Black and White Photographs are classy, formal and timeless

From Color to Black & White Pictures - a magical transformation. They have an aesthetic, artistic look that is hard to produce in color.

Dr Abe V Rotor

There is something magical in B and W photographs, in spite of today's  color digital photography.  

San Juan Bell, La Union church bell.  B&W is Ideal for print publication.  

Try comparing B&W with color photos using the computer, say Adobe Photoshop. Choose not only which one favors your taste, but choose from a range of graduated brightness, hues, contrast and the like.  You will come to a point of not fully convinced color photos are incomparable to B&W photos.

• Often, colors are distracting.  They make the photo look complicated, whereas, B&W leads you to a better focus. 

• Sometimes you find color photos "messy," and you wish to get rid of colors or views you deem unnecessary.

• B&W photos last longer. Take it from a 100-year old life-size B&W photo of my parents' wedding framed in wood and glass. Timelessness is of the essence in memorabilia. 

• Colors fade, specially dyes.  Pigments, although waterproof, may last only for sometime.  Take a look at your school photos taken only some years ago. 

• B&W photos are more convincing.  They retain certain details which color photos cannot. This is important for posterity's sake.  

• B&E keeps you focused on the actual composition and texture of your subject, so with shapes, light and shadows, lines and perspective. 

• B&W photos appear classy, formal, and exude an exquisite feeling about them.

In any kind of photography however, the key to the quality of photographs is principally dependent on the person behind the lens. Always remember, photography is an art, The criteria of good art - fine art, for that matter - must be applied.  Just like in painting, music, literature.  The keyword is COMPOSITION. Photography is composition. It's never trial-and-error. Or swerte (luck, serendipity).  

Today photography is in the hands of virtually anyone with a cellphone camera capturing events and scenes here and there. And this is a growing trend worldwide, with both young and old getting involved.

There is a saying, It's really difficult to separate the grain from the chaff, what with a deluge of photographs?  But this gives more challenge to the art of photography. ~

 Leo Carlo and his work in animation. B&W breaks the monotony of the color photo. 

Bacarra, Ilocos Norte belfry.  B&W may not capture the color 
of the brick material but it lends formality and spirituality

Camping: Capture the beautiful, pure feeling with B&W 

Busted pipe:  instant swimming pool - now a document

Two kids at play. B&W will outlast the color photo as memorabilia.   

NOTE: The invention of photography in the early 19th century by Louis Daguerre opened a new way of seeing the world, first in B&W until color photography was introduced in the 20th century, digital photography with the development of the computer. The conventional process of B&W photographs, as well as color prints are no longer in the corner.  Virtually anyone has access to photography today.