Color or B&W

dreamless

I was wondering what criteria (if any) people use to determine rather to make a picture B&W or to keep the color or is it just a trial and error approach?

Thanks for your input.

agunther

dreamless wrote:

I was wondering what criteria (if any) people use to determine rather to make a picture B&W or to keep the color or is it just a trial and error approach?

Thanks for your input.

Its hard to explain. I often look at a picture and think it may look better in BW and often it does (but not always).
I use BW if I want to emphasize shapes and forms through abstraction. If I have extremly strong shadows and blown out highlights. High contrast scenes (dark shadows) often look better in BW.
I use color if it is the main focus of the image or if it is important to enhance the image.
Some pictures taken on rainy or overcast days often have washed out colors, but look great in BW (after some contrast boosting).
There is no formula though. Sometimes I just use the Color Saturation slider or the B/W checkbox in my RAW converter to get an idea how a shot may look like if processed for B/W. This only takes a second and is a great learning tool.