Black and white or color? I can’t decide.

I love taking black and white photos.  I love taking color photos.  Luckily, deciding which one to shoot is not required at the time a picture is taken rather it can be decided later when you are editing the photos.  I still remember using my Olympus camera in the 80’s and buying Ilford film so I could shoot in black and white.  I went to Mexico for 6 months and the only thing I took down with me was a bunch of Ilford B&W canisters.  I must say the pictures came out more interesting then if I took them in color.

I have a hard time making a decision when I am editing wether I am going to use color or black and white so  I will often save a version of each and use them later.   My general rule of thumb is that if color is going to make the picture more appealing then I will use it, however if I am trying to convey some emotion I will use black and white.  In any case, a good photo will often look great in either so you can’t lose.  Here are two versions of the same picture that I took of Tu.  You can be the judge and decide which one is better.

The picture in black and white

The same picture in color