Lauren Phillips: How Emotion is Evoked by Black & White Photography
Today I have an amazing guest post from Lauren Phillips, In this post she'll be discussing how and why black and white photography seems to evoke more emotion than colour shots. I'm sure she'd love to hear your feedback so please feel free to leave a comment below!
Below are two photos (both taken by the great black and white photographer, Ansel Adams); one in color, the other in black and white. Which one would you say makes you feel more emotion? Amazingly, most people would say the black and white photograph; but why? Black and white photography is clearly simpler than color photography, but it is this simplicity that lends a hand to its ability to evoke such emotion.
One reason black and white photography creates such feeling is the contrast between the dark and light shades of black, white and gray. The human eye notices two things when looking at a photo; color and contrast. With no color to view, your eye becomes even more sensitive to the sharp contrasts in black and white photos; creating a stronger, more moving image.There are certain things that come through more strongly in black and white photos than in color photos. For example, texture. Color photos can deceive us and make a texture less obvious to the eye, but black and white photos show texture in a very intense way. This provokes a strong reaction from the viewer. See the photo below for an example.
Perhaps the main reason black and white photography incites such emotion is the absence of color. Colors can distract viewers from the emotional or physical state of the subject. For example, if the photo above were in color, my eyes may be distracted by the colors of the jewelry worn by the subject. This would cause me to ignore the texture of her skin and look in her eye; decreasing my emotional reaction.The invention of color photography was seen as an improvement in the art, but black and white photography still continues to be used by choice. This is directly related to the fact that black and white photography creates a very artistic product that is moving, timeless and classic. Whatever the reasoning for its effect on human emotion, black and white photography will always create a different effect than color photography.
About:Lauren Phillips has been a professional event photographer for 16 years and also owns the site Photography Degrees. She likes to write articles about everything photography.