Street Photography: Why not in color?

When you think of street photograpy, Many different shots come to mind, whether they are old classics from back in the day, or right here on deviantART...  I bet all of the 'best' shots in your mind are b/w..

Street photography is all about society, capturing the essence of humanity.  There are some amazing colors in our world, why not capture them?  

Some samples of street photography in color:
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_{(Included is one of mine that i took and posted in color, and one that i had originally posted in b/w, but updated with a color version, specifically for this article)}

Many people adopt the purist approach to their street photography.  Using techniques, and media most closely resembling that which was used in the past.  

Using Henri Cartier Bresson's ideal of composing the shot in camera, not in the darkroom (now photoshop), Modern street photographers opt towards Rangefinder camera's, which are known for being notoriously quiet, allowing them to get closer to their subject without catching their attention with the noisy thwap of an SLR shutter.

Back in the day, color film wasn't available, so by default images were always going to be black and white.  Unfortunately however, black and white film is becoming increasingly harder to find, and more expensive, leaving younger and poorer 'students' of the art at a disadvantage.

With all the technology available, imaging programs like photoshop are becoming more and more capable of mimicking the tones in b/w film, more and more people are using digital, shooting in color, and converting their street photos that way.

A street photo doesnt need to be black and white by default to be good, but the majority of superb images you find, will be, for several reasons.

1) Monotone eliminates distracting colors in the background, making your subject the point of interest with very little distractions.
2) Deep and rich tones can add a whole new level of emotion to an image, particularly useful when you want to pull at your viewers heartstrings.

That being said, black and white is the favored choice of a lot of people, but it isn't needed 100% of the time.


Truth be told, I have more black and white 's, but as i said, predominantly a b/w genre, but its worth it to think outside the box, and i challenge you to do just that.

Cheers.

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