Challenge: 30 Days of Black & White Photography

Hi there, it’s been a while.

What have I been up to in our time apart? Nothing too much, moved to a new city, bought a new camera, yadayadayada, nothing important right now.

One thing I’ve been up to that I do want to talk about: a recent experiment of mine. If you read the title, you’ve probably already guessed it.

But first, some context:

I have been a color shooter since the very beginning, in fact I’ve probably never taken more than 100 photos in black and white since I started in 2015. As a documentary photographer, capturing things as I see them has always been a crucial part of my style, and I would even go as far as to say that my ability to play with colors in a frame is one of my greatest skills as a photographer. But since this summer I’ve started changing the way I edit my colors, adding in some different tones to my photos. While I do want to stay true to my artistic expression and make myself happy with my editing, at a certain point I realized the way I was changing my colors was toeing an ethical line for me: am I no longer accurately documenting the world around me?

I know I know, who really cares? Well, I do. For me this was a pretty significant identity crisis and more importantly the internal conflict was making me less excited to go out and shoot. After brain storming for a while about how I wanted to progress, one day I got frustrated and declared to myself and my dog “WHY EVEN BOTHER? I WISH I COULD JUST GIVE UP COLOR!”

Well, turns out that’s a legitimate solution, so I embarked on an experiment that I never would have guessed I’d be on - one month of exclusively black and white photography.

Week One:

Week One notes: I’m definitely struggling with balancing exposure and tones. I actually think I had a bit of beginner’s luck, but working with light is trickier than I thought it would be.

Week Two:

Week Two notes: I tried out black and white for family/everyday photography, which I would normally always shoot in color. I actually like that it comes across in a timeless way. I have a lot of old film photos of my grandparent’s house and this reminds me a lot of that. I think I have a better control of exposure, and I think texture, particularly grass, is coming across much better in black and white. I enjoyed this week.

Week Three:

Week Three notes: Things are definitely clicking now. Not only do I feel better about controlling my exposure, I’m starting to see things I would normally miss: shapes, textures, shadows, lines, etc. I really think that shooting in color can be distracting, color is such a strong element to work with that it makes you forget about other elements that go into a good photograph. I feel really good about this batch of photos, and I’m starting to enjoy black and white as much as color photography.

Week Four:

Week Four notes: This week presented an amazing challenge/opportunity - The National Aquarium of Baltimore! I would never normally consider shooting this magical place in black and white, the color of water and plants is so cool, it hurt my soul to keep my camera in black and white. Until I saw the results, that is. Shooting in black and white transforms an obvious setting into an abstract, mysterious place. The lighting of the aquarium is incredible, and served up incredible photos on a platter. Until this week, I fully expected to go back to color when I finished my month, but the incredible results I got from this shoot has sold me.

Conclusion:

When I started this challenge, I was feeling stuck in my photography. I think in a way I forgot how much I don’t know and still have left to learn. I had been doing street photography in the same way over and over for years, and I needed to completely forget what I thought I knew, and start from scratch.

This exercise helped me in so many ways, from improving my understanding of composition and lighting, to changing the way I look for subjects while out shooting. I think in a way I had outgrown my style of ‘look for an interesting subject and start snapping’. My pictures now feel more whole and complex. The importance of lighting in black and white images adds dynamism, and the way texture, lines, and shapes work in an image has added layers to my work.

Overall I am very glad I started this challenge, I feel like twice the photographer I was before. I will definitely continue to shoot in black and white, but I do want to start adding some color back into my work. I feel that now I have learned the tools to make a good image without relying on color, but I still need to learn how to responsibly and moderately include color in my documentation. My plan going forward is to switch between color and black and white in-camera while out shooting depending on the scene. If I see a way that color can improve a scene, I’ll switch, but if color does not add any spark to the image I will stick to black and white. I feel this will provide more balance to my work.

Some Tips to Try Yourself:

1.) Don’t just edit in black and white, it is very important to actually see the scene in black and white while shooting to start actively developing a sense of composition and lighting. That being said, I shot in Raw+JPEG so I would still have color available if I ever want to go back to an image after the challenge.

2.) Start with light. Black and white can look great in any conditions, but I found that harsh light and contrasting, dark shadows made for amazing conditions to isolate subjects and bring drama to an image. It also helps you practice to shoot in harsher light, rather than just sticking to even, soft light of overcast days or golden hours. Learning that skill helps train your eye to be ready at any time to capture a great moment.

3.) Look for lines and other geometric patterns. Black and white has a way of filtering out distractions in a busy scene. Finding these patterns can strip a composition down to its most minimal, again further allowing you to isolate your subject and create a compelling image. A good subject is great, but drawing a viewer into the photo is the goal - you want to make that moment last forever, and people pass interesting characters on the street all the time without a second glance. To truly immortalize a moment, it’s important to use these visual elements to create a scene which commands the viewers attention. Since shapes and lines are easy for the average human to comprehend (they are among the first things we learn as children), they also make it easier for viewers to contextualize a photo. That was a bit of a tangent but TLDR: black and white will reveal lines and shapes that normally are masked by color: so try to look out for them while shooting in black and white.