George Barr (Behind the Lens) writes:

Chuck, in an attempt to distract me from photographing any more underwear, has asked about how I decide whether to make an image colour or black and white.

Sometimes subtle tonal gradations call out for black and white and quite early I’ll convert the image and see how it works. Other times, the colours clearly don’t work together and the only hope for the image is in black and white – whether I realized that at the time of shooting or not.

I have to say that I’m glad we don’t have to choose at the time of shooting, more than once I have planned wrongly – subtle colours were worth preserving when I thought the image only suitable for black and white, or the reverse.

(More at the title link, inlcuding an example.)

I share George’s appreciation for not having to decide at the time the photo is taken now that I use a digital camera. I have my own idiosyncratic process for determining whether the final image will be monochrome or color, and I certainly do not always recognize which will be best when I press the shutter release.

However, sometimes I can’t decide. With some shots, it isn’t so much that one version is better than the other – it is more the case that they are just different.

Here is an example (from my Mono Lake collection) of a shot where I like both versions quite a bit:

Dawn, South Tufa (monochrome). Mono Lake, California. September 10. 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

Dawn, South Tufa. Mono Lake, California. September 10. 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell. (Sales)

I like the stark, quiet, and lonely quality of the monochrome version and the way that it draws attention to the abstractions of the shapes and their relationships. While I see less of these features in the color version, I like the subtle gradations of color, especially on the reflections, sky, and distant mountains.

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