Something to think about

[tegan]

Hewlett Packard in a 2005 study found that colour holds the attention of the viewer 82% longer than black and white.

The measure of a quality black and white shot is the number of tones and shades between rich dark blacks and pure whites with little or no loss of detail in either the highlights or the shadow areas. In film, one heck of a lot of dodging and burning in was usually necessary to reach a quality level.

From a technical standpoint the best black and white shots in the digital area are not from simple Photoshop conversions or desaturation. They are from the use of the hdr (high dynamic range) function in Photoshop CS2, the use of speciality hdr software or the use of speciality plug-ins to either Photoshop or PaintShop Pro.

Perhaps these are a few of the reasons why I have never done black and white except for journalistic purposes and then only reluctantly.

Tegan