What kind of photos will go in your wedding album?
Black and white pictures only, color ones or a combination of these?
We look at mother nature in color, we dress with colorful clothes and we are surrounded by a vivid colored world, then why sometimes we use color pictures and other times black and white ones?
Where is the difference?
Photography was born in black and white and for more than a century shots were in black and white; technology has allowed us to create color images, faithful to reality and since then it is common to look at color pictures.
Why take off colors and go back in time this way?
Unless explicitly requested to take black and white pictures only, in our wedding album we mainly use color images: the locations chosen by our spouses are usually in the open Tuscany countryside, in vineyards, olive groves, large meadows or in small and picturesque villages : we like to keep all of the warm colors shades of such amazing places.
A matter of style – The right wedding album
But we also use black and white, specially for those photographs where emotions and expressions are the main subjects. Black and white, by removing part of the reality, focuses our attention on the subject and on the real content of a picture, offering a naked image in its pure nature; black and white enable emotions to emerge, giving a laugh or a tear even more strength.
We use black and white even for those shots where a particular architectural element or a textured background are present, like a church side or a simple countryside wall. Even in this scenario, lack of colors, adds something to the image, everything gains a different flavor.
Apart very particular aesthetic or creative occurences, during the design process of our wedding albums we try not to put black and white images side by side to color ones in the same page: each page has its own character that is fully expressed by each of these photographic forms. It is difficult to get an harmonious result, having color and black and white photos on the same page. Like a novel, the layout of our book attempts to tell the story of the wedding day, keeping up the pace and the interest, page after page: switching from color pages to black and white ones, certainly helps to keep the story alive.
Finally dealing with black and white or color images, we can’t forget about selective toning… you know…those black and white pictures with a single color detail…(the bouquet, a particular apparel, the shoes or other details)…
Whenever a photograph with selective toning is delivered, somewhere a photographer dies… 🙂
At least once in a lifetime, each photographer has committed this crime, against his art and against photography: these images were already out of fashion in the eighties, where is the point in continuing to make them nowdays?
Let’s train our eyes on images that are true photographs and not only “snapshots”, “tricks” or “special effects”: your album will treasure true emotions and your story for years to come.
Daniela Demichele and Maurizio Mannini
