For the last two years, I've only shot in black-and-white
(Image credit: Future / Sebastian Oakley)
It's been over a year since I last said anything about leaving color for black and white - now two years on I'm still shooting in black and white, color is completely gone from my workflow and it has been the best decision I've ever made with my photography.
Originally, I used to shoot black and white when film was the "in thing" but years later and digital color took over my work, as it did with everyone's workflow and I never gave it a second thought, until one day when I found myself changing career from Pro sports photography after near 20 years, and choosing a slower pace of life with street/documentary photographer trying to capture beauty in the mundane.
It's only in this transition I began to think in monochrome, first researching Cartier-Bresson and then finding the work of David Hurn, and many more Magnum photographers I thought I should give this black and white stuff a go!
Shot on a Leica M10 with the Leica 50mm APO Summicron-M f/2 ASPH (Image credit: Sebastian Oakley/Digital Camera World)
Man in the hat, shot on a Leica M-E with a 21mm lens (Image credit: Sebastian Oakley / Digital Camera World)
Coincidently, this was also the time I held my first Leica camera, a Leica M10-R which took some amazing color images, but after digging into the menu saw that its Jpeg settings could shoot in black and white only, or Monochrom as Leica calls it. While this was not a true Monochrom-sensor camera like the current Leica M11 Monochrom, it gave me an idea of what I could do with black-and-white photography.
I slowly began shooting both in RAW and jpeg Monochrom, so I was getting the best of both worlds, and while I still do that with my digital Leica M-E, exclusively only shoot black and white film in my Leica M2 and my Nikon F5. And to take things even further I only shoot a custom black and white jpeg profile preset on my Nikon D800, giving it a new lease of life.
My idea was after a 'trial period' of one year of black and white I would know if it was for me and if I would miss color, now two years on color doesn't even come into my workflow at all, other than the odd occasion for a family picture, which my wife insists should be in color - I'll convince one day!
RTA by Sebastian Oakley shot on a Nikon F5 with Fomapan 400 film (Image credit: Future / Sebastian Oakley)
Shot on a Leica M-E on a TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 (Image credit: Future / Sebastian Oakley)
But on a serious note, I think turning to black and white has made me a better photographer, I think this is due to the fact that often I would get distracted by color, and sometimes my images just would seem to match or blend with the subject.
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After I forgot about color, and was just able to focus on the subject itself I slowly saw my images and style improving, and now I love shooting black and white for everything. While it is a rather obvious thing to say I do feel my work could have been shot 30 years ago or yesterday, it has a timeless quality, where if I shot some of my images in color you could tell they are modern-day subjects.
But I can say for certain that black and white is here to stay in my workflow and color is no more!
For nearly two decades Sebastian's work has been published internationally. Originally specializing in Equestrianism, his visuals have been used by the leading names in the equestrian industry such as The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), The Jockey Club, Horse & Hound, and many more for various advertising campaigns, books, and pre/post-event highlights.
He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, holds a Foundation Degree in Equitation Science, and is a Master of Arts in Publishing. He is a member of Nikon NPS and has been a Nikon user since the film days using a Nikon F5 and saw the digital transition with Nikon's D series cameras and is still to this day the youngest member to be elected into BEWA, The British Equestrian Writers' Association.
He is familiar with and shows great interest in street, medium, and large format photography with products by Leica, Phase One, Hasselblad, Alpa, and Sinar. Sebastian has also used many cinema cameras from the likes of Sony, RED, ARRI, and everything in between. He now spends his spare time using his trusted Leica M-E or Leica M2 shooting Street photography or general life as he sees it, usually in Black and White.
