[Leica] Re: [LRflex] Power of B&W?

[philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent)]

All great, but the Paul Newman shot is truly beautiful.
I don't see what these shots have to do with color vs B&W though: I  
think they'd work equally well in color.
Thanks for showing,
Philippe



Op 14-jul-06, om 06:09 heeft bob palmieri het volgende geschreven:

> Well, ted... you asked...
>
> This B&W vs color business has occupied a lot of my time lately.  I  
> went back and tried to remember what I used to think, which was  
> something along the lines of  "B&W is the acoustic music of  
> photography"  or some such not-so-great analogy.
>
> Sometimes B&W seems too sentimental or dramatic.  However, color is  
> such a monstrously strong emotional element (which can be diffused  
> or de-fused by having too much of it, or too many conflicting  
> colors) that it ruins more pictures than it helps, in my viewing  
> experience.  In fact, the most common problem I see in snaps by non- 
> serious photographers is that there's too much information of every  
> kind without any organizing principles to help us poor viewers  
> receive any impact.
>
> Also, my impression is that our brains use up so much processing  
> power in color perception that it takes away resources that could  
> be used to take in other content in the frame.  However, for some  
> reason I also get the impression that slightly toning B&W images  
> seems to wake something up in the viewer that isn't there in  
> strictly greyscale snaps.
>
> These days I feel that the decision of B&W or color needs to be an  
> active choice determined by every individual image.
>
> So, earlier today I had to do some B&W scanning of film and I  
> decided to post some of it, along with some B&W/color comparisons  
> of a couple of things I've posted before.
>
> Here's some stuff that I have no choice about, since they were shot  
> on B&W film (with one minor exception)
>
> The actor Paul Newman (apologies for the brutal application of the  
> "shadow side" principle; I was making lemonade from the lemon of  
> extreme backlighting):
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album463/Paul_Newman_at_80_dark
>
> Radio host Scott Simon (apologies for the bad scan):
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album463/Scott_Simon
>
> A luncher in Chicago:
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album463/StepLounger_1_0
>
> And a B&W verion of the "swishy pan" Rodeo shot:
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album463/next_penning_jpeg
>
> B&W vs color comparisons of some new/old snaps appear elsewhere in  
> the gallery:
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/album463
>
> I have some definite opinions about which ones look better which  
> way...
>
> Bob Palmieri
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>