Educational
Black-and-white photography is a great way to learn about the photographic medium. Many would argue it is essential: Concepts of highlight and shadow detail, image contrast, film and exposure latitude and tonal range are all best understood by studying the black-and-white image. The traditional "wet" darkroom is still a place where the magic of the black-and-white image appearing in a tray of developer under the pale red glow of a safelight captivates people who are new to photography.
In fact, if the black-and-white "wet" darkroom were to disappear, the world will be diminished. The educational value of black-and-white film is not limited to making black-and-white images. In truth, color silver halide images are actually made out of three (or more) layers of black-and-white images that interact with color couplers to produce layers of color dye that when viewed together give the illusion of a full range of colors. Whether you're learning to control color film and prints, or even the different layers of a color image that has been scanned into a computer, the more you know about contrast, exposure latitude, and highlight and shadow areas of black-and-white images, the greater your mastery over color will be.
In short, even if you're accomplished and comfortable working in color, you'll derive great benefit from learning about black-and-white photography.
posted by Just A Human at 10:27 AM
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