New series on Black and White photography

NOTE: This was originally posted on shutterstation.com, but since decommissioning that site I've pulled some of the articles here so they don't get lost. 

Black & white photography has been a passion of mine for many years. I do shoot in color often and enjoy it, but if I had to choose between them I can confidently (and happily) say I'd pick black & white for my photography. After my posts about black & white conversion using Apple's Aperture (here and here), I've received good feedback and a series of questions about b&w photography in general, so I've decided to create a new section on the site for this topic.

I plan to cover many areas, from subjects, shooting and post-processing, to printing and other output options. I think I'll focus more on digital photography as there's where the main interest seems to be, but will cover film as well if there's enough interest. Just for the record, I still shoot black & white film occasionally and develop it myself most of the time. It's something I truly enjoy and it gives me a very different experience than shooting digitally.

A question I often get asked is why black & white?

I'm not sure I have a quick and easy answer to that, in my personal case it's as simple as because I love both the process and the results. Although the rules of composition and basic technique (aperture, shutter speed, exposure, etc.) are basically the same as in color photography, I find that shooting in black & white puts me in a very different mindset. I start to see the world in b&w and not only notice shapes, textures, and tones more, but seem to perceive the emotion in a scene in a very distinct way.

In black and white photographs the focus tends to be on the subject, shadows and textures. Color can sometimes be a distraction and take the focus away from the subject and the mood of the scene. The format actually suits almost any style of photography, from portraits to landscapes, and almost any lighting condition.

Anyway, this post is just to get us started in the journey into black and white photography. I don't want to debate the whole color vs. b&w argument, and I think it's pointless anyway. It's very subjective, everybody has a different opinion, and they're all valid. To me, there's a place for both.