Black and white lamps – Ghent, Belgium (2015)
The great debate in my house is whether one of my photos looks better in black and white or color. Sometimes the decision to go with one or the other is obvious. However, in many cases the choice is not so clear.
If your photographic technique focuses on composition, you’ll find that many of your photos will be excellent in both black and white, and color. My preference is generally to go for black and white. My wife generally prefers the color version of the photo.
An example of this is the above photo. It was made at the Design Museum in Ghent, Belgium. The lamps were separated by a colored, mesh divider. The mesh and the two nearly identical lamps on each side of the divider intrigued me.
When I first started processing the photo, I immediately converted it to black and white since that’s what I had in mind when I made the photograph in the museum. But later, my wife told me that she liked it in color better.
After looking at the picture for months, I really can’t decide which version I like better, the black and white, or the color photograph. The version that I shared on-line was black and white. The black and white version was at the top of the Instagram charts for the Design Museum for months and they’ve used it in their own advertising. But, it’s the color version that hangs in my office.
Double lamps in color – Ghent, Belgium (2015)