Lesson Info
24. Color vs. Black & White
Lessons
Class Introduction - Three Steps To Creative Photography
03:48 2Firing The Creative Mind - Part 1: The Camera Points Both Ways
03:10 3Firing The Creative Mind - Part 2: Letting Go Of Judgement
06:53 4Firing The Creative Mind - Part 3: Detaching From Outcomes
04:12 5Practicing Mindfulness In Photography
02:43 6Finding The Visual Narrative
02:39 7Behind-the-scenes: Naples
07:52 8Seeing Beneath The Surface Of Things
02:30Finding Inspiration
03:19 10Slowing Down
03:57 11Three Reasons To Shoot RAW
02:29 12Choosing the Right Frame Format
03:52 13Don’t Be Limited By The Shape Of Your Camera
05:07 14WYSIWYG
04:15 15Choosing Lenses
05:02 16Perspective
02:44 17Considering Foreground And Background
03:10 18Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad But Three Into Two Is Better
03:43 19Separate And Isolate
02:32 20The Art Of Creative Exposure
06:38 21Focus On The Story
04:20 22The Passage Of Time
03:00 23Creating A Visual Sense Of Mood
04:24 24Color vs. Black & White
03:09 25The Decisive Moment
03:00 26Using Color As A Cohesive Tools
01:51 27Photography Is A Two-Part Process
06:55 28Case Study: Recreating The Art of Sumi-e
07:04 29Case Study: Making Something Out of Nothing
04:32 30Case Study: Moody Blues
03:29 31Image Reviews
03:02 32Image Review: The “Thinking Man”
01:55 33Image Review: The Golf Course
02:32 34Image Review: Dreamstate
02:38 35Image Review: Gone Fishing
02:24 36Image Review: Promenade
01:47 37Image Review: Sky and Reflections
01:57 38Image Review: Grass and Field
02:20 39Final Word: Show Me What The World Looks Like To You
04:44Lesson Info
Color vs. Black & White
In the very early days of photography, everything was recorded in black and white. Now there was no aesthetic or compositional reason for this. It was simply that no one had yet figured out how to record the world in color. That changed in the mid 18 hundreds and was brought to the masses in 1935 when Kodak launched Kodachrome. Kodachrome became the de facto colour film for professional photographers for the next half a century. But despite the advent of usable colour, film black and white photography endured and continues to do so. Even in today's digital world, Grand old masters like Ansel Adams and Cartier Bresson continue to shoot black and white. Long after colour film became readily available. And more recent icons such as Sebastian Salgado and Don McCullen are best known for their black and white imagery. So why, why, when we see the world in beautiful Technicolor, would anyone want to compose an image without it? Color is one of the five basic elements of design, line, shape, t...
exture, pattern and color. It is also the most overpowering in the same way. In humans, vision tends to dampen our other four senses in composition, color subdues the other four elements of design. Take a look at this. What do you see? A peacock? Yes, it wasn't a trick question. Color adds a layer of reality that helps your brain form an instant opinion about what your eyes are seeing. So what happens if color is taken away? By removing the number one layer of data the brain uses to quickly form an opinion, it has to pay more attention to what's left, which is line, shape, texture and pattern. Now the world's got a little bit more interesting because you're seeing detail that normally your brain would ignore, and you can use that detail in your image making. Compare these two images. Notice how the pattern is far more obvious when processed in black and white than it is in color. And that is why black and white endures as a photographic medium. Now, whether to shoot a particular scene in color or black and white basically comes down to the story you want to tell and how to tell it best to show you what I mean. Let's take a visit to New England every year. Tens of thousands of tourists flocked of a month, Maine and New Hampshire to revel in the glory of autumn color. Vast tracts of forest paint splash red, orange, yellow and oka color is the story, which is exploited compositionally through the design element of color, a pretty obvious example. Now imagine a single leaf falls to the ground. Narrative changes. The focus becomes the individual leaf. The story becomes line, shape and texture. This time, removing color is the clearest and simplest way of communicating the new story. So the question of when to use color and when to use black and white depends entirely on the story you want to tell.
Ratings and Reviews
Gary Hook
Wow, what a wonderful journey. I love the concept of telling a story with one's photos and as I go through past images, I'm seeing them in a much different perspective. That's the good news, The bad? The lost opportunities I never 'saw' before; however that is a good thing. There is so much to internalize with the material so that it can get out of the head and into the 'heart'. I also found the concept really helps me with composition, both in camera and post. Biggest take away, as Chris underscored in his closing, is to slooooow down, take the time and feel it. Don't be so quick to leave one scene as there remain other aspects, yet to be discovered. A great experience that I truly enjoyed Thank you
Glenda
I loved this course - in particular the latter part of it in which he demonstrated how post processing lets you really tell the story of the image. Another fabulous course. Thanks Chris & thanks Creative Live.
Abdullah Alahmari
Thanks a lot to mr. Chris Weston This course is great and It is a 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 course for me. Beside the other course ( mastering photographic composition and visual storytelling) both courses are Complementing to each other and highly recommended.