Why Black And White Photography Can be So Effective- Moon Photo by Robert Zarywacz from Google Plus/Digital Photo School/ Gibson

I will never forget when I gave one of my stepbrothers and his wife a token Christmas gift of a beautiful Ansel Adams photo calendar of the American West.

He opened it, took one look at it, and said " It's in black and white!!" --sort of surprised and outraged.

I think his wife ( who was a photographer) eventually explained to him who Ansel Adams was.

Here is a really wonderful B&W photo of the moon by Robert Garywacz:

It really makes me think of the "Chaste Moon of Diana," as 
mentioned by the Latin poet Virgil

Oh, yes, and here is one of those Ansel Adams photos --

I think this article from the Digital Photo School sums it up pretty well on a technical basis

The Power of Black & White

A Post By: Andrew S. Gibson

If you read my articles about long exposure photography and intentional camera movement in the landscape you may have noticed a common theme amongst the photos illustrating the articles – most of them were in black and white.

I’ve been thinking about the reasons that black and white photography appeals to me. Regular readers of my articles will know that I’m a big fan of tonal contrast in both colour and monochrome work. I use it as the basis of many of my compositions and it helps me create atmosphere and mood.

But things became clearer today when I read an interview with Joel Tjintjelaar, a well-known fine art photographer who works exclusively in black and white. He is one of the leaders in the discipline of long exposure photography (I interviewed him myself as a case study in my book Slow).

In the interview Joel talks about photos representing the vision, or the essence, of the artist rather than reality. Black and white, in addition to being a beautiful medium in its own right (he uses words like mysterious, nostalgic and dramatic to explain its appeal) is a step removed from reality. Add in changes in tonal values achieved in post-processing, the surreality of long exposure photography techniques and the manipulation of light (also in post-processing) and you finish with a photo (or a work of art, depending on your world view) that is an expression of the artist, rather than the original subject.

For the Whole Article, Go to:

http://digital-photography-school.com/power-black-white/