Today I was walking through Phoenixville in a part of town that has really improved. As we walked along the street we saw many quaint little stores and buildings that were very nice. Some were repointed brick and others were a splash of bright colors. One in particular was a newly painted storefront that was teal with yellow trim. Immediately I thought, that would make a great black and white photo!
Seeing the contrast in a subject is sometimes easy to see and sometimes it is not. This subject stuck out at me in an amazing way just because of the contrast. Light and shadows work against each other, but they also can be juxtaposed in a creative and attractive way that is complimentary.
I didn’t have my camera with me so I had to settle for using my cheesy cell phone camera. It took the photo and I couldn’t wait to get back to my laptop and create a black and white photo of this image to see how it would look. Turns out that the color contrast was far more visible than the black and white image. I thought the black and white image would be good, but it was not. The color contrasts were more vivid and punchy than the black and white rendition.
I guess I still have some learning to do to see contrasts better. Do you see contrasts well? Do you know why some contrasts look better in color than they do in black and white?