most importantly, you can “push” the manipulations of the black and white tonal range much further than you can stretch the color. The monochrome image may get more abstract or moody by becoming darker, lighter, or more tonally compressed, but never unrealistic, garish and harsh as a color image gets when it is digitally over-processed. Finally, by producing black and white images, the artist is following in the footsteps of some of the greatest photographic masters - Adams, Weston and Penn just to name a (very) few.
The Tools of the Digital Darkroom
The tools provided by Photoshop are in many cases the same as you would use in the traditional darkroom. Burning, dodging, flashing and contrast control are just a few of the basic manipulations available. Photoshop also has advanced controls such as curves, layers, masking and levels that were either extremely difficult or outright impossible to use in the traditional darkroom. Black and white photography is alive and well and with today’s digital darkroom the monochromatic image is more powerful than ever.