Is the World Black and White?

I've always loved black and white photography, but I can't count how many people have expressed a preference for color photos to me--especially for things like portraits and wedding photography. Certainly there are photos in which color is arguably the subject of the photo, and something would be missing from the photo if it were presented in greyscale. Still, I love what tossing out the color can do to a photo, especially with portraits, where I think a monochromatic treatment can really even out skin tone, or in photos on very grey days, where the colors have been a bit washed out.

Below are sets of some of my photos with the color version and at least one monochromatic treatment. There are a few I think work better or at least as well in the color and monochrome versions, but most of them are photos which I think were improved by throwing out the color. What do you think? You can see larger versions of the photos in the photo viewer by clicking on any of the photos in the post.

Heidelberg, Germany

 

Northwestern Glacier, Alaska

 

 Pine Cone in Paris, France

Wedding, Anchorage, Alaska

 

Paris, France

Portraits

 

 

Florence, Italy

From the Reject Pile

With a whopping sixteen options to pick from in my last post, it probably seems that I showed no restraint in selecting photos as options for my Been There entry. Alas, I edited the photos below with the June competition in mind, but decided that they either did not fit the theme as well as some of the others, or that they had some defect which would make them less competitive. Still, there are several that I am quite pleased with, so I thought I would show them here.

It was quite dreary and grey during my trip to Dresden, so I'm afraid a lot of the pictures looked a bit washed out. My trip to Florence was over this past Christmas, and the cool weather meant a lot of misty mornings, leading to some hazy photos. Likewise with Heidelberg. While I think this creates a bit of an eery ambiance, they aren't the sharpest photos as a result, and I worried that they wouldn't be competitive. In a similar vein, I usually don't travel with a tripod (too cumbersome), so when I insist on taking night photos, like I did in Paris, I end up with some ok shots that could have been dramatically improved with a little less camera wobble. I also enjoy the sweep panorama function on my new camera, but sometimes the lens distortion is a little too intense, as in some of the panoramas below (Florence in particular).

Dresden, Germany

Dresden, Germany

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey

Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy

Vienna, Austria

Paris, France