Film or Digital, Black & White or Colour?

Beauty and Uniqueness of a Handcraft Such as Traditional Black & White Print is in Its Imperfection as Well as Its Powerful Abstract Expression.  Digital Imagery Facilitates Creativity and Has Revolutionized Journalistic Photography.

Short History of Black & White Photography:

Film-Based Black and White imagery is an important part of photograph development and the history of photography.  Black and White was the original art that inspired Sir John Frederick William Herschel (English mathematician, astronomer and experimental photographer/inventor, 1792-1871) to introduce the word "photography" (drawing with light).  Probably the earliest silver-based Black and White photography was invented by J.  H.  Schulze in 1727.  He found that a mixture of silver nitrate and chalk was darkened when exposed to light.  In 1824, a French physicist by the name Nicéphore Niepce coated a glass plate with silver salts in bitumen, which is a coal derivative, and created the first semi-permanent images.  Later in 1830's, Louis Daguerre, who was Niepce's partner, discovered that mercury vapour could develop an image on silver-plated copper sheet if this sheet had been sensitized by iodine vapour.  The image produced this way was called a daguerreotype, which became permanent by washing the plate with hot concentrated salt solution.  This method was later improved by washing off the unexposed silver salts with sodium thiosulfate.  The first negative was invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1841.  This Englishman's invention was called calotype process, which consisted of sensitizing a paper to light by coating it with silver iodide.  A negative image was developed after bathing the exposed paper in a solution of gallic acid, which is essentially the same as that used today.  When the paper used was semitransparent the negative film was created.  A contact positive print could be created by using a sensitized paper, i.e., by putting the negative on the top of the sensitized paper and exposing it to light.

Black and White gelatine-silver process was introduced by Dr.  R.  L.  Maddox in 1871 and was considerably improved in the form of dry emulsion of silver halide crystals in gelatine by Charles Harper Bennet in 1878.  In 1887, George Eastman introduced the Kodak photographic system.  This system employed a silver halide-in-gelatin which was dispersed on a cellulose nitrate base and loaded into a camera in 1887.  With those innovations the age of modern photography began.  Since then, intense research has lead to current photographic materials that exhibit pleasant gradation of grays.  Ever since photography was born there have been photographers who have created Black and White images that have captured the essence of the culture and time in which they live.  Photographers have been using traditional Black and White because it represents a creative expression of a moment in time rather than just a record of an event.  In addition, part of traditional Black and White photography has advanced into pictorial and artistic scenes with almost no contest for realism.  Indeed, Black and White photography (especially when hand coloured) and painting at times become intertwined which is why Black and White photography is further promoted as an art form (see Oil Colouring B/W).

Beauty and Longevity of Film-Based Black & White Prints:

When I was 8 years old, with my father's help, I hand-processed my first Black and White photo in the lab of my father's studio and found the beauty of the variation of grays in silver print amazing.  The wide spectrum of grey tones from white to black allows the photographer to create almost unlimited artistic interpretation in black and white prints which is not available with colour photography.  Today, genuine high quality silver emulsion FIBER-BASED Black and White prints are admired for the unique look and interpretation they bring to a subject, reinforcing the image's artistic merits and hence its higher intrinsic value.  There is no doubt that such traditional Black and White prints last and have a timeless quality that cannot be replaced with the current digital photography.  Indeed, the beauty of film-based Black and White images is in their tonal range between whites and blacks which awakens emotions and a mood .  This cannot be achieved fully with colour photography (digital or film based), as colours detract the viewer's eye from human expression , as well as the texture , shape and form of a landscape or an object.  By taking away the colours in a portrait, the image lets the subject speak for itself/himself/herself.  Professional film-based Black & White photography is an art form not just straight production of images.  This art requiresmonochrome pre-visualization, creativity and hard work.  Only film based black and white prints can show best the gradients of lights and shadows and has its unique charm and irresistible appeal.  As far as longevity is concerned, fiber-based silver-emulsion print has a proven life span of about 150 years.  Sepia toned Black and White prints  are expected to have even longer longevity, as sepia toner acts as stabilizer in addition to producing the pleasant sepia colour.
 

