I seldom make black & white photographs – but why is that?
I think it mostly comes down to this: I love color, and turning a scene into monochrome feels like taking something important away. Which, ironically, is exactly why many photographers go for it.
Honestly, I come across a lot of black and white photos that feel bland and uninteresting, and I can’t shake the sense that black and white is sometimes used just to make an image look more “artistic.” The trouble is, if a photo doesn’t work in color, stripping the color away won’t fix that.
I know this is a strong opinion, and a photo I love might mean nothing to someone else, and vice versa. But I still think this creative choice makes monochrome both overrated and underrated at once.
Let me explain.
It’s overrated when it’s treated as automatically superior to color, as if that were just a given. It isn’t – it’s a creative choice. Photographers in the past didn’t have that choice; we do.
It’s underrated, too, because some of us – myself included – avoid it partly because it’s overrated, and sometimes leaned on as an easy fix for a photograph that isn’t quite working.
That said, some images genuinely are stronger without color. The key word there is some.
I’d also say that using monochrome purely to simplify a composition feels like a shortcut. A composition should hold up on its own first – in real life, so to speak. Black and white can strengthen it, but it won’t rescue one that doesn’t work to begin with.
For me, going monochrome is an afterthought nine times out of ten – and that’s something I’d like to change.
So, a few things I want to play with going forward:
- Actually decide, not default. Ask why before switching, not after. Gut feeling helps, but a bit of rationale is also good.
- Keep hunting for contrast – I already do this, so no big deal.
- Poke at the monochrome profile in the viewfinder now and then, just to see. I promise I’ll try.
- I’ll probably keep shooting color, deciding later (when shooting raw, it really makes no difference).
- One master rule: only go black & white if it’s genuinely, totally better – not just different or less boring.
No grand plan here, mostly just curiosity – see what happens when it’s a deliberate choice.