I have a friend who typically withholds comment on the in-your-face color of my photography while I always tell him his hand-crafted prints are 'colorless.' His fabulous work truly is colorless -- because they're B&W. This banter has been going on for years but I just decided I would give him the benefit of the doubt and explore his world of 'colorless' prints ..... would black and white make a better rendition for the subjects I like to shoot?
I did an experiment and converted a well-saturated, never one to leave 'well enough' alone I checked-off 'monochrome' and cranked up the infrared effect (using the Channel Mixer and dragging the red and blue sliders down and pushing the green slider all the way to the right). I agree that color doesn't automatically enhance an image - in fact - there are times that a pretty blue sky is just too ordinary. So, maybe my friend is right to shoot in B&W.
In addition, he sequesters himself in his quiet and well-outfitted darkroom while crafting those beautiful prints. Using an enlarger to expose delicate negatives in the organic process of crafting silver halide works of art, he is truly one happy fellow. But, there is a downside to his approach -- he is hundreds of negatives (read= shooting sessions and vacations) behind and may never catch up in this lifetime. Hah!
I, on the other hand, with great manual dexterity and a thorough understanding of many of the program options in Photoshop - can squeeze out finished prints so quickly that I can polish off a month's worth of shooting in just under an hour. Hah! Hah!
Or, have I missed the point?
Is my friend the smarter for staying with his darkroom while I and many others use a computer and $1,000 per gallon Epson inks to make our photographs? I realize there is a world of difference between a darkroom experience and a laptop. Although, with a laptop, I feel somewhat like Civil War photographer Matthew Brady - who brought his darkroom equipment with him and could finish his day's shooting in his wagon at night.
I have warm memories of my basement darkroom of 40 years ago (it was, of course, a color darkroom). I enjoyed time in my quiet space far removed from the cares and hustle of the outside world. Today, however, my getaway (laptop and printer) is in a corner of our bedroom - a far different 'lab' from the one I had in Buffalo. But, without adjusting my seat I can 'quit' photoshop and fire up Bloomberg to look at the latest news from around the world and all the foreign stock markets so I'll be ready for the office the next morning. My friend can't do that with his enlarger, can he?
Here is the color to B&W conversion .... do you think color is necessary in this shot?
Now, black and white (enhanced sky via infrared effect):
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