Black and White Wedding Photos… magic!

Hello there, dear bride-to-be!

Have you ever seen a black and white photo (of a wedding or otherwise) and fallen in love with it without knowing exactly why? Well, welcome to the eternal charm of black and white photography, a style that carries a touch of mystery and that vintage elegance that you will SURELY want to have in your wedding photo reportage.

In our case, we find black and white wedding photos so beautiful that, several years ago, we decided to deliver ALL the photos from our sessions in their original color versions, along with their corresponding black and white copy.

• ALL of them! Really?
• YES, every single one!

For example, if between your couple session, civil ceremony, reception, and perhaps a Trash The Dress session we ended up with, say, 1000 photos, we deliver a folder containing 2000 files: the 1000 original photos in their color version, and the same 1000 photos in their black and white version (OF COURSE, in both cases fully edited, post-processed, and in high resolution, obviously!).

There are several reasons for this, keep reading and we’ll tell you all about them:

Why do we deliver ALL photos in both Color and Black and White?

Before deciding to deliver every photo from our wedding reportages in both versions, we only converted a selection to black and white. This is what most wedding photographers do today, and the criteria for choosing are quite varied. Ours used to be something like “this photo calls for black and white,” which, as you can imagine, is highly subjective.

On the other hand, something you might not know is that a black and white photo, once exported in that format, cannot be converted back to color. Therefore, if a photo was delivered only in black and white and you ever want to see it in color because you can’t remember the color of your cousin’s dress, you will never have the chance to recover that information. This was the main reason we decided that “it’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”

It also happened to us quite often that some photos were great in black and white, but then, for a specific use (a print, a social media post, or designing a photobook), it would have been more convenient to have the full-color version. So we realized it was infinitely more practical to have both versions already exported, each with its own specific post-processing.

And last but most importantly, we think it’s a fantastic value-add that you get ALL your wedding photos in BOTH versions 🙂

Black and White Wedding Photos: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Old-Fashioned.

Imagine for a moment: a black and white photo that looks like it was taken from an old magazine, one of those photo-reportages from decades ago, but with you as the stars. THAT is exactly what these images convey: a sense of timelessness and authenticity that, without fear of being wrong, captures the very essence of love (okay, is that too much?! haha). No, I swear we aren’t exaggerating; a black and white photograph is not just a photo, it is a window to the past, to the beauty of the old-fashioned, of the vintage.

Why convert a wedding photo to black and white?

From a strictly technical point of view, a black and white photo is nothing more than a photograph from which we have simply “removed” the colors, and there are hundreds of ways and techniques to “convert a photo to black and white”; the big issue is that each of those options will yield a different result.

In general, behind every black and white photograph there is a whole lot of work where the photographer controls (or at least should!) every single parameter that will determine the final result (contrast, saturation, white and black point balance, and a bunch of geeky stuff that clearly goes beyond the scope of this article).

In other words: it is not just about applying a filter or preset… you have to put in the work!

From a point of view that is not so technical and almost “philosophical,” we photographers love knowing that we have the power (and the duty!) to “editorialize” reality. In that sense, converting wedding photos to black and white is nothing more than a way (one more way!) to leave our mark on every reportage we create.

Why are black and white photos more striking?

Although we may not perceive it at first glance, photographs contain A TON of information: characters, textures, actions, and among many other things, they also have COLORS. Those colors can sometimes contribute to what the photograph intends to communicate, but in other cases, those colors generate a kind of “noise,” or “over-information” that, far from contributing anything useful, ends up distracting the viewer from what is truly important in that image.

Black and white comes along to “solve” this problem a bit, and it helps us narrow the viewer’s attention to what we really want to highlight: that hug, that look, that micro-gesture that might otherwise be lost in a rainbow of flashy (and sometimes useless) information…

B&W Photographs with a Vintage Touch, yet always timeless.

In a world where fashion and trends change constantly, black and white photos add a kind of “durability guarantee.”

What did you just say???

Yes, that’s what you read!

Some color photography post-processing styles (AKA: “analog Instagram filter”) tend to be passing fads: what was “cool” a few years ago, we see today as something that has “come and gone,” or we might even look at it with distaste. Similarly, current colors and post-processing styles (if they aren’t subtle and very carefully handled) run the risk of looking old or out of fashion in a very short time.

In that sense, black and white photos are like fine wine: they appreciate in value over time! They do not suffer the “wear and tear” and exhaustion that occurs in color photos.

What does a black and white photo mean?

What does a black and white photo represent? Of course, it is a question without a single answer. It happens to us all the time that we find and produce photographs that simply “work better” in black and white; and there is nothing better in those cases than to let yourself be guided by instinct and what an image makes you feel and conveys.

Wedding photos in general, but black and white wedding photos in particular, tend to convey emotions in a much more faithful, more effective way… it is not something “technical” or something we can explain with words… in some sense, the answer is quite related to the very style of wedding photojournalism. There is no single explanation; it simply works that way.

From Screen to Reality: Going from Black and White to Color and from Color to Black and White.

Another reason that motivates us to deliver everything in both color and black and white (two files for every photo) is that it is relatively easy to turn a color photo into its black and white version, BUT it is impossible to turn a black and white photo back into its original color version, and that is why we think it is very valuable for every bride and groom to have both versions so they can choose the version that works best depending on the case and the use (sending to print, including the photos in a photobook, or simply sharing them on a social network).

Conclusion: A memory in photos that lasts forever.

In summary, black and white photos are not just an aesthetic choice, but a statement of intent, of style, and even a philosophical one. A way to capture and represent everything that happened on that great day, with a different perspective; generating a true parallel memory, proof against the passage of time 📷✨

Are you in the stage of choosing your ideal photographer? We hope you found this information useful, and above all, we hope you leave this article a little more in love with black and white photos 🥰 (just like us!)

Do you have any questions or would you like to chat? Write to us using the form found at the bottom of this page. It will be a pleasure to hear from you!