Black and White Photographs

by Nicole Humphrey | More from this Blogger

08 May 2008 08:28 AM

Some people love black and white photography and some people dislike it. Some scrapbookers use black and white photographs on their scrapbook layouts and some would never even dream of it. With the full color vibrancy of today's photographs, why do some people still choose to take and use black and white photographs on a layout?

Black and white photographs are literally timeless. When color is gone from a photograph, the focus remains on the subject and it doesn't matter what colors are used to create a layout. It doesn't matter that the child might have been wearing a mismatched outfit, or colors that clashed. The black and white photograph is a beautiful thing.

Black and White film is still available to purchase and works best in a SLR camera, however can be used in any type. Most digital camera's have a function within the camera that allows the user to change the photograph from full color to black and white. Some even offer Sepia tone. However, if a camera does not have that option, most of the programs that are used to alter a photograph have a feature that allows the user to change the photograph from color to black and white.

Professional photographers use black and white often in their work. The timeless nature and the beauty that it captures is what is important to most of them. They also recommend taking one roll of black and white film a year. When asked why, most declined a true answer but used reasons such as the fading of color photographs, and the fact that the black and white photograph captures the true beauty of a person.

It is okay to dislike black and white photography, however there are so many interesting methods that can be used to put color back in. There are markers available that allow the photograph to be colored in certain areas. This is how many photographs add the pink cheeks, blue eyes and other color sometimes found within a black and white photograph.

So do you use black and white photographs?

Nicole Humphrey writes articles for the Scrapbooking Blog and for the Frugal Blog. She also guest blogs on a variety of topics. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

Related Articles:

Using Bad Photos On Your Layouts

Ten Most Common Photo Mistakes Scrapbooker's Make (two part series)

Negative Storage

10 Things Most Damaging to Photographs

Learn more about Nicole Humphrey

Nicole Humphrey is a freelance writer, consultant for CTMH and a Sr. Blogger for families.com. She resides in St. Charles, Missouri with Mike and their five children and two furbabies.

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