Are black and white photos considered more artistic? Why?

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Recently, I participated in a photography competition. I didn't qualify as one of the selected 10 participants from among whom the winner will be chosen. Yesterday, when I went to see the exhibited photos of the selected ten, I was surprised that most of them were in black and white. In the past too, I have had this impression that most photographic audiences and judges consider black and white photos to be more artistic.

Now the question is: is the judges' and the audiences' partiality for black and white photos justified? Are black and white photos genuinely artistically superior to coloured photos? Or is it just a human bias?

As far as I am concerned, I think it is just a bias. And I think that those who photograph in black and white and submit black and white photos to competitions might perhaps be unconsciously obliging the general audiences' and the judges' "bias". If you believe otherwise, please enlighten me regarding the reasons why black and white photos are indeed artistically superior to coloured ones!
 
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Black and white photos aren't intrinsically "more artistic" than colour, or vice versa.
Each should stand on their own merit.
 
I enter competitions in black and white purely because I shoot on film and develop them myself. I can only develop black and white film and prints....colour is too difficult for my limited skillset.

If colour was easier, I would certainly use it for some images, but would still use black and white too as some photos just suit it better.
 
gramps said:
Black and white photos aren't intrinsically "more artistic" than colour, or vice versa.
Each should stand on their own merit.
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I am with Gramps on this one,i have alway mainly shot in colour i used to do some b/w stuff.
But i think the shots i do looks better in colour whether some people see b/w as more artistic ?,but i don't think so :)
 
There's a nice Cartier-Bresson quote about this - "Reality is like a chaotic deluge and within this reality, one must make choices that bring form and content together in a balanced way; just imagine having to think about colour on top of all this!"

Maybe it isn't intrinsically more artistic, but simply easier to concentrate on the artistic merits of the shot.
 
abdoujaparov said:
There's a nice Cartier-Bresson quote about this - "Reality is like a chaotic deluge and within this reality, one must make choices that bring form and content together in a balanced way; just imagine having to think about colour on top of all this!"

Maybe it isn't intrinsically more artistic, but simply easier to concentrate on the artistic merits of the shot.
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But even HCB did some colour work,and i do love his b/w stuff :)
 
I do not believe that you can separate colour from 'artistic merit' as colour may well add to its 'artistic merit' ... somehow a black and white sunset just doesn't look the same.
 
I'm not sure about 'arty'
I mainly shoot in colour - it's probably a throwback to when I got my first camera as a birthday present (too many years ago to count) and had to buy film & pay for processing by saving pocket money. The result was I could only afford black & white most of the time - colour was a luxury.
Even without that, I think most shots look better in colour, though there are some images (old ruins for example) which I think look good in black & white
 
I'll start by saying that I don't produce colour prints. I may use colour film at times, but it has been with a view to using it to produce black and white.

I'll also note that in a book on Ansel Adams, the author said that photographers were not comfortable with colour for fine art photography until the 1970s - they hadn't learned how to handle it. And yes, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston did produce colour photographs. I offer this opinion as something to consider.

Another thought is that the judges (if not the public) may be of an age where serious photographers did their own printing in a darkroom, and colour was reserved/relegated to snapshotters using slide film and doing nothing other than record a scene. Similarly, the public may see colour as what they get from from their phones and compact cameras; black and white is a "thing apart" and therefore "Art" (capital intentional).

I can't second guess judges' and the public's reasons; I can exceed the allowed size of a post (I assume posts have a limit - I often meet a limit on PM size) and give resons why black and white is preferable to colour; and I can do exactly the same to prove colour is better than black and white.
 
I feel it is a personal decision.
For example my wife does not like B&W photographs because that is how she doesn't see the world.

Most of my images are in colour however I will ocassionally create a B&W, depending on the image, the "clients" requirements and sometimes by influences from the past.

As far as competitions go who are you shooting for, the judges or yourself?
If you are shooting for the judges then effectively they are your "clients".

Why not ask the judges themselves why they made their decisions?
 
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StephenM said:
I'll start by saying that I don't produce colour prints. I may use colour film at times, but it has been with a view to using it to produce black and white.

I'll also note that in a book on Ansel Adams, the author said that photographers were not comfortable with colour for fine art photography until the 1970s - they hadn't learned how to handle it. And yes, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston did produce colour photographs. I offer this opinion as something to consider.

Another thought is that the judges (if not the public) may be of an age where serious photographers did their own printing in a darkroom, and colour was reserved/relegated to snapshotters using slide film and doing nothing other than record a scene. Similarly, the public may see colour as what they get from from their phones and compact cameras; black and white is a "thing apart" and therefore "Art" (capital intentional).

I can't second guess judges' and the public's reasons; I can exceed the allowed size of a post (I assume posts have a limit - I often meet a limit on PM size) and give resons why black and white is preferable to colour; and I can do exactly the same to prove colour is better than black and white.
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I understand where your coming from,but their are and have been some great color photographer out their,and their work stand with the best.
Steve McCurry
Ernst Haas
Saul Leiter
A lot of the photographer who work or have worked for National Geographic,the list go on and on.
Plus slide film was very hard to use,their was never much room for error.

Each to his own :)
 
In my experience, it is generally considered that black and white is a better medium for conveying emotion and message than colour is, as colour can act as a distraction. That's not to say colour images can't fulfill the same role, just not as well.

I personally find it harder to post process colour for my serious 'artistic' (for lack of a better expression!) photography, and much prefer black and white as it suits my subject matter in most instances. It doesn't work in all genres or for all subject matter, sometimes colour is the better option, and can come down to the taste of the photograher, and the intent of the photograph.
 
viewfromthenorth said:
... it is generally considered that black and white is a better medium for conveying emotion and message than colour is, as colour can act as a distraction. That's not to say colour images can't fulfill the same role, just not as well.

I personally find it harder to post process colour for my serious 'artistic' (for lack of a better expression!) photography, and much prefer black and white as it suits my subject matter in most instances. It doesn't work in all genres or for all subject matter, sometimes colour is the better option, and can come down to the taste of the photograher, and the intent of the photograph.
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I feel that was well put. Though it's unwise to generalise, the issue is about emotion, rather than just aesthetics - it's about distillation (concentration). Mono can be more sensitive and more intense.
 
simonblue said:
I understand where your coming from,but their are and have been some great color photographer out their,and their work stand with the best.
Steve McCurry
Ernst Haas
Saul Leiter
A lot of the photographer who work or have worked for National Geographic,the list go on and on.
Plus slide film was very hard to use,their was never much room for error.

Each to his own :)
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With respect, I don't think you do. You're putting words - or at least opinions - into my mouth that I neither expressed nor even believe. I did expressly mention some photographers who worked in colour; I specified a date; and I even said it was the opinion of someone else on which I invited thought to be made.

Sorry if I'm coming down heavily, but I hate being misrepresented when I thought I was being exceptionally careful to guard against it.
 
StephenM said:
With respect, I don't think you do. You're putting words - or at least opinions - into my mouth that I neither expressed nor even believe. I did expressly mention some photographers who worked in colour; I specified a date; and I even said it was the opinion of someone else on which I invited thought to be made.

Sorry if I'm coming down heavily, but I hate being misrepresented when I thought I was being exceptionally careful to guard against it.
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Sorry if you thought i misrepresented you it was not my intention,as for coming down heavily no ill feeling taken here.
:)
 
Shooting without colour forces you to work with much more basic image ingredients, shape, texture and contrast, it's I think therefore a little more raw.

I personally shoot colour when I like the colour and not necessarily anything else about the scene, if that makes sense, it doesn't even need to be a true representation as far as I'm concerned, it just needs to work for me.
 
Of course you can always get the best of both colur and black and white at the same time by using selective colour.

I'll get my coat. :coat:
 
Steve said:
I'll get my coat...
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Yes, and don't forget your hat... :-)

I have never entered any competitions, and so have not been aware of a preference for B&W. I tend to find that most people use colour nowdays, B&W seems a bit of a specialist/minority genre, but it is always there, bubbling away just under the surface. I do suspect that the earlier poster who suggested the age of the judges as having come from the culture of home development has a good point. As with myself, they will probably have been raised at a time when B&W dominated both print media and 'art' photography.

Personally, although I often enjoy colour photographs, I have little interest in colour as an expressive art form. I find colour itself is often very distracting, whilst B&W often permits the photographer a far greater degree of emotional input. Colour is often more about recording visual 'reality', whilst B&W, stripped down to light and shade, texture and tone, is (potentially) more an expression of the emotional response of the photographer to the subject.

If B&W is considered to be more 'artistic', I guess it revolves around these issues.
 
horrocks said:
I find colour itself is often very distracting, whilst B&W often permits the photographer a far greater degree of emotional input. Colour is often more about recording visual 'reality', whilst B&W, stripped down to light and shade, texture and tone, is (potentially) more an expression of the emotional response of the photographer to the subject.

If B&W is considered to be more 'artistic', I guess it revolves around these issues.
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It seems that a number of us are in synch along these lines. But it does depend on user input - no medium automatically confers success.
 
If you have a Leica, or shoot street, black & white is apparently compulsory. Leica even has a B&W-only camera, that costs £1k extra :eek: Perhaps that includes a beret and string of onions.
 
No. B&W is just another style that requires a different eye sometimes.

b&w photos are sometimes easier to hang on the wall because they wont ber contrasting with any colors in the room :cool:
 
I remember a friend's picture of a thin woman apparently in her mid to late 50ies. She was smoking a cigarette, and her face spoke of a life lived with many ups and downs. Many interpretations were possible what that life was really, but it was probably not one sitting at home with the kids and taking care of the family.

That woman was wearing a very colourful, impeccably clean and neat dress. The colour and impeccable condition of the dress greatly distracted from the story one might have seen in the face of the woman. So my friend made it b&w, and the image told a clear story about a woman in the late autumn of her life, with all things good and bad in her past.

