Micro 4/3 Showcase Panasonic LX100 I/II picture thread

Les Klein said:
I’m not a big fan of B&W but sometimes it seems to fit. I sometimes wonder if photography had started with colour, would anyone be interested in B&W?
29605568441_00f843c2a7_o.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Belfast City Hall by kleles, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Yes - lots of people. I see b&w photos I really like, that would be meh in color.
 
dont understand the point there. photography started out standing still with huge pieces of equipment, viewing subjects upside down. that went the way of the whooping crane because something clearly better came along. if color was just as clearly better, then thered be no b&w. but it isnt. this is an artistic hobby, and ones vision of art is subjective. but a truism for artistic expression is that the more tools one has the more accurately one can express their artistic vision.
 
I posed my question incorrectly. I should have written: … would have B&W photography been invented?
Here’s my thought line. Historically, artists created colour paintings which depicted what they saw. They often sketched the scene or person (with charcoal, lead, scratches) but most often painted over the sketch in colour. Many of these sketches are available and/or are often uncovered in art restoration. But, they were not considered the ‘finished product.’ I don’t think there were paintings of natural scenes that were monochrome. Artists tried to reproduce what they saw in colour.

So, if photography had started with colour, would monochromatic photography have been invented? Would Amsel Adams have forgone a colour palate and chosen monochrome?
 
i'm sorry, but your premise is simply not true, see Van Gough's 'brown period'. many artists often painted in 'shades', not full color. count Goya and el Greco among them, but honestly too many to mention. and they didnt 'invent' painiting. moreover, the problem historically with 'painted' art is that in many countries, all art had to be approved by the church, which greatly effected subject and execution. finally, there are entire schools of painting where the artists expressly did NOT 'paint what they saw', but rather painted their artistic impressions of what they saw, eg impressionists, cubists. modernists, etc etc etc. b&w film is simply anothe 'artistic impression' of what the artist sees. if one is to cite history, its important to understand history as much as possible.

as an aside, it is my personal opinion that it is more difficult to properly execute a b&w photo than its color analogue, for the very fact that one is only working with the nuance of shade which our eye doesnt see.
 
Last edited:
Les Klein said:
....So, if photography had started with colour, would monochromatic photography have been invented? Would Amsel Adams have forgone a colour palate and chosen monochrome?
Click to expand...

Ansel Adams gained his fame on the Zone System and its results. If color had been around before then, he would have been one of the early Michael Reichmanns, not what we know as Ansel Adams.

If I hadn't started in b&w and spent decades working with analog prints from enlargers, and instead started with digital color photography, I would find b&w more interesting and challenging. I bought a Leica Monochrom and Noctilux lens in 2013, and it was just the wrong camera and lens for me. If Leica or another company would make a small camera today like the X (better yet the X-E) with an APS-C black and white sensor (like the Monochrom), with 16 or better megapixels and a fixed 35 mm equiv. lens or zoom lens as good as their X Vario (but faster), I'd be on it quick.
 
and about ansel adams, please correct me if i am off track and i will happily apologize, but my understanding is he was prolific over three decades 1930s-50s. my further understanding is that color film processes were available in the 30s and pretty readily available in the 40s and 50s for professional use. adams was known to be a darkroom workhorse. his developing studio was larger than most family homes. it seems highly unlikely he was not aware of or couldnt 'handle' color in his prime if he so desired.
 
I also started with B&W, as an adolescent, moved on to colour film and prints (slides and photo) and then for about 15 years I had a B&W darkroom. I explored many different kinds of film (often in bulk rolls), variations in chemistry, paper etc. I still have thousands of monochrome frames and hundreds of prints. So, my involvement with B&W photography is not casual. When I stopped using my darkroom (the exigencies of parenthood) I kept shooting in colour exclusively. Only with my first digital camera that had a B&W ‘filter’ did I dabble again in B&W. When I experience a monochrome image, I often wonder what it would look like as a “full channel” information array. Here is the setting as my picture above (Belfast City Hall) taken about the same time.
P1050589.jpg
 
I confess that my knowledge of art history or photography history is neither deep nor accurate. And at least one monotone symphony has been written and performed (by a semi-namesake Yves Klein), so this covers the auditory domain. I have often say, “if I don’t understand it, then it must be art."
 
There are probably as many facets to b&w photography as there are people and photos. Here are some I shot in b&w that I wouldn't have tried or succeeded with in color.

The cemetery was unique for me - almost a throw-away, but despite technical problems I couldn't toss it. The park at night was easy in b&w, and would've been very difficult in color never minding that it wouldn't add anything. The City Lights person was super-strongly backlit, and I wouldn't have even tried in color. The store display I shot in b&w, but also shot in color several different times. None of those looked good, due to the content. This is one of my favorite examples of form and texture etc. that worked so well in b&w. The Tumi portrait I tried in color on previous occasions, but I never got a natural look from any of those, although it's possible I could have done better if I had just the right filter.

Cemetery
image.jpeg


Park at night
image.jpeg


City Lights
image.jpeg


Store display
image.jpeg


Tumi Store portrait
image.jpeg
 
Here are a few more I shot in b&w and like well enough not to be concerned about color:

Alley in historic Charleston
image.jpeg


Classic trumpet player
image.jpeg


View from bridge
image.jpeg


City Lights portrait
image.jpeg


Park at night
image.jpeg
 

Similar threads

AndyH44
    • Like
    • Appreciate
    • Cool
Micro 4/3 Showcase G100 w/14-140 II
Replies
2
Views
260
Herman
Herman
L0n3Gr3yW0lf
    • Like
Micro 4/3 Showcase Olympus FL-LM1/2/3 Flashes
Replies
0
Views
83
L0n3Gr3yW0lf
L0n3Gr3yW0lf
MiguelATF
    • Like
    • Cool
    • Appreciate
Micro 4/3 Showcase Olympus E-M5 Mk III
Replies
9
Views
983
MiguelATF
MiguelATF
Back
Top