I generally prefer colour to black and white photography; I, like most people, see in colour and I want my images to reflect that. Don’t get me wrong though – I very much respect the works of earlier photographers who had no choice but to photograph in black and white. However we don’t have that restriction anymore – so why continue to use monochrome?
Where monochrome can score over colour is in establishing a more sombre mood. To me the image above does work better in black and white, but only because the setting is a cemetery and the scene benefits from being presented in a more muted fashion.
Feelings of melancholy are relatively rare – to me anyway – and colour will always win out. The following may be an extreme example but the colour image is way better than black and white
