Black and White Boudoir

During each session, after we finish shooting, I have the pleasure of preparing the viewing gallery from the hundreds of photos we took. At this point the client is changing back into street clothes or heads off to go grab a coffee from a shop nearby.

I have time for some initial retouching, I delete duplicates and I start sorting the images by my favorites. One of the fun things I do is to decide which photos should be show in color and those that should be shown in black and white. Black and white is great for photos with start contrast and simple backgrounds. They draw the eye towards the skin.

Ansel Adams, discussing the differences between the two types of photography, said, “I can get a far greater sense of ‘color’ through a well-planned and executed black and white image than I have ever achieved with color photography.”

Now a good black and white photo has to start with a great photo! I take all images in color first before making the decision to convert to black and white. I may decide to do a monochromatic (single color) look and use blue for the single color rather than black; that would be impossible if I hadn’t started with a color image.

A black and white photo has a lot of data removed—data about color. It brings the focus into the objects displayed clearly, so the focus has to be a particularly graceful pose, an interesting light flare or an interesting wardrobe item.

Here are a few of my favorite black and white photos below:

What do you think, would you prefer this in color or black and white?