My Black and White Approach

I received recently several comments and feedback through the YouTube channel, instagram, facebook and through direct messages. A lot of people is positively curious about my photography change.

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A black and white photo is not, should not be a color photo with a filter, or if you prefer converted to black and white, but should be thought and generated in black and white which has distinct formal prerogatives and specifications. The same for color: unfortunately today we see many people improvising in both languages. For example, an ocean of color photos are made without respecting, due to visual ignorance, the hierarchy of colors and a study of the palette.

There are those who say that black and white photos are a clever ploy. Those who speak like this understand very little about photography and are sticking to a banal, extremely stupid cliché. Black and white is a real language, different from color. It is neither inferior nor superior but only an expressive choice. I believe that many speak like this because they have little visual culture and because there is a lot of confusion generated by those who do not think of color photos just as they do not think of black and white photos.

On YouTube there are photographers who explain that they always shoot in black and white even if they then use to shoot in RAW. In practice they shoot in RAW + monochrome JPG. A respectable choice, because these photographers want to have a file ready for web use and have the negative file to make further changes. While I do not dispute this, obviously everyone is free to work as they prefer, I would like to point out how my approach is actually different and truly devoted to the choice of black and white, even in digital.

Shooting in RAW, in fact, means preserving all the information, including color. And while with mirrorless cameras and an electronic viewfinder this can help the view, in any case when you take your RAW into a post-production program you will see it in color. The big difference in my choice is that I go only JPG.

By using JPG only is means an absolute choice, because there is no going back. It is like to go out with black and white film stock. I use, of course, Super Fine JPG. This allows me to preserve the maximum of image quality of my JPG, counting with a file that leaves me still good margins to make slight changes in Lightroom. By using a camera log profile, with that contrast and sharpness totally off in camera and the monochrome profile completely neutral, I can modify as I prefer the image in post production but without interrupting the workflow to have always the image in black and white starting from pressing the shutter button of my camera.

In fact, despite, I work not just with DSLR but also with mirrorless cameras, my Olympus Pen have not an electronic viewfinder and this means that I don’t see the preview in black and white except on the LCD. This approach is not different when we photograph with a film camera, where by using an optical viewfinder, framing the reality we see in color, but seeing in black and white is something belonging to our brain. I think is better to me, for my approach to see the black and white image from the moment is generated. And avoiding this way any kind of interruption, or even the temptation to leave the photo in color. This way I can count with only digital images in black and white, almost as if I had a Leica or Pentax monochrome.

What about the dynamic range that would be superior by using RAW? I recently used RAW with my Canon 5D. Just one time after more than 10 years not shooting RAW. Maybe is just me but I couldn’t appreciate remarkable differences. Even more so I am convinced today that if you do a good job at the time of shooting you don't really need the RAW file. Many times those arguing that they use shooting RAW to preserve more informations as possible (dynamic range) then they operate on the file choices like a very strong contrast that is cutting off the dynamic range. Others keep the RAW in the case the photo is stolen on the internet: we can put our signature on the file also in JPG files, and we need to consider also that Lightroom allows us to create a DNG (RAW files) starting from our JPGs.

This is why I prefer to use shooting JPG only also with commitments, except if they ask me otherwise, but in 10 years that is not happened anymore. The last work where I was aksed that was the assignment for Leica in 2013. Of course, most of the time, to our clients we don’t give RAW files, in fact I tend to not recommending to do that.

So with me we can talk really of shooting black and white photos in digital. This is my approach, as I said, not pretending you imitate that. But I would share here my ideas.

Open to comments and starting a discussion with you. You are always welcome.

Good Light!

There is a video from the new format on my YouTube channel that deserves to be shared in this post: