Some more than others, but all buildings have a character, a look. Styles range from Art Deco to Modern to Renaissance. Styles come and go in cycles and can be influenced by an individual or a movement. Not everyone is but, like any good characters, buildings are photogenic. Shooting a building in black and white goes back to the beginning of photography, as well as video, and turns the subject matter into an artform.
To learn more about black and white catch a discussion about Film Noir Movies typical in crime dramas post World War II. Classic Movie channels regularly discuss Film Noir and other film genres. The name was coined by French Film Critics to describe American Films characterized by cynical heroes, stark lighting, shadows, and in Black and White. Film Noir had feeling, suspense and mystery and was made by film directors such as Orson Wells, Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock.
Black and White is long considered an artform that takes a subject and uses its image and the feeling it creates. Rightfully so as without color art only has shapes, light, shadows and tones - think gray scale. Ansel Adams is a well-known photographer who worked as the custodian of the Sierra Club's lodge in Yosemite National Park in the 1920's. Adams brought the American West alive and is known for his black and white landscape shots and using a full tonal range. Today most photographers use color to capture reality.
The above was shot in color of the support structure at the Boston Convention Center on Summer Street in Boston. Having decent composition, the shot has likeable lines but when viewed in color is unimpressive. Switch to Black and White and our inanimate object, the building supports, comes alive and begins to develop a character. Post-Production in Photoshop enhances the depth of field and combined with a more defined foreground adds to the tonal range. Hard to imagine what looks like a toy is the support infrastructure holding up the massive awning-like overhang that juts out into the middle of the street.
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