I enjoy black and white photography. With the lack of color I feel like the viewer has less distraction and spends a longer time engaged with the photograph. That’s not to say that color can’t tell a story or convey a point or share a moment, it’s just that black and white comes across more neutral and lets the viewer draw more conclusions.
It has been kind of funny that in the past when I’ve presented photos on Facebook or any other social media outlet they are received in a completely different way. First, black and white photos generate very little traffic and few if any comments. The people that do engage with the black and white photographs are generally, and I’m trying to use the word very loosely as not to offend, more into photographic arts and esthetics of photography.
There are a few different ways I come about a black and white image. The most common way is to convert from a RAW image. The second is to capture the jpeg file as a black and white image. With the M9 and the RX1r I capture two files, one RAW and one jpeg. The jpeg is usually preset to be processed in-camera to my particular tastes. For the Leica it is+1 contrast and +1 sharpness and on the Sony it is only +1 contrast. Generally I like to manually process the M9’s raw files with Silver Efex Pro, but with the Sony I’ve been pleased with the OOC black and white jpeg files.
Happy viewing.
SeattleSteve.me 