Sunrise
If there's anything that can shake one's commitment to black and white photography it's the magical colours conjured up by sunrises and sunsets.
When editing my recent photographs from a stunningly beautiful sunrise in Pennsylvania Iâve had to remind myself why I present my photos in black and white.
Why black and white?
It started from wanting to bring out high contrast in my photos and my inability to achieve this while making colours look normal in post-processing. The Silver Efex programme helped me achieve this vision in black and white and a recent purchase of Lightroom has finally given me the control I want over my black and whites.
However, there are more artistic reasons why I prefer black and white:
1) I find colour can distract the eye take it away from the area I want it to focus on. It also provides a lot of additional information which can give a busy, overwhelmed feeling if not handled carefully.
2) It makes me focus on the composition.  Without colour the composition is laid bare and has to stand on its own.  For this reason I have a rule that if the photo only works in colour then the underlying composition is not strong enough.
3) To provide interest without colour, I find myself focusing a lot more on textures, contrast and negative space which I really enjoy.
Losing the oranges and blues of that morning at Strasburg was still tough. Though I felt the compositions were strong, I can't deny that they may have looked better in colour. But ultimately I want to present a consistent theme throughout my work.  So black and white they will remain.
I may look at a dedicated colour gallery at some point in the future.