Lens-Artists Challenge: Colour or B&W?

This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge proved, I have to say, a lot less easy that I thought (or hoped) it was going to be. We were challenged to consider the differences in an image that arise when it is converted from colour to monochrome.

This is something that I often play around with in the editing process and I understand that subjects heavy on texture and contrast may be more inherently interesting in black and white. Also, of course, monochrome can give a better feeling for the age of a subject than a normal colour shot, which makes it quite suitable for photographs of old buildings, for example.

Nonetheless, I struggled to come up with something for the challenge, at least until I came across this close-up of a romanesco (a cross between broccoli and cauliflower and tastier than either of them). There’s never a shortage of texture to work with and although there’s plenty going on in the original colour version, I think that it’s easier to appreciate it in monochrome, which somehow gives the picture more depth.

Lens-Artists Challenge: Exploring Colour vs B&W?