Is Black and White Photography Still Relevant Today? Everything You Need to Know

While colour has been the immediate norm since the arrival of digital, black and white never really went away — on the contrary, it remains one of the most sought-after aesthetic choices, in portraiture as much as in reportage. Far from being a mere nostalgic effect, it’s a genuine tool for visual storytelling.

What black and white takes away, and what it reveals

By removing colour, black and white forces the eye to concentrate on what remains: light, shapes, textures, expressions. A photo whose colour is bland or distracting — a wall of some nondescript shade, a garment whose colour adds nothing to the point — often gains strength once converted, precisely because what was getting in the way disappears.

Recognising a photo that suits it

Strong contrast between light and shadow, pronounced textures (skin, stone, wood, fabric), or a composition built on shapes rather than colours are good signs that an image will gain from black and white. Conversely, a scene whose whole interest rests on colour — a sunset, a colourful market — generally loses more than it gains from the conversion.

Convert afterwards, never at the moment of shooting

Shooting directly in black and white (via a camera setting) permanently throws away the colour information recorded in the RAW file — it’s always better to shoot in colour and convert later in post-processing, which lets you compare both versions and change your mind if the result doesn’t convince you.

An editorial choice, not a default filter

Black and white remains most effective when it’s chosen for a precise reason — to heighten an emotion, to unify a series that looks disparate in colour, to evoke an era — rather than applied systematically out of habit. Used with that intention, it has lost none of the power it has held since the very beginnings of photography.