Hand-Colouring Film-Based Black & White Prints With Oil Colour:

In the past (starting 1839), photographers' only reason for hand-colouring was to add "realism" to black and white image.  When colour film came on the market in the 1930's, hand-colouring disappeared as a popular way to achieve so called colour realism.  However, hand-colouring 's creative potentials have kept this art alive.  Today, some photographers use hand-colouring techniques to manipulate their images creatively and produce photographs that are not necessarily realistic, asphotography is an art form used to express ideas or influence emotions.  Hand-colouring one or more elements of an image, especially if printed on traditional fiber-based paper and sepia toned, can beautifully emphasize the tinted element(s) .  In addition, traditionally hand-coloured background with an adequate oil colour can make the main subject stand out pleasantly in the foreground.  Thus, hand-colouring is not dead the same way painting and film-based photography are still used as a form of art.  I appreciate all the existing photographic techniques, as each method of image production, including digital photography, has its own merits.  However, hand-colouring black and white prints can lead to unique images which cannot be duplicated by any other photographic methods.

Film Versus Digital:

The major harm done by digital photography is that most photo hobbyists do not think while taking pictures.  Typically, they take tens of pictures and then discard the "bad" ones later.  So, digital photography, on one hand allows more creativity (if done more thoughtfully) and on the other hand it can kill the thinking process that is usually accompanied with film based photography.  When one uses film, s/he tends to think while capturing an image, as s/he cannot see the result right away and, therefore, needs to previsualize (if a good photographer).  S/he also knows the shots are not free of charge when captured on film.  However, with a digital camera one can take free of charge photos as many as s/he wants with little or no thinking. 

The digital photography has been of great help to photojournalism due to its speedy image productions.  A photojournalist does not need to spend time in darkroom before publishing his images.  However, if an image is captured badly (accidentally), and it is important to the photographer, s/he may have to spend a lot of time editing/correcting it.  In general, digital photography is better for these professionals compared to film.  It is true that each medium (digital or film) has its own merits.

Digital camera can be used as a substitute for traditional Polaroid film for film based photography.  However, if Polaroid were produced today (it has been discontinued), I would prefer to preview the image on Polaroid instant film/print because this medium shows the shadows/light closer to what is expected on film than any digital camera for two reasons: 1)- the Polaroid back is mounted on the same medium format camera that carries the lens in use.  2)- Digital camera is more sensitive to light in both low and high light areas (straight characteristic curve).

I definitely like film based colour photos  better because of their superior image quality, but I hardly use this colour medium because of its cost.  If I decided to capture a panoramic scene in colour, I would use colour slide film to get its unbeatable punch.  This way I can also have the slide film scanned with a drum scanner by a photo lab.  As far as digital black and white is concerned, I usually do not recommend converting digital colour images to digital black and white image because of the tonal limitations of digital imagery.   No wonder there are still companies in North America and overseas who still produce black and white photographic materials.   Ilford is probably the best.   I do all my black and white photography myself (developing, printing, retouching, hand-colouring, sepia toning etc.) and I love it.

Hybrid Images:

At times I print a film-based image, scan the print and create my own hybrid digital image .  Hybrid image  is a digitally manipulated traditional print.  Digital manipulation can add to the composition and and visual interpretation/message.  The quality of the original print is always higher than its scanned version, but it is very difficult to produce an image similar to a hybrid digital image in darkroom.  A hand-coloured black and white film-based print  is a traditional hybrid image, as it contains oil coloured elements surrounded by black and white elements and appears paint like, which is not possible to show its true look on the Internet.  No digital manipulation can produce the same result as far as image quality and look  are concerned.  The beauty of traditional prints with or without hand-coloured elements is in their imperfection as it is the case with any other handcraft.

What is Conceptual Photography?

There is a lot of talk about technical aspects of photography.  Although techniques merge with artistic aspects of imagery, I feel that many of us do not focus enough on concepts that we want to describe in our images.  Sometimes we take a picture because we enjoy the beauty of what see (a beautiful landscape), but other times we relate an idea/thought/feeling with what we see.  Then, we want to incorporate the idea/thought/feeling in the form of a visual message.  To do so, we compose the image in a way that it gives the message to the viewer.  So, concepts are based on the photographer's desire to tell a story, share an idea, a feeling or humour .  Since every person may have a different perception of what s/he sees, his/her image may create a unique conceptual photo (although, in general, each photograph is unique because its creator is unique).