Black & white thinking
Why choose to shoot in black & white? Because it looks cool? Because it was/is the medium of choice of legendary photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mary Ellen Mark or Don McCullin? Because you like street photography or moody landscape work and feel it ought to be in monochrome? To succeed in black & white photography, you will usually need more compelling reasons than these for it to be creatively rewarding and grab the attention of other people.
There is no easy answer or handy checklist, but as with everything, we can learn from experienced photographers who have worked successfully in this area for a long time. Brian Lloyd Duckett, the principal and course tutor at street photography specialists Streetsnappers, has brought out a great new book, 52 Assignments: Black and White Photography (for a 25% discount, see page 18). We asked Brian to share some of his advice and insights to help us all to see more effectively in black & white so that we can better decide when to use it.
How to decide on black & white
‘What was once a technical constraint – once you loaded black & white film you were stuck with it – is now a creative option and
