anatomy of an image – part 1
One of the things that I want to do with the B&W Underground is to take a deeper look into photographs, to take them apart, to see what makes them tick and to see what separates the outstanding from the average.
Recently while shooting the Matthew Strum Band at Mid City Grill in Ft Wayne I noticed this woman and knew immediately not just that I wanted to shoot her but exactly what the shot was I wanted. After getting up the courage to ask her she said fine as long as I didn’t include her face. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I wasn’t planning on including it.
After moving over to an area by the pool tables where there was more light I grabbed a few frames and showed them to her. She was happy with them and I went back to shooting the band. This has turned out to be one of my favorite shots of the trip.
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After posting this shot on the Mpix forum in B&W a member asked to see it in color. When I looked at the two versions I saw that they really told different stories.
Take a look at the color version, what do you see first? Where do your eyes go next? What kind of feeling do you get? What story does it tell?
Now look at the B&W version, what do you see first? Where do your eyes go next? What kind of feeling do you get? What story does it tell?
Take a few moments to let us know what you think about the differences between the two.
cort
no music tonight, just late night tv
Cort~ I’ve commented on the forum on this but now that I have seen both versions I have to say…I’d still be drawn to the BW before the color. The BW speaks louder (as it usually does) and the details in the tats are more noticable (to me anyway). Nicely done, I look forward to reading your blog. I still love to grab my film cam and shoot BW with it. The element of you get what you get seems to appeal to me for some reason.
KarmaPink
April 18, 2008 at 4:44 am
The B+W image is a much more compelling rendition of the image. You see much more detail. Example in the color version the pierced nipples are missed and in the B+W they are pronounced. Also the tattoos are much richer in the the B+W image. Well in my opinion anyhow.
photo444
April 18, 2008 at 10:24 pm
The colors are distracting to me and my eye doesn’t know where to go to first. In the bw version I go straight to the cowgirl.
Good luck with the blog!
Rebecca
April 19, 2008 at 7:37 am