Opinions are often divided on the subject of color or monochrome. It may often be a matter of taste whether I prefer the black and white look or go for color. Personally, I don’t want to commit myself. There is no right or wrong, but in my opinion there are good arguments for paying more attention to black and white photography.
What speaks for color photography is the fact that we see our environment in color. Colors have a strong emotional impact on us. Strong colors and color contrasts convey cheerfulness, have something optimistic about them. Muted colors can evoke melancholy.
In black and white photography there are no colors, there is only the contrast between light and shadow. For me, however, the appeal lies precisely in this reduction and I recommend every photographer to engage in this reduction again and again.
Without distracting colors, the message of a picture comes much more to the fore. Light and shadow reduce the image statement to the essentials. I particularly like to use this reduction when taking photos of people as, in my opinion, it emphasizes the character of the person portrayed.
But when color is missing, other criteria come into focus:
If you deliberately do without color information in the picture, you should think more about the composition of the picture and the elements it contains. Photographing in black and white is similar to a pencil drawing as opposed to an oil painting.
Contrasts are no longer created by colors but by light and shadow, by lines and patterns (see also: 10 rules for image composition).
