When I started working for The New York Times, they were still a few years away from printing their first color photograph. I shot black and white film and loved every minute of it. Shooting in black and white meant you had to concentrate on the content and composition of the photograph. You couldn't rely on pretty colors to make a picture worth looking at. Learning to see in black and white forced me to understand how a picture was really a communication tool - it had to have something to say. Eventually, the paper gave in to the color revolution and I began loading color negative film into my cameras. I still saw in black and white but quickly learned that color had a place.
Learning how to see and use color in photographs has served me well in the world of wedding photography. It adds emotion and helps give each wedding that individual touch that makes every wedding unique. Brides and grooms spend a lot of time and energy coordinating and picking the colors that define their big day. The only frustration was that if you shot a picture in color, the technology available in the era of film wouldn't translate that image into black and white very well.
Then along came the digital revolution. Suddenly, with a few keystrokes, color images can magically become beautiful black and white images. You no longer have to choose in advance if you want your pictures in color or black and white - you can have them in both. While digital photography has given us a great gift, it's still important to understand that every photograph must be able to stand on it's composition and content. Color is important and must work as one of the elements of the image. But the true test of a good photograph is if you take away the color, is it still telling a story. And that, after all, is what good pictures do best. Here is an example of a picture that works well in both black and white and color.
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