Introducing the Black & White Portrait Series!
I’ve always loved black and white photography. It's just got this status, you know...? A black and white image is just somehow real "art".
When I was younger I worked in a photo lab, where I did a lot of dark room work printing black & white images. It was so satisfying to slosh those prints around in the trays and seeing the image slowly materialize. I can even still smell the "stop" bath...
Also back in the olden days, when I shot film, I used to do a lot of black and white photography, but since I learned digital photography I only shoot in color.
I recently watched a video of the 2017 Portrait Masters Conference and Sue Bryce put out a challenge to create more black and white portraits. Her whole talk made me realize that I just don't do black and white work anymore, so I took up her challenge and I set goal to take a black and white mini series with each of my clients.
Thanks to the Covid quarantine , I don't have any new clients right now, but that’s okay because it’s giving me time to be creative and try a few new things. I’ve had this series in mind for awhile, so my daughter Hannah and I spent one afternoon shooting these portraits specifically for black and white. I've also been going through some of my older portrait work and creating a fresh, new black and white versions of some images that I’ll be sharing down the road. It’s been a lot of fun to work with black & white again, and I hope you can envision the possibilities for yourself!
Each portrait session that I do includes a Consultation& Planning Appointment, where we discuss the look you want, and the clothing you need to bring. I typically encourage all of my clients to bring only fitted clothing, and at least one black or dark outfit. This is even more important if you would like to do a black & white series during your photo shoot.
Dark clothing on a dark background creates a very “vogue” magazine look. It also creates subtle shades of black and gray which are beautiful. Fitted clothing is very important as well because with a predominantly dark image, body shape and negative space in the image becomes even more important.
Black & white portraits are dramatic, emotional, timeless and classic, especially as printed portraits or wall art. They are also really great to have if you are doing a headshot session, or a social media branding session because sometimes you may be required to submit a black & white image as a headshot, or because a black & white image is easier to use for printed materials, or just because it looks great on your social media feed.
I love this look so much that from now on, I’m going to give you the option of adding a black & white wall series to your photo shoot.
