One of the reasons why I’m angry at instagram (as a community) is the fact that black and white photos tend to get way less likes than the color ones. I have not checked that empirically but it is something I see in my own uploads. No matter the subject or the message the photo conveys, color always gets more love. That makes absolutely no sense in terms of visual narrative, which leads me to believe that most people express appreciation based on a primal infantile instincs.

Rant aside, I’m trying to practice a bit of portraiture in black and white, experiencing with different lenses. One of my favorites is the Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM, also known as the “Japanese Summilux”. I like how in BW photos are better when there is more expression. It’s more difficult to cheat pleasing with the usual tricks (macros, textures, bokeh, color gradients, you name it). I like the softness in the rendering as well as the pleasing bokeh. I have to say I had to push the contrast a little bit in post, since this lens flattens the images a little bit too much for my taste.

Here are some photos of Jara and her friend Alba from our last trip to Sevilla. All of them were taken with the Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM