A Pop of Color

One of my favorite techniques for photography is adding color to a black and white photo. I have loved this technique even before reading about it in A Beautiful Mess: Photo Idea book by Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman.

In Elsie and Emmas book, A Beautiful Mess: Photo Idea Book, they talk about how people used to add color to black and white photo prints by painting acrylic paint onto the prints. Many people, including Elsie and Emma, still use the old technique because they say, "Hand coloring is a retro technique that was used before digital photography" (98). These photographers continue to hand paint color onto their black and white prints because the result is a print that gives off a retro/vintage vibe; nowadays as time advance and technology keep getting better we no longer take the time to hand paint color onto a black and white photograph. We simply use a photo editing software to add any color we desire onto any place of the photograph, and by using a photo editing software we lose the vibe all great photographers try to capture in their work.

Below are some photos I took and used the technique of adding color to a black and white photograph. I did not use the retro technique of adding color by hand because I could not print black and white photographs nor do I have acrylic paint and photo paper.

In the first photo I decided to have the background in color instead of the hand because it would make the hand stand out more and also the blue was such a nice color. In my second photo I did the opposite of the first photo - instead of having the background in color I had the subject in color because I wanted it to be the main focus point of the photo. If the background was to be in color instead then we would not notice the light bulb that is in black and white because its so small and off centered.

 

From this technique and the book I learned adding color to a black and white photo does not just creates focus on the main subject but it also give off a vintage/retro vibe when you take the time to hand color a black and white photograph (Chapman and Larson 98). Now I know a simple way to capture the vintage/retro vibes photographers try to capture in their work. In the future I hope to be able to try hand painting color onto a black and white photograph.

 

My question for you guys is do you always try to capture a retro/vintage vibe in your photographs?

 

Citation: Chapman, Emma, and Elsie Larson. A Beautiful Mess: Photo Idea Book. New York: Amphoto, 2013. Print