The Power of Black and White Photography

"Color photography is like a novel that spells everything out in item, whereas black-and-white photography is like poetry—its strength isn't in what's said; it's in what'southward left out."  – Heinrich van den Berg

It is exciting to witness a resurgence in photographers producing black and white images. I was weaned every bit a photographer on Tri-x film and D-76 developer. Armed with a Weston calorie-free meter and an Argus C-iii camera, I roamed the countryside of my native Chester County, Pennsylvania, in search of stone barns and wooden fences for my high school art course projects. Initially I shot with slide film to capture the color. But one 24-hour interval I experimented with black and white film. I had bought a basic home kit to process the moving-picture show and expose a 4x5 inch sheet of photo paper. It was amazing to see the moving-picture show come to life in a tray of developer. And it was that moment that inspired me to become a professional lensman.

I couldn't wait to go out and shoot pictures— on the hunt for shapes and textures, looking at light and composition, shooting and rushing to the darkroom to process and print my creations. Black and white seemed to evoke a different emotion than the pictures I was taking in color. There was just something magical about the whole process and end consequence.

Man with photographic camera taking a photo

Museum supervisory lensman Jim Preston. National Air and Space Museum photo by Eric Long.

In the early years of photography, black and white photography was but the standard. But in the early '60s colour photography exploded with the introduction of Instamatic cameras produced in mass by Eastman Kodak. Cameras were cheap, often given away, and film and processing became more than affordable. Like cell phones today, Instamatic cameras were used to capture family unit activities, birthdays, vacations and everyday life and share them in colour.

Early on in my career as a Navy photographer, I shot both color and blackness and white picture, depending on my assignments. I began to find that I approached a subject field differently depending on the type of movie I was shooting. When I shot in black and white, I would visualize my subject and the composition in shades of grey. It was like I had a monochrome filter over my eyes. I saw my subjects in their purest class.

People and aircraft on flight deck

Flight ops on the deck of the USS America in the Indian Ocean. U.South. Navy photo by Jim Preston.

Mod digital cameras allow you lot to shoot in monochrome and instantly run into them in black and white. While that is the easiest method of taking black and white photography today, it is non the most effective. Monochrome fashion gives you a basic greyscale photo of the subject. Just with today's applied science and post processing controls in programs like Photoshop and Lightroom, shooting in monochrome would be akin to shooting and processing blackness and white film and not exposing for shadow and processing for highlights. The great lensman Ansel Adams used a zone organization to create his magical blackness and white images, expanding the breadth of blackness and white picture show beyond a basic grayness scale. I tin can only imagine how he would have loved today's technology and equipment. What one can do with post-processing software to create dramatic black and whites is the subject field of numerous blogs on the web. Only as there were many ways to betrayal and process flick that yielded dissimilar results, in that location are numerous ways to get blackness and white images from digital. You need to experiment.

Our team shoots color for all our photography work here at the National Air and Infinite Museum. Only on occasion I come across a subject that jumps out and begs to be candy as a black and white. The engine and propeller of the Boeing 247-D aircraft is an case of something that struck me this manner. On another occasion I establish myself in a black and white mood while taking a tour of our Paul Eastward. Garber Facility in Suitland, Maryland, final year that resulted in a photo essay. This tire photo is one of the images from that experience.

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