Colour or B&W please?

dinneenp

Hi,
Which do you prefer (& why)- colour or b&w?
1.




2.




Cheers in advance,
Pa

dupeters

Black and white.

i think they look more appealing. but then i have a thing for old b+w photo's

great pics tho!!

frozenfrozen

Both B&W IMO, nice shots.

DaireQuinlan

I often think when I see this pop up occasionally here, if you're asking other people this, you've already failed. You go out with a B&W or colour head on you, and you shoot B&W or colour. If you're shooting away and then taking a random poll later on as to which is better then maybe it's time to rethink things.

Also, Colour.

magicbastarder

b&w.
i was remarking to a colleague earlier in the week that it was, in a way, suprising that no other camera manufacturer had followed leica's lead and produced a B&W only digital camera, but for cheaper.
because as daire mentions, you should be shooting with either B&W or colour in mind, not with a 'sure i'll decide that later' attitude.

.Longshanks.

magicbastarder wrote: »

b&w.
i was remarking to a colleague earlier in the week that it was, in a way, suprising that no other camera manufacturer had followed leica's lead and produced a B&W only digital camera, but for cheaper.
because as daire mentions, you should be shooting with either B&W or colour in mind, not with a 'sure i'll decide that later' attitude.

The new fuji's kind of let you do this. You can set the optical / electronic viewfinder to display B&W only (or whichever film simulation mode your after) in electronic mode. But of course if you are shooting RAW then you'll always still have the colour option later.

Promac

Colour for me. The main subjects don't stand out enough for b&w and you have all that green going to waste otherwise.

And I wouldn't call leica's ideas in that department a "lead" at all.

magicbastarder

well, as far as i've heard, they're the only competitor. easy to win a race no-one else is competing in...

dinneenp

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I often think when I see this pop up occasionally here, if you're asking other people this, you've already failed. You go out with a B&W or colour head on you, and you shoot B&W or colour. If you're shooting away and then taking a random poll later on as to which is better then maybe it's time to rethink things.

Also, Colour.

Do people go out and think I'm going to shoot in colour/b&W today?
That's something I've never thought of, maybe because I haven't thought of B&W very much when shooting.

I know that sometimes B&W works better as sometimes too many colours in a photo can be distracting if you know what I mean.

I'm not asking for a random poll and going to use that as my answer.
More I'm looking for peoples opinions on why they prefer b&w or colour which could help me think about it more.

BrensBenz

I don't normally shoot sport so this may not help, but my guide is to ask myself whether the shot in my viewfinder is actually enhanced by colour? Will the viewer say "Wow, look at those colours!"

For instance, if the actual subject isn't particularly interesting but the polarised sky, skintone, foliage, etc. are striking, you need colour.
If the subject is interesting (shape, texture, action, etc.) with or without colour, why complicate it? Go B&W.

For general "I was here and this shot proves it" shots, I'm lazy. I'll stay with colour and maybe crop the beJ@yus out of it to try to get one and only only subject later.

magicbastarder

dinneenp wrote: »

Do people go out and think I'm going to shoot in colour/b&W today?
That's something I've never thought of, maybe because I haven't thought of B&W very much when shooting.

if i'm going out to take photos simply for the enjoyment of taking photos, i usually take the film gear (unless i think the lighting might be especially tircky), so that does make you think in those terms.

HerrScheisse

I would go for colour for the first as the clouds and atmosphere seem more realistic.

And B&W for the second, seems to enhance the mood and facial tension!

melekalikimaka

reduce to saturation on the first and maybe it'd be nice.

bw on both is lovely tho