I’ve always love black and white photography. Rendering photographs in black and white does magic. Devoid of colors, a black and white photo has less distractions compared to a colorful one. This lack of colors brings out the contrast among the elements whithin the frame. The subject/s is/are emphasized. The contrasts, textures, and even the emotion, theme or message of the image somehow become more apparent.
One of my favorite uses of black and white photos is when I want to highlight the contrasts between elements in a photograph. Like, the soft and white clouds against the rugged and dark mountains.
I also like to render a photo in black and white to isolate and highlight the subject(s). Although there are many other things present in a photo, a monochromatic image can sort of direct a viewer’s eyes to specific elements.
I also love doing minimalist black and white photos. Often clean-looking, I find myself choosing to represent a photograph in black and white to elicit or reflect how I felt while capturing an image – solitude, loneliness, peace, melancholy, freedom, or the lack thereof.
Here are some of the photos I chose to process in black and white from our trip to Laiya, San Juan, Batangas. They are no Ansel Adams, but I love them.
“Pahinga” (“Rest”)
“Pag-iisa” (“Solitude”)
The art of black and white photography is not widely seen on today’s social media. People nowadays, especially the latest generation/s, are somewhat more drawn to vivid and bright colors. However, I still see them abound in photography sites and blogs, from the few artists and events photographers that I follow who keep the art and render some of their works in black and white.
Here are some my black and white photographs over at tumblr: https://elriz.tumblr.com/archive/tagged/black%20and%20white