Black and White versus Color Photography

Black and white photography is rarely used anymore, but Stephen Dent still actively uses and promotes the style. There are several advantages to using black and white instead of color, whether the pictures are being taken with film or digitally.
Black and white film creates a much more dramatic look than color photography does. Whether the photograph is of a forest landscape or a close up of a child or lover’s face, the rich complexity of whites, grays and blacks present in black and white photography provides fodder for hours of viewing pleasure.
Thanks to digital photography, you no longer have to be committed to only color or only black and white. Computer editing programs allow you to change any color picture to black and white with the click of a button, and vice versa. Some new cameras even allow you to snap the picture in black and white right from the get go, which gives you a lot of flexibility and allows you to decide on the spot if you want to shoot in black and white or color.
When using black and white photography, it can be really fun and dramatic to chose one feature of the picture and allow that feature to be in color. One example is if you have a picture of someone giving flowers to another, you can have everything be in black and white, except for the flowers.
Using sepia tones is another exciting way to change the tone of your picture. Sepia tones tend to make a picture look older, which can make for a really romantic look, especially when used for wedding photos or landscape pictures. Most computer programs allow you to chose between several different styles of sepia, instead of only the traditional brown.