Why does your Florida Wedding Photographer love black and white photographs over color photos?

Which do you prefer?

First, look at the two images above the beautiful bride Victoria.  We photographed her in 2022 at Longan’s Place.  When we first saw this bridal portrait, here in the office, we were just blown away!  Wow.  What a gorgeous bride!  But what really took our breath away was the difference between the color and black-n-white versions of the same bridal portrait.    Which is your favorite?  Do you prefer the color or black and white version?

This wedding photo is the perfect example of how powerful black and white wedding photography can be.  Why?  Well, this venue – Longan’s Place- just south of Miami, is known for it’s beautiful vegetation, trees, landscaping and lots and lots of color.  So, most of our work we do here is in color to really show off this beautiful venue.  But sometimes, black and white is better.   We preferred the black and white version.  Our office manager even has this photo as the wallpaper on our office iphone.

What makes black and white photography stand out? It’s simple really…the drama!

Everyone loves drama, by taking away all the color from a photograph we can make an image even more dramatic. Plain and simple, black and white photography is preferred for documenting emotional moments. The fewer colors your eyes have to process, the cleaner and easier an image is to absorb when viewing.

The result? The subject shines through!

No doubt you’ll want to capture the rich hues of your centerpieces, vibrant blooms between cake tiers, and the rich reds, yellows, and oragnes of a South Florida sunset.

 Why would you turn a beautifully vibrant, colorful photo black and white? Especially in Florida, where everything is sunshine and palmtrees!?

Again, the answer is simple…

To capture the emotion and drama in a photo that does not come through in a color photograph.

And this emotion and drama is timeless.  The word “timeless” you will hear many people use to describe black and white photography because it “dates” the photos or makes them feel older or from another, earlier era.

Wedding couples in Florida have very distinct tastes

When Liam first started doing wedding photography, he really wanted to focus on creating classic “Magnum-quality” black and white wedding photography.   He grew up following many of the old-time photographers and wanted to emulate that look and feel.   But wedding photography is not just an art…it is also a service.   We serve our engaged couples.  So, here in Florida, Liam found out that most clients prefer that full-color, vibrant Florida look and feel.  And so that is what we offer our clients.   Wedding photography is “client driven” meaning that we are always trying to give our clients what “they” want and not create “cookie cutter” wedding photography.   We’ve capture about 100 weddings each year and every client is different.

Destination wedding clients coming to Florida

Each year thousands of newly-engaged couples travel to Florida to have their destination wedding here.  What we have to understand is that many of them are coming from up North and during the winter months, the colors are very grey, muted and brown.  Vegetation has either died or is dormant.  So, when a couple plans their wedding here in Florida they have these visions of beautiful vibrant colors (the opposite of what is happening up North).  Many of these wedding couples don’t want black and white photos for that very reason.  They want the opposite.  So, again, we wedding photographers need to be sensitive to that.

Not everyone’s cup of tea

As a wedding photography & videography studio based in Southern Florida, we fully understand that many of our bridal clients are looking for full color, vibrant images.  That is what makes Florida so beautiful:  the deep blue of the sea, the rich green of our palm trees and the amazing year-round color of our vegetation.   So, when a client tells us they just prefer color wedding photos, we respond “OK.  No problem.  We understand.”  Black and white is not for everyone.

Our Advice?

Do both!! Black and white is a classic for a reason.

Capture those quiet moments, special details, and romantic memories and then ask your photographer to edit them in black and white. Both color and black and white images are essential to document the planning that goes into your day and the moments that define it. Black and white images help you focus on the features of a subject and bring the mood into focus. Use it to capture important, intimate moments such as the kiss and the first dance.

What we try to do for almost all the weddings that we capture, is to edit some in both full color and black and white so our newly-weds have both to keep as memories.  We understand that all our brides and grooms have different tastes so we give some of both to satisfy them all.

Pre-set black & white or custom?

It’s very important that you ask your wedding photographer to do “custom” black & white edits and not use a pre-set.  What is a pre-set?  Presets are a group of photo-editing settings designed to edit your photo with just one click of a button.  Many wedding photographers use pre-sets because you can save a lot of time.  But all your black & white photos will look very similar.  If you do manual or custom edits on each black & white photo, you will get a better result.

If you have any questions about black & white wedding photography, don’t hesitate to reach out to our office staff at: 305-323-2228.

Enjoy!