Elegance. Timelessness. Class. All of these words ooze sophistication, don’t they? Well, when it comes to your wedding day, refinement is precisely what you want to achieve. When you choose your wedding photographer, you want to be able to feel confident that your choice conveys every bit of elegance through each image and one way to do that is through black and white wedding photography.
Some people feel that black and white wedding photography leads to a depressed, sad look for the day. Our world is in color, so people believe that by choosing a monochrome look, you lose a lot from the image. Here’s the thing about that: a world that doesn’t have color to distract you forces you to look at the photographs differently. A tender kiss beneath the ivy in the garden is beautiful, but most people would focus on the nature and the foliage in the image. The different greens and the light shining through is a natural way to impress people.
However, in black and white, the only focus on the image is in that tender kiss. Images are more dramatic, encouraging the person looking at the picture to look deeper into the narrative of the photo. You can see the shadows enhance areas of the image that you may not have noticed if you were looking at it in full color. Colour can be distracting and black and white can be compositionally stronger, making the photographs look simple, chic.
Processing images in black and white helps to draw the viewer into the shot, showing them the reason that the photo was taken in the first place. Black and white documentary wedding photography is emotive, centering around humans and how they interact with the surroundings as well as each other. Showing that emotion – particularly in wedding photography – is crucial for a beautiful shot.
Classic, Stylish, Chic: All Things You Want Your Wedding To Be
Black and white photography has stood the test of time, and couples who are seeking out a wedding photographer who can take black and white photos need to search for someone who has the skills to draw the eye to the right places in the pictures. Weddings are stylish, chic and classy – well, most weddings are! We may not see the world in black and white, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy reportage photography and documentary wedding photography in all its glory!
Black and white photography is the preferred option for emotional moments being documented forever. The less color you have to process, the cleaner the image and the more natural the subject of the picture shines through. Your wedding photography should be stylish and it should suit you. Black and white photography could be everything that you didn’t know your big day needed.
Eight Reasons Black And White Wedding Photography Could Be For You!
Taking away the color adds something more to the image, and if you are still stuck on what style of wedding photography you should be choosing for your big day, you can go through these eight reasons and be convinced by the end. Elegant wedding photos should be timeless and should be something you can look back on one day and sink into the dreaminess captured on camera.
#1 Emotional Photography
The whole point in searching for the perfect wedding photographer is to ensure that your day is captured in all its beauty. A big part of that is in capturing the emotions of the day, and sometimes, the images that you are left with are more emotional in black and white. Of course, this isn’t going to be the case with every shot, but it’s certainly going to be food for thought when it comes to the final prints.
With the color gone from the image, the smiles, the look in the eye of the groom when he sees his bride and that father-daughter dance are going to feel far more powerful. Conveying emotion on camera is the job of the photographer, and with Christophe Viseux, this is what you get.
The pictures of the colors of the wedding have their place in your wedding photo album, but by including some black and white images, you’re going to have photographs that catch so much more than the decor and the clothes. You’re going to capture the souls of those in the picture.
#2 Distraction Elimination
You could arrange to have a list of poses put together to make your day more uniform, or you could have a wedding photographer who can take more creative control over your photographs on your wedding day. Trusting your photographer to see the perfect shot is critical, and the photographer can only work with what’s in the picture.
So, if the church has red carpets, you’re likely to see everything with a pink hue. This is where black and white photography comes in handy. Eliminating the distractions in the frames can make a massive difference to the way that the image is captured, and black and white photography is the perfect way to inject elegance into the photo while removing distractions to the subject of the image.
#3 Contrast Games
The beauty of monochrome photography is in focus on the differences between light and dark. The angles, shadows and subject placement makes a difference to a black and white image, and black and white edits work well on images that have a lot of contrast. If there are shots taken with a lot of harsh light, these can look stunning in black and white. Photographers converting the images from overexposed color to black and white have better control over the image.
#4 Odd Lighting Is No Problem
On that note, black and white works so well in high contrast shots, sure, but this also means that it will help when working in difficult lighting. Outdoor weddings in bright sunshine can be hard to capture, and there are some weddings where flash isn’t allowed in the ceremony. Black and white photography can change the view, so an overexposed image in ‘bad’ lighting can look beautiful in a way that you didn’t expect.
Black and white images are more dramatic than colored images, and strong light increases the likelihood of the drama. It’s also a great way to change up a boring image shrouded in dull lighting. Sometimes, light can be far too soft, and during editing, contrast can be played with by controlling how each of the colors converts.
#5 RAW Photography
Most black and white classic shots come from edits after the wedding has already passed, but a great photographer will notice the shadows and the colour and choose the right moment for RAW photography. It’s never easy to determine which images would look fantastic monochrome, but that’s where instinct comes in. If your photographer has good instincts, you know they’d get the right image.
One trick that photographers use when they are learning how to shoot black and white imagery is moving the camera settings to black and white from the get-go. This can allow your photographer to capture the color data still, but see the immediate shot in black and white on the LCD screen. This is something that has to be judged at the time, and a lot of photographers wouldn’t do this in the middle of a wedding, but it can make a real difference.
#6 Simpler Editing
There is no secret that some edits post-wedding can be difficult, from red faces to a reflective red carpet. With the black and white conversion, these difficulties are no longer an issue. If you capture black and white photography, the small blemishes and imperfections can be edited out quickly and far more efficiently.
#7 It’s Simply Timeless
People choose black and white imagery over color a lot of the time these days because they want to add a timeless quality to the images. Black and white are still viewed as the ultimate historical throwback; like the wedding photos of your grandparents. If you want to capture classic photos, black and white is the way to go. Photography is never immune to trends, which cycle over each decade, and black and white is one such trend that is unlikely to ever go out of fashion.
#8 Enhancing The Negatives
There are always areas in the frame of a photograph that have nothing in them. This is known as negative space, and it’s much easier to showcase and highlight when you are shooting the images in black and white. This goes right back to minimizing as many possible distractions. You can use the negative space to add depth to the image, separating the subject away from the picture and giving you the finished article that looks perfect.
Black And White Photography Advantages
We’ve gone over eight reasons you should be considering the elegance of black and white photography for your wedding, but it’s important to know the advantages of black and white film. Here they are:
- You can mask skin imperfections SO well – so, if the bride has a wedding day breakout, it’s easier to cover. Black and white edits and the shades of gray that come with it can easily avoid recording blotchy red irritations.
- Black and white images stand the test of time, and there’s a reason for it. Printing black and white photos onto special paper can be more expensive than printing color, but they can really last hundreds of years. Your grandchildren’s grandchildren could look back on your wedding photographs, and they’ll look just as good then as they would in a few decades. Color photos degenerate much quicker than black and white, so you will only get about fifty years before the images begin to fade.
- Black and white images allow you to focus on the subject of the photograph. There are no outside distractions, no bleeding colors. There’s an intensity and purity to monochrome images that your photographer can capture that you wouldn’t have been able to envision yourself. Photographers have the ability to zoom into their subject, cutting down visual clutter and focusing on what matters.
Black and White Wedding Photography
We care more about creating meaningful and emotional pictures that last a lifetime. Contacting us today will be the start of your journey towards black and white elegance that you didn’t know you needed. Ask us for examples of our images, and you won’t look back.