THE COLORS OR NOT by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN PORTUGAL
About colors in color and black and white without colors in the photographs of a wedding ceremony at the Basilica of Mafra
• Pode ler este artigo em Português.
It all started like this: in black and white.
I will not write a word about photography history but, I repeat, it all started in black and white and the world become a wonder.
Lay down on a glass plate, in gray tones, the portrait appears for the first time. Without the colors, it seems that the world, and people, gain some wonder and magic only achieved with charcoal drawings or engraving pictures. But now, through a glass lens to a dark box, it was possible to copy nature with power and fascination as never before.
From now on, everything has changed. The painter was never the same because it was not necessary to reproduce nature and evolved to another aesthetic form of use of color and shapes. People changed because they loved, from the beginning, this form of seeing themselves aside from the mirror or by the very expensive artist painter.
But it was all in black and white, better, it was all gradations of gray shades from black to white. This was called photography, from the Greek, photon, light, and writing. Writing with light. What a wonderful name.
Whoever has light has shade and makes photographs
It was so strong the adherence to this new form of reproduction of the reality that black and white photography, even today, is a subject of great wonder and admiration. It seems that reducing the copy to the most simple sign, the more strong is the emotion and it is why, today, still does not lose the initial splendor.
To me, as a wedding photographer, it is hard to control the emotion I feel in the front of a well-done black and white photo with those molded volumes as much as they belong to a face or a landscape, with the wonder of the light effused through all shapes. When you have the light you have shade and when they melt in the right proportion, it is always a splendor.
This is the main reason why a big proportion of my photographic work is in black and white. It is there where I can verify if it is worth it or not. If it does not catch the eye of someone with this difficult simplicity, well, I should stop.
Color is a rebel that won’t let itself be tamed for photographs
Color can be more distracting. Colors, in a photo, fight against each other wanting the spotlight of the podium. The color can rebel and unbalance the composition because, even if everything is in the right place, some bright color, somewhere in the frame, can distract the eye and harm them all in the picture. Color is like a diva wanting all eyes on her.
Black and white want them all, together, a friend of the light by respect and the form by love. How many times have I been in front of a photo and I can not see what is wrong with it? I see it again and it is not the composition. Another time and story are there. Look again and there she is a color in the wrong place wanting all the attention.
So, I change to the scale of grays and here it is, beautiful, dazzling to my eyes to my delight.
