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

My Latest Gig

I am finally back from my whirlwind adventure (more on that soon), and one of my first tasks upon my return was to shoot some portraits for a friend. She was particularly interested in resume photos, but we also had some fun doing more relaxed photos outdoors. The idea of a resume photo was a new concept to me--as I've applied primarily for jobs in the U.S., I've never been expected to submit a photo with a job application. Obviously the idea is to select a photo which is professional, but hopefully also conveys a bit of your personality. In order to make sure that I shot at least a few that would serve the purpose, I shot a wide variety of photos, ranging from extremely serious to happy.

In addition to shooting several hundred photos in different settings, with different clothing and hairstyles, and featuring different expressions, I also applied a variety of editing techniques (black and white, sepia tone, vignetting) to add variety and really make the photos stand out from the pack. I did the majority of my editing in Adobe Lightroom 4--I'm using the free 30 day trial, and trying to get a feel for how the program differs from (and is similar to) Lightroom 3. Rather than having a simple fill flash slider, as was the case in LR 3, LR4 allows you to adjust highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks all independently. As a big fan of the highlight recovery feature in LR3, I'm pleased to see these additional features in LR4. However, the added control does also mean that adjusting the light in the photo takes a bit more tweaking than in the previous version of the program. I also found that adjusting the luminance--both the overall luminance and color-specific luminance as necessary--really helped to even skin tone.

At any rate, below are a few of my favorite photos from the shoot. As always, I'm grateful for constructive feedback!