In general, I think b&w photos always remind me of my childhood when only b&w was available, and maybe this is why they usually get my attention?
 
B/W is more artistic, I dunno what that means or how to quantify it.

B/W is tougher to shoot ??

If you believe that, B/W must have an intrinsic value over and above colour, since colour must be easier to shoot...right ?

Colour entries are disadvantaged from the off, just by being.....colour.

:shrug:
 
Emotion may be invested or embodied in a photographic image in various ways. You could just put something that you loved (or hated) into the frame. Hopefully you would acquit yourself competently regarding exposure, focus, etc. But how might a viewer know what your feelings were?

Additional to the basics above, you could process the image in certain ways that might intensify your intent. Again, how might a viewer know what your feelings are?

You have to trust your gut. Intuition can be recognised but not directly taught.
 
It all depends on the viewer as far as perception goes.
I think B&W photography is an aquired, possibly from history/experience, taste.

The 50 most "popular" on my flickr stream are all colour photographs, albiet mostly "nice" subjects. Personally I think a few of my B&W photographs make for better photographs. Most of my flickr uploads are colour.
 
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RichardTaylor said:
It all depends on the viewer as far as perception goes.
I think B&W photography is an aquired, possibly from histrory/experience, taste.

The 50 most "popular" on my flickr stream are all colour photographs, albiet mostly "nice" subjects. Personally I think a few of my B&W photographs make for better photographs. Most of my flickr uploads are colour.
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I don't know how much this is from 'experience', I've just designed an album for a bride of about 22 and she chose about 70% black and white pictures. Not an 'arty' type at all, but something about B&W just pressed her buttons.
 
I can only speak for myself, and when I see a B&W picture, generally, it makes me pay more attention to the image and see with more detail. Maybe it's true that sometimes the colours distract the viewer from the real objective of the picture, I don't know.

I like both equally, but not all the scenes looks better or are more artistic in B&W. Besides, "art" is a very subjetive word. :)
 
I think most photos looks cooler in black and white, colour is much more difficult to get right and give a similar impact. I see it as cheating ;-P
 
Just got my World Press 13 a mix of photos both in b/w and colour and for me both have the same impact.

:)
 
chris-red said:
I think most photos looks cooler in black and white, colour is much more difficult to get right and give a similar impact. I see it as cheating ;-P
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Jayst84 said:
A lot of people convert everything to black and white because they think it's arty (it isn't) and because they aren't good enough to shoot colour. /flamesuiton
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You don't have to worry about colour balance or casts with b/w, but is it really that difficult to get right ?

I think the opposite is true, b/w is tougher to shoot, I see a fundamental change in approach and observation to that of colour is required to shoot a b/w winner.
Course, you could just shoot and then convert everything to b/w and see if anything takes your fancy, seems like a bit of a lottery though.
 
A B&W snapshot is not inherently artistic any more than a colour snapshot is. Art comes from intent and process - technique enables it but it is a deeper expression than technique - technique on its own is craft, not art. But some talk of craft as 'art', so you have to define your terms.

Perhaps monochrome, being stripped of the worldliness of colour, is able to be less prescriptive, more suggestive?

We're talking about art, not snapshots, reportage or other genres - the private expression of inner feelings that communicate to receptive others.

But categories don't have rigid edges ...
 
joxby said:
You don't have to worry about colour balance or casts with b/w, but is it really that difficult to get right ?
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I don't mean boring technical things like white balance or colour casts. More the 'art' of the photo for want of a better term.

By definition, there is a lot more to take into account with a colour image. You can often hear people say, "I converted it to black and white because the colour was distracting". That of course isn't good black and white technique. But it shows a common difficulty in shooting colour.

Colour gives you more scope to add to a successful image, but it also gives you more to deal with that can potentially work against the image.
 
Phil V said:
I don't know how much this is from 'experience', I've just designed an album for a bride of about 22 and she chose about 70% black and white pictures. Not an 'arty' type at all, but something about B&W just pressed her buttons.
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Something I notice selling landscape prints locally is that interest might be 70/30 in favour of colour but actual sales are more like 50/50.
 
I love B&W, I find it more 'timeless' rather than artistic. It gives a more minimalist feel, where colour can be distracting. It does depend on the image though.

And I mean B&W, not flat greyscale. I like B&W to be just that, high contrast, deep lush blacks and pure whites, not off-grey.

It's all personal preference. But people often ask for a mix of both. Sometimes they want certain images both ways, which is of course, no problem, when you enjoy processing.
 
Teflon-Mike said:
"Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain..."
Becomes
"Seven Shades of Grey"

Were they published? I seem to recall a book by that title... ;)
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Different sort of binding...

Black and white photons behave in a different manner to colour ones but only at the weekend.

On a more serious note, I sometimes deliberately shoot for B&W conversion. I still shoot in colour but with a view to converting in PP.
 
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