Some images should be black and white and some should be color. So how do you know when to decide?
When I come across an image with a good amount of red, I almost always keep it in color. The reason being is that red is very gray in black in white. It doesn’t pop. The other color you want to see here is yellow. If this image was in black and white you wouldn’t be able to tell me that those lines are yellow. It is possible they could be white.
What is the first thing you notice in this image?
I notice the bike right away. I am drawn to it because it is off center and it is in the lower half of the image. Also the bike is parked on a double yellow line where there is no room. Maybe the owner was in a hurry? Look again at the bike. Did you see that it is locked? Most people lock their bikes in university towns.
Look at the bricks. They are different shades of red. It makes the picture more interesting and it tells you something about its location. California doesn’t have many brick buildings because of earth quakes. Also there are large stones incorporated around the windows and there is a horizontal line of them across the building. So where else could it be?
I took this picture in Cambridge, England where there are loads of students, bikes and old buildings. The hints here were the large stones and the locked bike.
Here are my camera settings for this shot.
f/1.4
1/2000
ISO 100
