I Love B&W Headshot/Portrait Photography

I’ve always loved photography, and admire the work of B&W photographers such as Irving Penn, Ansel Adams, and others. There’s something about B&W that is more dramatic, pulls you into the photo and keeps you there, and elicits a stronger emotional reaction. With Ansel Adams landscape photos, you can almost feel the textures of the landscape, the vastness of the scene.

When we look at B&W photos of people, there is a power that draws you in more so than color. Don’t get me wrong, I love color photography as well – but I think the emotional reaction is often different. And if I pay attention to my eye movements and associated reactions, they’re also different – I’m not “converting” the B&W photo to color in my mind.

I’ve known Tracilee Messina, founder of Your Basic Beauty, is more than a makeup artist – she works with her clients to educate them on how to apply makeup to enhance their image to reflect their personality and professionalism. I’ve known and been working with her since I started my business and she is fantastic! All my clients love working with her and look great for their headshots. She’s got an energy that is simply contagious!

We shot a number of outfits, poses, etc. – these in particular show her personality, and while editing them I wanted to see it in B&W. Processing an image for B&W involves more than just pulling out the color – playing around with contrasts, highlights, and shadows can make a significant difference in how an image looks. The eye is naturally drawn to lighter areas of a photo – as well as bold colors (and patterns) and contrasts. With the B&W, your eye is immediately drawn to her face/expression – you’re not looking at her skin color, hair color, etc – so the expression/pose becomes THE primary element. And in Tracilee’s case, that energy just pops!