This series of photos, taken on a trip to Europe with my older daughter, were originally just normal color pictures. That one, taken in a German town called Rothenberg, should look like this…
It is a beautiful little medieval walled town with a bar built in the year 1,000… how cool is that. But this morning, I was invited to join a black and white photo challenge by my buddy over at; https://serinssphere.wordpress.com/ …
She thinks I have an eye for photography… and hey, I totally agree with her… but other than a few old family photos, I have no black and white pictures. As an artist who paints, I see colors as an important part of the world I view. I like sunsets and flowers. Thanks to the magic of Photoshop, it is very easy to remove the color information from a picture. Technically, this turns it into a grayscale image, which might not be the exactly the same as black and white, but I can see why sometimes real photographers… and movie directors… resort to not using color. The first picture in this post was an experiment just for fun. I made an extra copy of the picture, removed the color from one, and then selected and copied the flowers back in. I think it looks cool. I might do some more of those.
That image of a stone turret in the town’s wall works well with no color. It gives it an even greater sense of history. I think a nice somber beach scene on a cloudy day would also work well.
That photo of a canal in Venice is still beautiful… I just can’t for the life of me decide if it is more beautiful than the same image with the color still in it.
I suppose that the lack of color makes you notice different things, it makes you think about light and shade, reflections and contrasts, feeling and mood…
But life, especially to an artist, is so full of color, it seems a shame to waste it.
Pouring My Art Out 
I used to play with an editing program for pics too (it was a long time ago & my COPD brain makes me forget the name) & I loved changing photos into coloring book mode so you can change the colors completely or trace the outline of the image onto another medium (like wood) & color it yourself!
you can do all that and more in Photoshop. I think I did a post once where I listed the name of dozens of the menu selections… crazy stuff… and I did those posts of my face where I played with all the filters…
I think if you are searching for the answer to which is more beautiful, color or black and white, you are asking the wrong question. For example, of your last two photos, the color version makes my eyes focus immediately on the murky green water where I imagine slimy macrophytes on every adjoining surface.
In the black and white version, my eyes are drawn instead upward to the detailed arches of the third story windows ahead and to the sidewalls where, I can only guess that what appear to be metal plates and bolts are part of the structural ties used in older construction, particularly brick. I think the question is, “What do you see?” There is value in both. Love this post!
Then you are going to love my new series… ha!
go look… you should like the first one…
It’s interesting how black-and-white version of a photo looks like art, but a color version looks like a vacation photo.
Or is that just because we have become convinced that black and white is an expression of artisticness?
These are awesome Arthur. I love that first one!
I am going to do more of those
Yay!
thanks
You’re welcome 🙂
yay
Nice pictures, either way. I think I focus more on shapes when an image is in black and white, so maybe that works best for interesting shapes.
I think that holds true more often than not
Love this, Arthur! I’ve always wondered why a photographer would choose to convert a color image to black and white – whether for aesthetic reasons or just to show more highlights. It’s interesting to hear their reasons. Love your remarks on them as well.
Thanks
🙂
that post you did about anger management on a train… there is no comment section on it…
OMG – ha! Yes, I know – didn’t know at the time if I should…but now I know I should have. Friends commented under the post before it anyways. But don’t do anything you don’t want to do – it’s not for everybody, and I know that…
It was good writing.
I will consider that your comment and I thank you very much – your opinion matters to me a lot
oh stop
never
ok
ha
yup
can’t you think of anything to say?!
I am cleaning house… we are having a ceremony here this weekend… we are becoming the godparents and godsisters to little Willie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aww- that’s wonderful! I don’t know who little Willie is, but it’s still wonderful, Arthur!
he is one of the only people who has his own category in the word cloud in my sidebar… which links you to all the posts about him… people who started following me earlier have watched him grow up from a baby… and saw his parents get married… and know all about Big Johnny and Eva… his parents.
I’ll have to check out his category then – that’s so sweet
you know me and babies
Yes, you and babies just go together like cookies and milk, or peanut butter and jelly and so on –
like babies and me…
and that is all there is
and dogs… and horses… and sea mammals…
if you say so
they all love me… as do little old ladies… and most ladies of other ages… ha
Yeah I’m kinda figuring that out, Arthur. Arthur groupies it seems…
I don’t like to word it like that
What do you prefer? lol
friends…
Perfect
yup… I am… ha…
*smirk*
wheeeeeeee
Sometimes I like the black n white because it engages my imagination. But the color photos are just so dang beautiful!
I guess it is the same way some of us like movies and some of us like reading the book. It activates different parts of our imagination.
Great point! And I have an affection for old black n white movies. There’s something about them that I love and I couldn’t imagine seeing them in color. It would diminish them.
I have mixed feelings. I am watching this show where they colorized a bunch of civil war photos… awesome… a movie about Nazis or Dracula is cool in black and white…
I like the old black n white history shows too
I do also, but I like World War Two in color…
Wow! I am impressed. 🙂
yay