Choice of color
Many of my fellow photographers (and seniors and juniors) are in to this debate of when we should chose BW and when we go for color. I was having a discussion on this with my friend Abhra on this subject and I thought of putting up my methodology of selecting Color over BW and vice versa in this blog.
The obvious choicesColor over BW:Below are two sample photos taken by me:
The choice is color, quite obviously. What I wanted to capture in these abstracts were the colors and the paintbrush effect the flowing water creates on the multi colored stones, which have stronger color than form. I actually probably do not need to give any explanations here - the BW snap tells it all.
BW over color
The below image is made-to-order for BW. Put any color here, and the message will be lost. The color is hidden in the twinkle of the eyes of the people here - despite their hardships, they also do have their enjoyment, on things which are apparently too silly for upstyle people.
Difficult choices
Those photos where choice is difficult:
(These photos are from Abhra Aich's Usefilm portfolio who is also a close friend of mine - I have taken the liberty of keeping his nphotos here for the time being with his permission)
First, the color version. What have we tried to photograph here? Is it a farmer, walking barefooted, with a cycle to accompany, and with a sack filled with grasses? or is it the green trees, with a road in front of them, which has a with a sack over a cycle, which a man (who is a farmer) is pushing? I guess it is definitely the first one.
Does the green background do any favor to the photo? I do not think so. Does the bright yellow sack sends a message to the viewer? Nothing special. So what are we looking at? Isnt it, despite all the hard work of the photographer, just a snapshot on the first look and the viewer has to take the pain to discover what the photographer wanted to emphasize on? I am sure when hundreds of photos are viewed together, this photo will be kind of ignored, depite having all the elements of an excellent photograph and despite Abhra's sincere efforts.
That gives us to think, how we can make it look much better. Abhra tried the following:
Step 1 - are the colors serving any purpose? We are pretty sure by now that they aren't. So let us get rid of it first.
Step 2 - The green BG, due to its intensity level on the rainbow, appears rather dark now. How about some dodging?
Step 3 - it still looks distracting, much more than it was in color. Ok, a blurred BG might help here. The camera had its limitations with aperture, so we do the separation in post processing.
Step 4 - The stark reality of the farmer toiling would come up more when the photos are contrasty and there is lesser scope for dreamy imagination. let us do a curve.
Step 5 -Aha, it looks better now. However, something is still missing. The mood. The hat is old fashioned, medieval style, was used quite a lot in china before the revolution, so that remote east look is associated with it. Also, these hats were more used in old times in India. Old times generally carry a good feeling in mind, a warmish feeling. How about sepia? Sepia is warm, sepia has the retro look and sepia catches attention instantly. Here is the final result:
Photos that could have gone either way: (these are my photos):
If you want to use my photos for non-commercial purposes, please feel free to use them. However, please write to me at bijitbose@gmail.com (it feels good to know someone is so impressed by my photos that he/she is using it) and please keep a note prominently at the place of use that these photos are credited to me. For Abhra's photos, please talk to him directly at abhra.aich@gmail.com. For commercial use, please ensure you get a specific written permission from me before you use them (I am not too bad at legal matters) for you to be able to save yourself from spending more than you saved by using this photo.
Write to bijitbose@gmail.com
Many of my fellow photographers (and seniors and juniors) are in to this debate of when we should chose BW and when we go for color. I was having a discussion on this with my friend Abhra on this subject and I thought of putting up my methodology of selecting Color over BW and vice versa in this blog.
The obvious choicesColor over BW:Below are two sample photos taken by me:
The choice is color, quite obviously. What I wanted to capture in these abstracts were the colors and the paintbrush effect the flowing water creates on the multi colored stones, which have stronger color than form. I actually probably do not need to give any explanations here - the BW snap tells it all.
BW over color
The below image is made-to-order for BW. Put any color here, and the message will be lost. The color is hidden in the twinkle of the eyes of the people here - despite their hardships, they also do have their enjoyment, on things which are apparently too silly for upstyle people.
Difficult choices
Those photos where choice is difficult:
(These photos are from Abhra Aich's Usefilm portfolio who is also a close friend of mine - I have taken the liberty of keeping his nphotos here for the time being with his permission)
First, the color version. What have we tried to photograph here? Is it a farmer, walking barefooted, with a cycle to accompany, and with a sack filled with grasses? or is it the green trees, with a road in front of them, which has a with a sack over a cycle, which a man (who is a farmer) is pushing? I guess it is definitely the first one.
Does the green background do any favor to the photo? I do not think so. Does the bright yellow sack sends a message to the viewer? Nothing special. So what are we looking at? Isnt it, despite all the hard work of the photographer, just a snapshot on the first look and the viewer has to take the pain to discover what the photographer wanted to emphasize on? I am sure when hundreds of photos are viewed together, this photo will be kind of ignored, depite having all the elements of an excellent photograph and despite Abhra's sincere efforts.
That gives us to think, how we can make it look much better. Abhra tried the following:
Step 1 - are the colors serving any purpose? We are pretty sure by now that they aren't. So let us get rid of it first.
Step 2 - The green BG, due to its intensity level on the rainbow, appears rather dark now. How about some dodging?
Step 3 - it still looks distracting, much more than it was in color. Ok, a blurred BG might help here. The camera had its limitations with aperture, so we do the separation in post processing.
Step 4 - The stark reality of the farmer toiling would come up more when the photos are contrasty and there is lesser scope for dreamy imagination. let us do a curve.
Step 5 -Aha, it looks better now. However, something is still missing. The mood. The hat is old fashioned, medieval style, was used quite a lot in china before the revolution, so that remote east look is associated with it. Also, these hats were more used in old times in India. Old times generally carry a good feeling in mind, a warmish feeling. How about sepia? Sepia is warm, sepia has the retro look and sepia catches attention instantly. Here is the final result:
Photos that could have gone either way: (these are my photos):
If you want to use my photos for non-commercial purposes, please feel free to use them. However, please write to me at bijitbose@gmail.com (it feels good to know someone is so impressed by my photos that he/she is using it) and please keep a note prominently at the place of use that these photos are credited to me. For Abhra's photos, please talk to him directly at abhra.aich@gmail.com. For commercial use, please ensure you get a specific written permission from me before you use them (I am not too bad at legal matters) for you to be able to save yourself from spending more than you saved by using this photo.
Write to bijitbose@gmail.com
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