The Art of Black and White Photography

Does this image look better in full, vibrant colour or monochrome black and white..? the eternal question every wedding photographer faces from day one on the job. 

I love black and white photograph. Perhaps love isn’t even a strong enough word; I adore everything about it (so much so that I started an Instagram account dedicated to black and white street photography!) 

While a colour photographs are bright, vibrant and beautiful, there is something to be said about the juxtaposition of complexity and simplicity in a monochrome image. A black and white photograph can convey a timeless elegance that is very difficult to reproduce in colour. When shooting weddings, my goal is always to ensure that a photograph transcends generations and stand the test of time, and one of the best ways of accomplishing this by stripping an image of its colour, leaving only its essential elements. 

When choosing which photographs to present in black and white, it is important to remember that a single black and white image in a sea of colour can easily get lost. For this reason I present my black and white photographs in ‘islands’. This means that there will be a series of photographs in a row, telling a story within a story as it were. This can include a specific scenes throughout the day - for example the bride and groom arriving at the church or the bridal party’s journey to the reception venue.

In the ear of modern digital photography, every photograph captured starts out in colour; from then on, it’s the talent and skill of the photographer to pick the photograph that will look best in black and white, to seamlessly integrate into a wedding gallery and use other photographs in the sequence to tell a timeless, elegant story that captivates its audience.