Black & White Wedding Photography

Planning your wedding and wondering if you should ask for black and white pictures? The answer is yes, you should ask. And here’s why:

Timeless Elegance

Ok, so ‘timeless elegance’ is a trite term to use, but black and white pictures have been around for a long, long, long (long) time. I can’t see people’s interest in them fading. In fact, their stock may increase in a world of fake photography (AI photography). Black and white photographs carry a historical currency (as do colour pictures) and look particularly strong in print. For me, a black and white print on the wall will stop me, so long as the picture itself is compelling.

Lighting nightmares

Turning a picture into black and white when the lighting is horrible (think really harsh New Zealand or Mediterranean midday sun) will not rescue your pictures. The photographer still needs to know how to cope with such conditions. However, in my experience in New Zealand, having the option of black and white pictures does give some flexibility. It is not a get out of jail card, but, you can get drama and contrast, whereas, in colour, that is not as easy to achieve (in harsh lighting). In contrast, if you are inside and there are multiple different colours in the room, for example from the DJ’s lights, then black and white pictures will provide an antidote to continually using flash to combat the waves of purples, reds, greens, blues coming onto people’s faces.

Raw Emotion, Undistracted

Colourful details are lovely, but sometimes black and white strips it back, leaving more emotion because of the contrast between light and dark. Just being in black and white doesn’t make a picture. And being in colour doesn’t make or not make a picture. What makes a picture is the timing of what is captured, the composition of what is captured, the context of what is captured, and the light for what is captured.

Storytelling (this isn’t exclusive to b&w pictures though)

Storytelling is not about a picture being in colour or black and white. However, in my experience as a photographer, I tend to make stronger pictures from a storytelling perspective when they are black and white. It’s important to note that a black and white picture will not rescue the photograph and it will not somehow automatically introduce a storytelling element. Storytelling is about so much more. For instance, the picture may be stand alone, or part of a sequence. The picture (s) will need to convey something. By ‘something’ that needs to provoke a response, a thought, some reaction internally or externally. Often, in an exhibition space, that is staring and wondering. Take the work of social documentary photographer Tish Murtha. In her work chronicling working class lives, I want to know what happened to the people in the pictures. And the reason I want to know that is because in Murtha’s pictures, you are immersed in the setting.

Romantic Lighting

Don’t think ‘moody, romantic shadows playing across your faces’. That is controlled lighting from a different era (though it can still be captured today). Think instead lighting that accentuates a look between two people who have just got married. You won’t ever see joy like this between two people in another setting. Which is why isolating the black and white parts can make it appear dramatic, in a romantic kind of way.

In summary

Black and white pictures can enhance a wedding photography portfolio, but they are not superior to colour pictures, and colour pictures are not superior to black and white pictures.

What matters is what is happening in the picture, and how it is observed. Make a print, put it on the wall, and stare at it.