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Originally, just as with movies, all film for still photography was black-and-white or sepia. It wasnt until the mid-20th century that color photography became feasible for the masses. Obviously color photography is now open to anyone, and given that we see the world in color, why would we want to deliberately remove color from our photographs?

This question is slightly difficult to answer as it brings up another question; when to take a black and white photo or when to remove color from a photo using an editing program such as Photoshop.

The answer to the above question is that we would want to remove color from a photograph in order to simplify it; to get rid of distracting information so that we can concentrate better on something else. In this its no different from blurring the background of a portrait or from framing a photo in such a way that distracting elements are out of the frame.

Now that we have answered the why to our question, let’s explore the when, or more precisely, the three main situations one might wish to remove color from a photo.

# Color Portraits – Taking a photo of someone using color photography reveals a close up to their facial flaws. Things such as skin discolorations and blemishes become a distraction to the viewer and leave them unable to see the true emotions, life and personality of the person in the photo.

# Abstract Fine Art Photography

In Abstract Fine Art Photography, a photographers subject of choice is patterns and shapes. If color photography is used, it takes away from the importance of the subject matter, while black and white allows the artists vision to remain clear.

In addition, photographers of Abstract Fine Art will often increase the contrast of a photo after removing the color. This is commonly done with the assistance of an editing program.

# Whenever the photo is more or less monochromatic anyway

This final category is something of a catchall. While the main use of black-and-white is to remove something distracting from a photo, its also a good idea to try converting a photo to black-and-white when the photo really has few bright colors anyway. Another way of looking at this is to say that just as color is distracting, a washed-out lack of color is also somewhat distracting.

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