Color or B/W?

[Gianluca Drago]

This is probably not the best place to ask this question. I believe that most members of this forum started developing black and white photographs in the darkroom of some garage or basement when they were still in their infancy. However, I would like to know what you think today about the eternal struggle between good and evil, especially now that digital is in government. Which is good and which is evil? Color or black and white?

I know I will hate myself tomorrow morning for asking this question.

[Photos: Rome, Italy, 2018. Nikon D7100. License: CC0 “No Rights Reserved”]

 

[Rob MacKillop]

The colour ones are of somewhere I feel I could visit. The b&w are of somewhere I could dream of being.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

The colour ones are of somewhere I feel I could visit. The b&w are of somewhere I could dream of being.

Poetry! But I like to dream in colors...

 

[Brian Moore]

B&W for me, Gianluca. By the way 6391 is a very fine image regardless of treatment.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I like 6372 in color and 6391 in b&w.
Despite doing my own darkroom work in 1971/1972, I was hardly an infant...

 

[Gianluca Drago]

B&W for me, Gianluca. By the way 6391 is a very fine image regardless of treatment.

Thank you @Brian Moore

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

My 2c worth of opinion - I like both B/W and colour, and don't consider one 'better' or 'less wrong' than the other. I think it's just down to to a mixture of preference and subject matter.
Both your shots I like very much in both versions!

 

[Gianluca Drago]

My 2c worth of opinion - I like both B/W and colour, and don't consider one 'better' or 'less wrong' than the other. I think it's just down to to a mixture of preference and subject matter.
Both your shots I like very much in both versions!

Thank you @Stevenson Gawen !

 

[Peter Roberts]

Here's a quote to ponder:
Color photography usually takes advantage of the obvious. Black and white photography fares better, as its inherent abstraction takes the viewer out of the morass of manifest appearance and encourages inspection of the shapes, textures and the qualities of the light.
Ansell Adams, An Autobiography

 

[Rob MacKillop]

What did he ^ know? LOL.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

Black and white photography fares better

Who am I to disagree with Ansel Adams?: B&W bypasses the morass of chromaticity and makes this world an easier world to inhabit. Already you have to struggle with gear, subject, composition, tone, and contrast, but in B&W at least you can avoid the nightmare of white balance and color calibration, color harmonies, chroma noise, extreme saturation spots, and so on. Probably 90% of photos look better in B&W. However, I accept challenges in color because I don't like to win without a fight. But probably my love for color photography comes from my personal history of not being a photographer (but a former aspiring painter) in the first place.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

"my love for color photography comes from my personal history of not being a photographer (but a former aspiring painter) in the first place."

That's cheating!

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

However, I accept challenges in color because I don't like to win without a fight.

That's something I respect very much!

That's cheating!

 

[Ivar Dahl-Larsen]

I am a latecomer to the question, but as I stumbled upon it, I certainly have a viewpoint. I am lucky, I can see colours and I know that people who are blind and the ones who are colour-blind would like to be able to see colours. Therefore I appreciate colours, but have to admit, - to make good images in colours are far more difficult than to make images in black and white. The latter is more forgiving. Colours are very revealing and complementary colours are hard to match up to make a good picture. I like to do both though.

 

[Laurence Griffiths]

For me, black and white photos make me think of "history", whereas colour photos make me think "History comes alive".